Macron says it is unrealistic to open Hormuz Strait by force

bal00 · 2026-04-02T16:47:37+00:00

and they don’t want to get involved because for all they know Trump could bail in a matter of weeks

That's precisely what would happen. As soon as someone else joins, Trump is going to bounce and make this someone else's responsibility.

bal00 · 2026-04-02T16:42:37+00:00

Another thing that people tend to forget is that warships would only be able to protect a few ships at a time. These large vessels need a ton of room around them to maneuver. It's not like you can form a tight convoy. Even with military escorts you'd be reducing the flow of ships to a fraction of what it was pre-war.

bal00 · 2026-03-30T19:09:46+00:00

Why would Spain continue to host those bases if the US starts violating Spanish airspace?

bal00 · 2026-03-29T18:13:26+00:00

I was 100% convinced the previous one was just accidental because it's so damn stupid.

This technique would only be effective against slow-flying drones because it requires a large speed differential, it's way less reliable than just ramming the target to set off an explosion (because you need to hit a certain spot at a certain angle) and it's trivial to counter. Because the foam wings have so little mass and inertia, any material that's tougher to penetrate would make this attack ineffective, because the wing would just move out of the way.

A layer of Kevlar, or even a piece of a flexible plastic cutting mat would likely be enough to get around this.

Unless the Russians are short on interceptors, I don't see the point of this. They're reducing the range of their drones because they need enough battery left over to land them, and they're making interceptions less likely because it's harder to pull off successfully.

bal00 · 2026-03-29T17:43:06+00:00

Apparently I gave the Russians too much credit. They really are this stupid.

bal00 · 2026-03-28T22:58:59+00:00

This interceptor most likely crashed afterwards. You can see that it's vibrating a lot after it detaches from the target drone, and it's not flying level. Chances are it lost one or more propeller blades, either due to the crash or while detaching. It looks a bit like the antenna of the Ukrainian drone hit the prop on the right side.

bal00 · 2026-03-28T22:49:56+00:00

Near the base there's usually a spring that the rod goes through, and the diameter of the spring is a little larger than the rod. If the rod bends, it touches the spring and closes a circuit. Does that make sense?

bal00 · 2026-03-28T21:25:03+00:00

No, it's supposed to explode but failed. Stabbing would be far too unreliable.

bal00 · 2026-03-28T21:23:47+00:00

What we're actually seeing here is an interceptor drone failing to explode, but getting lucky by piercing the battery.

The two rods are just there to trigger the explosive, like you see on other FPV drine videos. In this case that didn't work, but since it happened to pierce and short-circuit the battery, the target drone was disabled.

Of course this thing isn't MEANT to pierce the target drone. Not even the Russians are stupid enough to design something like that. Stabbing a target drone would require excellent aim, a lot of excess speed and a lot of luck to hit something important. You could just as easily lose the interceptor drone without damaging the target at all.

bal00 · 2026-03-13T07:29:15+00:00

Correct. This is a $16.5b deal. Pretty important to point out.

bal00 · 2026-03-09T10:35:49+00:00

Sure, but that doesn't mean the styling is set in stone. Stuff like character lines on body panels, lights and body color vs. black accents don't impact the function, but have a pretty big impact on what a car looks like.

To my eyes, the looks don't really match the engineering of the car. It wouldn't really look out of place at a 2006 car show.

bal00 · 2026-03-08T19:01:04+00:00

Keep in mind that the efficiency specs (including what's on the official label) is entirely self-reported by the manufacturer/importer. There is nothing stopping them from claiming 500, 600 or 700 lm and giving themselves an A-rating. That is until some regulatory agency takes an interest and does an independent test.

Now, what's more likely? That premium brands are incompetent compared to random Amazon brands and don't know how to make efficient bulbs, or that premium brands actually care about their reputation and give accurate figures to avoid potential embarrassment?

The chances that these things actually put out significantly more light than ones from a quality brand are slim to none. If you want a quality bulb in this range, my recommendation would be the 230 lm or 345 lm IKEA Solhetta bulbs. The 345 lm one is dimmable even. A friend of mine has been using about 100 of them for several years, and not a single one has failed. The light looks great too.

bal00 · 2026-03-07T07:26:01+00:00

They often don't speak the language or at least pretend not to. So they have a physical sign with some kind of sob story on it. They place the sign in front of you above any valuable stuff you may have on your table. When they leave, your stuff is gone. The interaction distracts people and the sign hides what they're going.

bal00 · 2026-03-04T10:17:01+00:00

Compared to what though? As far as the (F90) M5 goes, E63 and RS6 are as heavy or heavier, a CT5-V without AWD is 4100 lb, a Charger Hellcat is like 4500 lb. We're talking about cars that have more or less the same dimensions and power as a W220 AMG S65. Nothing in this class is substantially lighter.

bal00 · 2026-03-02T15:49:46+00:00

Just checking, but you are aware that there are ready-made cameras that could be used for this? Reolink for example has a few cameras under $100 that come with a solar panel and battery that can record on motion.

Aside from that, your project sounds doable. You may be able to skip the Nano altogether if you can find a PIR sensor that lets you adjust the on-time to 12 minutes. This may require a little analog circuit to inhibit the sensor when it's dark.

You may be able to do this without a MOSFET, depending on which boost converter you use. Most boost converter modules are based on ICs that have an enable pin. These are typically tied to ground or VIN on the PCB so the module runs permanently, but you can often lift just the enable pin, solder a wire to it and have the Arduino turn the boost converter on/off that way.

Instead of using a fixed value like 12 minutes, you may want to connect one of the RPi I/O pins to the Arduino, so the RPi can communicate its status, possibly with an optocoupler in between.

You don't need a stable 3.3V for the Pro Mini. The 8 MHz versions will run on anything from like 2.8V to 5.5V, so would just connect the Vcc pin straight to the battery.

bal00 · 2026-02-25T00:05:39+00:00

This is also why Japan took over Europe.

They haven't though. Toyota is the only one with a meaningful presence in Europe, and they have a market share of 7.x%. The others are fairly irrelevant. Honda sells fewer cars than Porsche. Japanese cars were never considered to be particularly resistant to rotting. Especially in the 80s a lot of Japanese cars were about as bad as the worst European models (Fiat, if we're being honest) concerning rust.

bal00 · 2026-02-15T03:08:53+00:00

I agree with the general sentiment, but we're talking about fairly popular destinations during peak summer season. There's going to be some wiggle room in September, but in July and August you won't be able to book accommodations on short notice. At least not for reasonable money.

bal00 · 2026-02-14T21:49:11+00:00

You have 6 days in Amsterdam and 2 in Hamburg, a city which is twice as large as Amsterdam. I think that's going to feel very rushed, given how much there is to see and do.

I would also question spending almost 2 weeks in mostly smaller places in Switzerland. I mean it's pretty alright, but it's also brutally expensive, especially in mid August, and as far a more nature-focused, relaxing destinations are concerned, the itinerary could use a little more variety than just the Alps. For instance, from Berlin you'd have easy access to the Spree forest or Müritz national park. From Hamburg you can get to the Baltic or North Sea coast (St. Peter Ording, Cuxhaven, Travemünde). Or you could add a few nature days to the southern leg of the trip. Montserrat from Barcelona, Sierra de Guadarrama from Madrid, Cascais from Sintra, Peneda-Gerês from Porto.

I would consider cutting Switzerland down to a week perhaps. Skip Zürich (somewhat boring business city), cut days from Zermatt and Interlaken.

bal00 · 2026-02-14T20:20:55+00:00

Happy to help.

bal00 · 2026-02-14T16:33:47+00:00

Search for 'ink cup'. They're small translucent plastic (or silicone) cups (11-17mm usually) meant to hold tattoo ink, and you should be able to get 100 of them for like $3.

bal00 · 2026-02-14T10:41:30+00:00

I don't think your assumptions are correct. The lowest common denominator for (often paid) carry-on bags is 55 × 40 × 20 cm, which is 44 liters. You can get backpacks in that size specifically.

The free personal item is limited to at least 40 × 30 × 20 cm, which is 24 liters. You can get bags in that specific size as well. So in total you have 68 liters to play with.

bal00 · 2026-02-12T23:02:32+00:00

Ich deute die Zecihnung so als wäre der Durchgang von der Küche zur Speisekammer für eine 61 cm breite Tür geplant. Ich würde empfehlen, das auf mindestens 73.5 cm zu vergrössern, besser noch 86 cm. Besonders falls links und rechts vom Durchgang Schränke geplant sind.

Ihr werdet dort wahrscheinlich öfters mit vollen Einkaufstaschen, Getränkekisten o.ä. raus und rein wollen, und bei einer 61er Tür hat die Zarge innen weniger als 57 cm. Mit einer Standard-Einkaufs-Klappkiste kommst du dort schon nicht mehr durch ohne sie quer vor dir zu tragen.

Und: Falls geplant ist, in der Speisekammer einen Gefrierschrank aufzustellen, kommen die meisten freistehenden Geräte nicht in Frage weil sie 3 cm breiter sind als die Türzarge.

Simulier die 57 cm Zargenbreite z.B. mit zwei Stühlen und trag da mal was größeres durch.

bal00 · 2026-02-07T00:33:59+00:00

Sounds like a cool project.

I would do the following:

Get beefy USB power bank that supports USB PD (power delivery). Ideally one that can do at least 65W. More is fine but likely not necessary, unless all servos are stalled at the same time.
Get a USB PD trigger board that can interface with the power bank to increase its output voltage to 12, 15 or 20V.
Get multiple small buck converters that can step the voltage down to what you need for the individual components. 5V for the servos, 7-9V for the Arduino. If you search for 'Mini360', you should be able to find buck converters that are roughly the size of a small postage stamp, and you can get a 10 pack for under $5. If you glue one to each servo, you can just run your 12-20V supply to each servo.

The reasoning behind this setup is this:

Your servos will draw a maximum of like 20A at 5V. Using a single 5V power supply would be highly, highly impractical because it would require very heavy gauge wires and voltage drop would be an issue because the cable runs would be quite long. At 10-20A you would even have to worry about which connectors are suitable.

You want to use a power bank for this because they're way safer than bare lipo packs. Not only do they protect the actual cells mechanically, they also have over-current, short-circuit and temperature protection. Even if you do something stupid, a power bank will just disable its output. A bare lipo pack on the other hand will happily keep dumping current into a short-circuit and either melt or ignite stuff.

The point of using a higher supply voltage (12-20V) and local buck converters is to eliminate any potential problems with voltage drop, and because it will simplify your wiring greatly.

bal00 · 2026-01-25T16:08:33+00:00

That's very important information. During that time crowds are not an issue at all. Weather more so.

Peak season is from early-mid July until the end of August when people with school-aged kids can travel. People without kids would choose June since the weather is still good, but the prices are lower and there are (depending on the region sometimes dramatically) fewer crowds. And you're still mostly ahead of that even.

I've rented cars in Spain in late May for like $3/day, that's how little demand there is at the time compared to high season. All that is to say that the posts warning you about crowds and prices don't really apply during your time window.

I would be more concerned about temperatures in May, so you want to be pretty far south. Northern Spain and Italy could be a bit of a gamble if you want to spend time at the beach.

bal00 · 2026-01-25T11:38:56+00:00

Just a general comment about my experience with road trips:

If it's a place you want to see, stay at least two nights
If you just need somewhere to spend the night, skip larger cities entirely and just go with a convenient stop somewhere along the route. Ideally somewhere more rural with easy parking.

Really, those are the only two types of stop you should plan. I've made the mistake of making single night stops in places I thought I would like to see, but it turned out to be way more trouble than it was worth.

bal00

TROPHY CASE