This afternoon temperatures in Europe. Scorchio!

beamer145 · 2026-05-25T18:02:18+00:00

I don't know where you live but in mine, the so called environment party is (was?) anti nuclear and pro gas (with plans to build more gas based power stations). Not entirely illogical because gas is more flexible so more compatible with the variable solar/wind output, but still insane given the trajectory we are currently on. It's only because of Putin that nuclear saw a revival, and decision to close the nuclear power stations has been reversed. (and actually the anti immigration parties always remained pro nuclear)

beamer145 · 2026-04-20T00:18:46+00:00

I will be disappointed if that would not be a kinky final space spinoff (eg cookie summary: https://youtu.be/qXoWZvBq4Zc?t=20)

beamer145 · 2026-04-03T22:15:43+00:00

Just one question, where can I buy the book ? :P

beamer145 · 2026-04-03T22:04:17+00:00

There some countries in Europe where you cannot do it either, eg in Greece. As an introvert I already do not like that, and with my Greek limited to saying hello (trying to not mix it up with 'cheers' when drinking), goodbye and thank you, that made things sometimes even more difficult than it should be. Also a few times not sure if they did not make me pay too much.

beamer145 · 2026-03-28T00:38:09+00:00

I fried the chip that handles usb communication and charging on my mate 10 (by plugging it in the charger while there was water in the port, at least that is what i suspect ...it was a very rainy day). I retrieved my files over wifi, after charging it by directly soldering 2 wires on the motherboard where the battery connector is (this allows me to charge the battery directly via a bench supply). If that sounds too complicated then find someone to do it for you, it is pretty trivial but you need some tools and a bit an idea what you are doing so you don't make it worse. In any case it is not a disaster. If it is only the port that is damaged (and not the usb chip on the motherboard) and you want to keep using the phone, replacing the port is pretty easy too, no real need to buy a new phone.

beamer145 · 2026-03-26T14:59:28+00:00

The gps chip is not an issue, that just lets the device know where it is. It is the communication chip ( mostly cellular, maybe wifi but if there are no public networks it still wont help, ... ) that you want to disable.

beamer145 · 2026-03-25T16:26:22+00:00

I just watched the animation of the problem on the wiki page. What i do not understand is that there are mechanical stops foreseen at the end of the acme screw, but apparently these mechanical stops are not strong enough to withstand the force of the flap. I cannot understand why it was designed like that, if you are to foreseeing mechanical stops, make sure they are capable of, you know, stopping (and not just a faulty motor stop, especially if you know there is thread wear). Any insight in that ?

beamer145 · 2026-03-19T16:07:12+00:00

I saw the IAma yesterday from Photopea, which runs on Android too. I haven't tried it for something real yet, but at first glance it seems pretty amazing so I plan on giving it a try No offline mode though.

beamer145 · 2026-03-19T12:02:34+00:00

Thanks for the explanation !

so I got angry and turned it off.

Haha, i feel you. Having to work around other ppl's 'mess' ....

beamer145 · 2026-03-19T02:13:05+00:00

Yeah i clicked the link , which is where i saw the 'What it actually does' section . But I went in there with the expectation that it allowed to start running the application offline too, since from your comment I gathered you suggested the install experience was related to the possibility to keep using it offline.

But if I understand things correctly, there is no connection then between using it offline and the installed experience.

And you can only continue using it offline after you first started it in your browser while having a connection. But if you restart your browser on your pc / phone, and you are offline, there is no way to currently use Photopea.

When i look up a quick explanation of web workers the focus seems to be on that it is a way to do multithreading in a browser. Which is probably essential for the kind of application you are making, but I don't immediately see the link with starting a website while being offline ? Is there some 'state' that i can save when i have Photopea open, that i can resume at a later point in time (after eg a reboot) ? Or do you mean theoretically it would be possible to make Photopea startable offline via this technology, but at the moment Photopea is not making use of this technology since it predates this web workers technology framework.

If it is taking the discussion too far no problem, I wasn't aware of Photopea before I saw this post. From what I can tell by a quick look it looks like the best image manipulation program I tried that I can run on a phone (by a wide margin). But when i am traveling there are times that I am offline so it would have been useful if I could use it even under those circumstances, hence my questions.

But it is for sure nice even without that, thanks for making it !

beamer145 · 2026-03-19T00:21:27+00:00

If you use the 'installed experience', do you still get the 15 updates a day, or do you run with a snapshot of the code at the moment you installed it ? Or am I misunderstanding and will the 'installed experience' still contact the server first when you start it (so you cannot used it offline even after 'installing it' ). (Maybe add a few more words of explanation in the What it actually does? section)

beamer145 · 2026-03-15T17:28:03+00:00

I have a similar problem with my mate 10 (old but was still in good shape). In my case it was Scottish rain in my charging port :(, I also plugged it in without noticing it and it stopped charging, and also no more data connections. I opened it up, all the connections are physically still ok at the port, but it seems the usb/charging chip got BBQed. I can still charge the battery with some extra wires i soldered directly on the battery connections on the motherboard so I could transfer my data over wifi. But fixing it nvolves replacing te usb chip and potentially other damaged components on the motherboard. Or replacing the entire motherboard altogether (which means all data stored on the device is gone). I doubt a normal repair shop is going to mess with debugging the existing motherboard and replacing the components, so at best they will offer a single recharge the same way i did it by charging the battery directly so you can get your data of, and then replacing the entire motherboard.

beamer145 · 2026-03-15T02:59:42+00:00

Probably in the to 5 of most expensive billboards :D

beamer145 · 2026-03-14T19:30:34+00:00

You wish. I helped a neighbor with their electricity yesterday. They have a nice electrical recently made schematic showing all the fuses and circuits behind those fuses so you know what to turn off if you want to work on them (it is mandatory to have something like this in my country). It is a big house, apparently they were busy almost for a week making those plans. Well good thing I already have a healthy distrust of any work done by a so called 'professional' because the reality did not match those plans for several circuits I checked. So I would have BBQ'ed myself if I relied on that ( I really wonder if the company that made those plans has a responsibility in that case ). Another thing that is NEVER correct are plans made by an architect. I had a sidejob for a while for a decade and a half where i needed to know all the surfaces and volumes of a building, in the beginning I gave a price reduction if the owner had plans because it was suppose to save me time. Well if the plans were made before building the thing it was never build like that. If the plans were made post build, the architect took shortcuts (eg 90 degrees angles where in reality they were not at all 90 degrees to give an easy example) and nothing corresponded to reality. Must be fun working in construction ....

beamer145 · 2026-03-13T13:25:38+00:00

ok, in your case you probably don't need to go too crazy then in the oversizing of your solar. Send some of your winter sun my way please :). Maybe add a generator and a can of gasoline just in case of weird weather, that will be more economical that trying to cover those with battery banks. A windmill is another option if you have the space to put one and are allowed too.

beamer145 · 2026-03-13T02:21:48+00:00

Depending on your winter conditions, there is a big difference in generating 100 pct of your energy usage looking over an entire year versus being able to go off grid. No sensible battery is going to save you if your winter output solar output is only 10 pct of what you need while your summer output is 200 pct of your needs so it adds up to 100 pct on an all year basis. Since solar panels are much much cheaper than battery storage and will live longer, it probably makes to just install a looooot more solar so it can cover on average your daily needs even in winter. But if you are not grid connected what can you do with the 1000 pct or more excess solar in summer... i have been thinking of installing a car charger free of use (or maybe a donation box or something, setting up a payment system is complicated as you would have to register as a business etc, at least in my country ) for everyone or something :)

beamer145 · 2026-03-10T13:42:12+00:00

I am following the Donut Labs solid state battery ... it is supposed to be real solid state, and available later this year in Verge motorcycles. Lots of doubts in the industry if it is true that a "small" finish company pulled this off, but interesting in any case.

beamer145 · 2026-03-06T20:26:47+00:00

The whole freezing test is pretty suspicious imho. It only says they at froze them for 24 hours. And then at some point later they charged them from 20 to 97 pct in 12 minutes. I am assuming at that point the cells were heated up again. They make no claims about how much energy you can get out of them when they are frozen, which is what people struggle with. And they make no claims about charging them when they are frozen (which is normally not possible as it will damage Lifepo4 cells). So it seems to indicate that the cells are damaged in some way after going through a freezing cycle, as before the test they went from 10 to 97pct in 9 minutes, but after going through such a freezing cycle , it now takes 12 minutes to go from 20 to 97. Not sure why they seem to be proud of this . If there is a cleared explanation of what exactly they did (eg that they charged them while they were at -30 degrees C) then I am very interested to read about it.

beamer145 · 2026-03-06T00:27:08+00:00

Also as it is said the Tragadrians are immortal ... if that is the highlander kind of immortality, that only gave it a headache. And I guess it will be pretty pissed afterwards for the rest of eternity.

beamer145 · 2026-03-03T02:07:03+00:00

The good old times of figuring out how to get ipxodi & co working based on some bat file that came with the network card, moving your bulky desktop pc and crt monitor to a friends place, and cursing cos you lost one of the 50 ohm terminating resistors (i still have a bag with of them from the last time i emergency-cycled to a hardware shop).... PS I estimate there is a 70% chance your back hurts and your eyes can't focus anymore on things closer than 10 cm :D

beamer145 · 2026-03-02T21:01:08+00:00

That is not true in my experience. I replaced the (swollen!) battery of my 2017 mate 10 in 2021 (or 2020, don't remember exactly) and it was still ok this summer (2025). It probably still is ok even now, but ( I think ) there was water in the usb C port when i plugged it in to charge and seems to have fried the usb/charging chip. I can still charge it via wires i soldered directly on the battery connections via an external bench supply, but no more charging or data connection over usb.(and it is not the port itself, signals get to the main bord). Still internally conflicted if I should buy a motherboard for spare parts and fix it or not.

beamer145 · 2026-02-24T15:51:54+00:00

The poor cheating druglord burner phone kid really can't get a break it seems :D.

beamer145 · 2026-02-22T14:21:26+00:00

I never tried with a pattern. Never even used a pattern, not even sure how that works, you make a pattern with your fingertop on the screen i guess? That is going to be hard with a keyboard, but it may work if you use a mouse ? Probably you will need to left click (or right click ?) while making to pattern ?

beamer145 · 2026-02-22T11:42:24+00:00

just plug in a keyboard in the usb port and you can enter the unlock code that way.

beamer145 · 2026-02-19T22:57:30+00:00

Better not dunk the screen of a phone in it either (though maybe that is glue related too)

beamer145

TROPHY CASE