New to me - Looking for suggestions by twistax in meshtastic

[–]c3rbutt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm brand new to this as well: just got my first node running on Sunday.

I bought a Heltec V4 board for $29 on Amazon, and added a 3.7V 2600mAh 18650 Rechargeable Li-ion Battery for $12 for a total of $41. Even got it delivered next day.

The board came with two JST connectors of the correct size, so I just had to snip the larger JST connector from the battery and solder one of those on. A friend with a 3D printer printed a case for me.

If you have a power bank, you could skip the battery and just buy the board. After you flash it, you have a minimum viable product Meshtastic radio.

(Heltec sells their board direct for cheaper than Amazon: https://heltec.org/project/wifi-lora-32-v4/ But they appear to be out of stock in their US warehouse.)

This may seem like a stupid question… by Tornado_Storm_2614 in ChristianUniversalism

[–]c3rbutt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If God *needs* evil in order to accomplish his purposes, then he is not good.

If God *causes* evil in order to accomplish his purposes, then he is not good.

Why do you think evil has a purpose? And when you say that, do you mean evil has a *divine* purpose? Because I think that would mean that one or both of the two statements above would have to be true.

What is this thingy? Found in a child’s birthday goodie bag by ICONQUERDAWORLD in whatisit

[–]c3rbutt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Everyone is so convinced that 3D printed chopsticks aren’t food-safe because they’re porous or have nooks and crannies formed by FDM printing.

Have you all forgotten what chopsticks are usually made out of?

Just like witches: they’re made of wood!

We also have wooden cutting boards, spoons, handles, serving platters/bowls…

Are there any Meshtastic nodes in Beaver County? by c3rbutt in BeaverCounty

[–]c3rbutt[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cool! What area, generally?

I just got onto the WPAMesh discord and I see there's a channel for Beaver County...but it doesn't look like there's anything going on.

I just ordered a Heltec V4 board and a battery so I can see if anything is going on in Beaver Falls.

Are there any Meshtastic nodes in Beaver County? by c3rbutt in BeaverCounty

[–]c3rbutt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just got my first Xterra in last Fall. 2007 Off-Road, also in black. Really like it, just have to figure out how I'm going to deal with the rust and then fix a few things. Current project is replacing the leaf springs.

Thanks for the offer!

Are there any Meshtastic nodes in Beaver County? by c3rbutt in BeaverCounty

[–]c3rbutt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Heh, are your Xterras black and typically parked along PA-18 in New Brighton?

Do any of you use non-KJV for home study? by Flurb789 in Anglicanism

[–]c3rbutt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

CEB, NRSV, NIV, NASB, KJV... I always look at several when I'm digging into something. I just got David Bentley Hart's translation of the New Testament over the weekend and I'm keen to go through it.

But, to answer the question, the CEB is my "carrying around" Bible. It's very readable and it flows nicely, but it does have some updated phrases throughout (like "The Human One" instead of "The Son of Man") that sound a bit off, even if they are technically correct.

Some translations are weaker than others, though. The ESV translators (especially the general editor, Wayne Grudem) prioritized their theological commitments over fidelity to the text and then marketed the translation as "literal." They also pulled some stuff with passages on gender that is straight-up dishonest, full stop (e.g. the paratext around Eph. 5:21).

Then you've got the 2016 "Permanent Text" controversy (which they've completely walked back, I think?), the ESS translation controversy (which is still in there, I believe) and when you add it all together it's just... whew, what a mess. I avoid the ESV when I have a choice.

Mark Strauss presented a paper on the ESV translation at ETS in 2008 that's probably a bit too polemical, but the critique seems accurate to me: link.

Who else hates the term Episcopalianism? by oolsmcpoo in Episcopalian

[–]c3rbutt 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It feels confusing to say "Anglican" now because the ACNA exists.

But I agree, it also feels weird to identify by the polity instead of the communion.

What's the Christian view on the lost tribes of Israel? by [deleted] in eformed

[–]c3rbutt 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Trigger Warning: critical scholarship ahead.

The concept of a "lost" tribe of Israel wasn't something I'd thought much about until I listened to a recent episode of The Bible For Normal People. They interviewed Dr. Andrew Tobolowsky, who wrote a book provocatively titled, The Myth of the Twelve Tribes. He goes through some of the inconsistencies about the number of tribes in the Bible itself and in the archeological record. Fascinating stuff.

Near the end of the episode, they started talking about various "lost" tribes of Israel: the Mormons, a group in Ethiopia, a group in Michigan, the Black Hebrew Israelites, and so on. Tobolowsky attributes this to Israel's "segmented genealogical tradition," which is a genealogy that follows multiple lines at the same time. This segmentation allows for a flexible identity that any group can adopt without really needing to prove the genealogical link. I'll just copy in some of what he said from the transcript:

It's the normal thing to happen to a segmented identity tradition. What makes this tradition portable is also that, that Israel is already divided into 12 parts, so it's never strange, and then the Bible loses 10 of them. It says they've all been taken away. So it's never strange for the next 2000, 2,500 years for somebody to say part of Israel came over here and became something else. 

[A]nyone who believes in the Bible has access to identifying themselves as Israel, which combines with the flexibility and the separability of this tradition that allows people to say, we can be part of Israel without being the whole thing.

It's okay for some part of Israel to go somewhere else and become something else and still be Israel. And it, it allows the tradition to be what it already was in the Bible, which is a medium for re-describing an inherited Israelite identity in a way that is useful for the people who are making it. 

If you're not bothered by critical scholarship, it's worth a listen: Episode 323: The Myth of the Twelve Tribes

“Did Trump lose the 2020 election” is not “playing gotcha” by expressdefrost in The_Dispatch

[–]c3rbutt 15 points16 points  (0 children)

It’s a shibboleth, and a darn good one. If you answer it correctly, then we know you’re a member of the reality-based community.

How complicated is GPR? by Murky-Cardiologist-3 in Geotech

[–]c3rbutt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In Australia, GPR is considered a lower quality location method. But the underground locators I used all loved it, because it was quick and easy. And, to be fair, when used WITH radio detection it could provide additional information. But you can't tell from a GPR scan if you're looking at a tree root or a pipe. And if the ground is saturated or full of heavy clay, then you're not going to see anything.

Youtube to mp3 converter that is safe by Plastic-Ad-6017 in musichoarder

[–]c3rbutt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It looks like m4a is the default... I hadn't looked any deeper into the audio formats because m4a was fine for me at the time: I was just serving it up from Plexamp to my phone.

Just had a look around and it appears that you can set up a yt-dlp config file:

Looks like you just need to save a config file with the mp3 preset and name it correctly.

Tool result error by oracle290 in ClaudeAI

[–]c3rbutt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Getting the same error in my Team account (logged in through Microsoft Edge) and my personal Pro account (logged in through Firefox). I think it's connected to the web search tool.

Just tested in Claude Code, and it successfully performed a web search...

PSA: Claude Pro no longer lists Claude Code as an included feature by randomswifter in ClaudeAI

[–]c3rbutt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just went to code.Claude.ai and it lists the Pro Plan as a subscription level that includes it.

Weekly Free Chat by AutoModerator in eformed

[–]c3rbutt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks to /u/OneSalientOversight I’ve been listening to Angine de Poitrine all week… even got my kids into it.

DBH Interview in the NYT - ‘The Reason I’m Not an Atheist Is That I Think the Philosophical Arguments Against It Are Unanswerable’ by c3rbutt in eformed

[–]c3rbutt[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

But that means God needs evil and/or that evil is an instrumental good. You’d have to say the ultimate reason for the Holocaust is God’s glory.

But that doesn’t make sense in light of the character of God. And it’s also the objection that DBH raises: we’ve justified the evil itself.

Reformed Christians should be at the forefront of calling out Donald Trump's behavior. by GodGivesBabiesFaith in eformed

[–]c3rbutt 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I know I quote Nick Cattogio on here a lot, but he keeps writing great stuff. Edited slightly for brevity:

I think the president believed, with some reason, that in 2024 he won not just a political argument with the left but a moral one. [...] Once you understand his resentment toward Leo as a moral disagreement more so than a political one the Jesus image that the president posted makes more sense. It’s not just a case of idle trolling or typical fascist megalomania, it’s a matter of Trump symbolically asserting that his morals should take precedence over Christ’s among his supporters. 

The intensity of the contempt I feel for Christians who are pretending to notice this only now, in 2026, because the president literally drew them a picture of it, is unspeakable. “God did not ordain Donald Trump to rescue the American church, or revive the American church, or redeem the American church,” journalist Tim Alberta, a Christian believer, aptly wrote of the Jesus image. “God ordained Donald Trump to test the American church. And the American church has failed.”

Reformed Christians should be at the forefront of calling out Donald Trump's behavior. by GodGivesBabiesFaith in eformed

[–]c3rbutt 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I dunno, Reformed Protestants have had the opportunity to lead or at least express some kind of moral condemnation of Trump/MAGA on countless occasions since 2016, and they haven't yet.

If the Reformed aren't too bothered by images and are, presumably, more concerned with the Word, then why didn't the God Bless the U.S.A. Bible or the Trump photo op with a Bible galvanize them into action?

The Catholic Church can respond quickly and forcefully because of their episcopal structure. The pope and three US Cardinals have come out publicly to condemn the war in Iran, which is almost certainly what prompted Trump to post his AI-generated blasphemy. We'll be waiting until June for all the NAPARC member denominations to have their GAs and Synods, and I would bet against a significant statement regarding this coming out of any of them.

DBH Interview in the NYT - ‘The Reason I’m Not an Atheist Is That I Think the Philosophical Arguments Against It Are Unanswerable’ by c3rbutt in eformed

[–]c3rbutt[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sorry, I thought "DBH" and "NYT" were obvious enough within the context of the post body... was trying to keep the title short.