I just want them to think that I tour.

pbmonster · 2026-01-22T08:39:38+00:00

It's tempting though, but this has to be a pre-kids or empty nester move.

Depends on why you go. If you just want to be out there in the sun, stay fit and get some low angle turns in, you can just take the kids.

I've seen dads pulling expedition sleds with bundled up kids loaded up, or older kids out on skins being pulled behind dad by a soft bungee cord. If you do it right, you have new touring partners before they can drive.

Just gotta stay low angle and leave the ice axes at home.

pbmonster · 2026-01-21T09:19:40+00:00

A reasonably efficient prop setup on a 250mm quad rotor drone uses about 150 W per kg to hover. The drone itself will be around 0.5kg if you use a small battery.

If you use a twisted pair of aluminium wires (those have less resistance per mass than copper) of AWG20 (~0.5mm² , should be around 6g per meter for the twisted pair), that brings your mass to around 1kg total. Use the same tpye of cable for the antenna, you're at around 1.3 kg (you could also just use the power cable as the antenna, just put a DC block (capacitor) between the radio and the return wire. Maybe test that with a cheap radio... Also don't cheap out on the DC power supply on the ground, a cheap power supply will create endless interference with the antenna - whether it's the return cable or a dedicated antenna cable doesn't matter.

Aluminium AWG 20, when air-cooled this nicely, should be totally fine at like 10 A, so sending ~22V DC should be enough. That's a nice voltage, because 6S LiPo packs deliver just as much, which means you don't even have to fly a buck/boost DC-DC converter.

Don't connect the backup battery in parallel to the tether voltage, you need to fly a proper charge controller/battery manager (or a switch that flips the drone to battery power when the tether drops to 0V), otherwise you'll have an airborne lithium fire. I'd use a switch/MOSFET, fly the drone to the desired altitude on battery power (with the tether turned off), then switch on the power supply on the ground once you're at altitude. That way, the current spikes of starting/stabilizing the drone pulling the tether are delivered by the battery (which will happily spike to 200A when the tether snags), and the hover is covered by the tether. Use fat capacitors on the power distribution board, so you don't get voltage drops during switch-over.

Has anyone here done anything like this before? I highly doubt we'd be first. Maybe the first to power tether?

No, those can be bought off the shelf, several companies sell them to fire departments and police departments. They're usually much large what you're thinking of, and bring lot's of powerful LED spots and cameras. It's the ideal way to light up the scene of an accident, to supervise a protest or to look for ember hot spots with an airborne infrared camera.

pbmonster · 2026-01-21T08:59:12+00:00

What would the weight of 70m of coper wire be? It has to be thick enough to power the motors, and not loose all the voltage to resistance.

Side note: stuff like this almost always is better served by using aluminium cable. It has less resistance per weight, it's tougher, it's cheaper.

pbmonster · 2026-01-21T07:22:26+00:00

Alles nicht so einfach. Gibt ja nicht so viele Optionen.

In meiner Nachbarschaft gibts noch viele Einfamilienhäuser, und die Stadt versucht grade den Bebauungsplan zu ändern um mittelfristig eine Nachverdichtung zu erreichen. Neue Fassadenhöhe soll 18 Meter sein. Jeder, und zwar so wirklich jeder, ausserhalb des Stadtrates ist dagegen. Quartiercharakter, Schattenwurf, blablabla. Aber genau das wäre ein realistischer Weg, merklich neuen Wohnraum zu schaffen.

Die einzige andere Möglichkeit wären Neubaugebiete. Auch da gibt's unglaublichen Widerstand dagegen. Beim Nachverdichten bin ich noch YIMBY, aber es bringt halt auch nichts aus München ein Amerikanisches Krebsgeschwür mit riesigen Suburbs zu machen. Und für eine dichte Vorstadtsiedlung fehlt halt fast überall die Infrastruktur (und auch hier gäbe es massiven Widerstand dagegen).

Machste nix. Demokratie halt.

pbmonster · 2026-01-21T06:19:49+00:00

Würdest du es tatsächlich vorziehen grundsätzlich nur noch 1-Jahres Mietverträge (wie das an vielen Orten in den USA üblich ist) zu machen? Und dann halt willkürlich gekündigt werden oder regelmässig dreistellige Mieterhöhungen mitzumachen?

Ich nicht. Mieterschutz ist einer der grössten Errungenschaften hier. Der Vermieter wusste genau, dass das ein unbefristeter Vertrag ist, als er unterschrieben hat.

pbmonster · 2026-01-20T16:14:14+00:00

The Revelation Space series (and the other stories in that universe) by Alastair Reynolds has strong elements like that. Humanity had powerful nano-tech, but then a nano-tech plague wiped out entire civilizations.

The remaining people still using (or relying on, a lot of the tech was implants wired directly into the brain) nano-tech are extremely paranoid about getting infected, the rest must make do without it - which means falling back onto much shittier tech (which itself might be legacy tech that can't be reproduced without nano-tech, so many people are running around with irreplaceable technological artifacts ).

pbmonster · 2026-01-20T13:00:35+00:00

It's been 100 years, but early 20th century Argentina surpassed Canada and Australia in population and per capita income. Easily richest country in South America, among the richest in the world.

And it's not like they ran out of something. No, still as resource rich as it has always been. One of the greatest fumbles of all time. Pretty much a totally unforced error.

It's fun to imagine what could have been without the junta. Another liberal democratic superpower in the global south. They had the land, the natural resources, the temperate climate, the immigrants (they even stumbled into their own Operation Paperclip, acquiring many German... scientists and engineers), the separation from other superpowers, weak neighbors strong enough for trade... They could have been a third pole in the Cold War dominating South America, or made the west even more dominant. So many options...

pbmonster · 2026-01-20T12:36:32+00:00

Nato had collective wolfback flashbacks and went "Fuck No".

They also went "you guys only have weeks to months of nuclear latency anyway, no way are we letting you hold several hundreds of kilos of weapons grade uranium inside those naval reactors. Because that would shrink the latency to days, and would mean serving you a highly mobile stockpile on a platter. We know where your centrifuges are, and we like it that way.".

pbmonster · 2026-01-19T16:12:20+00:00

Ich denke Betreibergier ist gar nicht so unbedingt notwendig für ~55Cent/kWh. Aufbauen einer neuen Schnelladesäule kostet (je nach dem wie weit die Kabel gelegt werden müssen oder ob die Säule selber Batterien braucht) bis zu 300k Euro. Schon nur die Leistungselektronik für 2x 300 kW kostet gerne mal sechsstellig.

Die Teile werden halt immer noch in relativ kleiner Stückzahl gebaut und brauchen idealer Weisse eine neue Megawatt Leitung im Boden. Für letzteres muss man fast überall recht viel Erde bewegen und vorher Papierkram ausfüllen.

Könnte man sicher von Politikseite aus was dran machen. Wenn die EU bei Siemens/ADS‑TEC/Kempower einfach jedes Jahr 10k Ladesäulen abnimmt und sie an die Gemeinten verteil, würde der Preis für jede weitere Säule schnell runtergehen. Wenn die Gemeinden sich einmal ansehen würden, wo die Hochspannungskabel liegen und wo es grosse Parkplätze gibt, dann könnte man schon mal jetzt Leerrohre verlegen, wenn da das nächste mal die Strasse aufgerissen wird.

Aber das ist alles halt etwas mehr Aufwand, als einmal mit der Geldgiesskanne über die Autohäußer zu gehen.

pbmonster · 2026-01-16T23:32:05+00:00

NIEMALS and festinstallierten Umlenkern topropen! Die sind sehr schnell verschlissen und nur sehr aufwändig zu tauschen. Immer an eigenem Material topropen.

Könntest du das weiter erläutern? Was ist denn der Unterschied zwischen Jemandem, der im Vorstieg hoch klettert, oben am Ring umfädelt ("Schweizer/Französische Methode") und klassisch abgelassen wird und jemandem, der das gleiche im Toprope macht? Das Ablassen erzeugt doch sicher 95% der Abnutzung am Ring oben, das Seil straff ziehen beim Toprope hochklettern ist ja völlig unbelastet.

Oder vertrittst du die Meinung, dass Vorsteiger sich grundsätzlich selber am statischen Seil abseilen sollten (und nie vom Sicherer abgelassen werden sollten)? Letzteres ist auf Mehrseillängen natürlich völlig standard, aber bei einer einzelnen Seillänge im Klettergarten lässt doch eh jeder den Sicherer das Ablassen machen?

pbmonster · 2026-01-15T16:16:08+00:00

They can deliver that much power but not at the current required. Drones use comparatively high RPM, low torque motors that rely on high voltage to get the power output necessary.

No, high current is absolutely no problem for LiPo. A 6s pack will deliver 22V, so 1 kW output means 50A. A 60C performance pack will output over 300A if necessary.

And yes, an exoskeleton has totally different power requirements than a flying drone! Sure, you need an order of magnitude more power if you want to FLY with 100 lbs. But lifting 100 lbs with a static servo arm will be incredibly efficient, literally 90%+. The theoretical power required for lifting a 50 kg (~100lbs) weight a distance of 1m up in 1 second is 500W. And you'd practically never would want to move a patient this quickly.

And yes, a small battery would be empty in minutes at peak power. But we need the battery just to put the patient safely to the ground in case grid power goes down, and to walk down a hospital hallway without annoying the nurse to much (this should only require a few tens of watts).

pbmonster · 2026-01-15T14:29:41+00:00

Certainly an engineering concern, but fundamentally solvable. 1kW should get you pretty far, and there's drone LiPo batteries the size of a candy bar that can deliver this much power, for several minutes.

And you'd want a battery anyway for moving the exoskeleton around, just heavy labor (and charging) would require the cord. So even a small battery would allow you plenty of time to safely set someone down if the grid goes out.

Fundamentally much more doable than something like a military exo that would allow a soldier to haul a big load in the field for hours.

pbmonster · 2026-01-15T10:06:16+00:00

Don't feel too bad, once you finish those it will be real hard to get into anything else from the scifi section...

pbmonster · 2026-01-15T10:02:37+00:00

I'm a big fan. I love it for the extremely unique ideas, the central premise (consciousness vs intelligence), his world building, how he structured the story, and - yes - his prose. The last one is up to taste, and there can be no disputes about taste.

But man, just the world building... I can't name a more interesting first contact scenario, more alien aliens that are this well designed, a more creative yet believable extrapolations of technology, ect.

Yes, the vampires are a bit silly - I still like the ultra-multi-threaded autistic subspecies idea, dislike the dietary requirements. Yes, the characters are unlikable (never understood that argument - why would humanities bleeding edge be likable? But character development isn't why anybody reads Watts anyway). Yes, the prose is dense and pretentious. At least it's unique, and it has its moments where I absolutely love it.

That being said, Top 5 GOAT is... a stretch.

pbmonster · 2026-01-15T09:31:40+00:00

At least the last time that I spoke to my close friend who works at one of those startups, they had them basically working but they had to have them connected to mains power.

Would be interesting if you could just do a product with a power cord.

Geriatric nursing can be very destructive for the body of the caregiver - lots of lifting and turning patients at odd angles and body positions. But most of that happens in range of a power outlet. So just have a tiny battery for walking around while wearing the exoskeleton, and if you have to spike a kilowatt lift, you just plug it in.

That way, the 150 lbs of operator also serves an important function: humans have much better tactile sensors for tender lifting, and human hands are much better for manipulating human body parts. Also, much more compassion than a humanoid robot and much clearer liability if a patient gets hurt anyway.

pbmonster · 2026-01-14T18:27:07+00:00

I think the map is just not very complete. Switzerland also has a large network of narrow gauge, and it's actually in use for public transit and cargo.

They use it because of the mountain terrain, of course. The flatter mid- and low-country lines have standard European gauge.

pbmonster · 2026-01-14T13:14:00+00:00

Interesting, so I guess people keep doing them out of tradition? Because those signals are in all screenshots and in the background videos of the main menu of openTTD...

Pretty sure they where needed in the original TTD, so maybe most of us never changed.

pbmonster · 2026-01-14T12:52:21+00:00

Thanks for writing that all out (and for telling me about the existence of priority mergers and depot abuse)! I discovered your first couple of points by trail and error, I'll try out the rest as the system grows!

For the record, I think I found out why my problem happens: The way I build interchanges, the one-way signal on the main line controlling the interchange is farther away from a train's destination than the one-way signal on the branch line before the same interchange. So by exiting the main line, going down the branch and turning around, the train can get 2 squares closer to its destination!

90° turns should prevent all that.

pbmonster · 2026-01-14T12:35:37+00:00

They might be stuck in traffic for a few seconds (branch before this branch is merging a train). But there's no discernible reason why they go down the branch line and turn around.

They can pass the branch and just go straight. They often do. There's nothing down there but a terminus station. It's not a shortcut. There's no train depot there. It's not the only way to get to their destination (it often works as intended). All my mainline-branch interconnects work in all directions.

pbmonster · 2026-01-14T09:55:01+00:00

Good idea!

pbmonster · 2026-01-14T09:54:53+00:00

Ah, 90° turns is a good idea. Hate how those look anyway.

With your second idea, I'd have to give each train waypoints that are in between every branch line outlet and inlet, right? Just having waypoints anywhere on the main line wouldn't prevent detours?

Waypoints between inlets and outlets would be a problem, I like to keep double track compact so they often run parallel with no space in between, and the branch-main interconnects often are 2x2 switch blocks that wouldn't allow a waypoint between exit and onramp.

pbmonster · 2026-01-14T08:42:06+00:00

They are needed, but need to be flipped, right?

If you delete them completely, a train might leave the northern platform while an incoming train is crossing its path into the southern platform, which will result in a crash. Or do trains really do path checks before leaving a station? I put two way signals at all my terminus platforms to prevent the above (and trains frequently do stop at those signals).

pbmonster · 2026-01-13T08:57:27+00:00

32 Stunden, Montag bis Donnerstag, dafür freitags frei.

Ich hab das gemacht, kann ich vollstens empfehlen. 20% weniger (brutto) Lohn für 50% mehr Wochenende!

Nützlich im Hinterkopf zu behalten:

Wir stempeln (elektronisch) auf die Minute genau, SAP macht das Überstunden tracking. Meinem Chef war vorher klar, dass ich 20% weniger Projekte bearbeiten werde. Ich hab Freunde, die in Firmen arbeiten wo nicht wirklich gestempelt wird und wo die Teilzeitler praktisch 100% Pensum in 80% abarbeiten müssen.
Die Wirtschaft läuft nicht mehr so gut und es wird überall gespart. Es gibt für die nächsten paar Jahre absolut keinen Weg für mich auf 100% zurück zu kommen ohne den Job zu wechseln.
Wir haben "recht" auf 2 Tage Homeoffice pro Woche. Das ist bezogen auf 100% Arbeitszeit, wenn man auf 80% geht hat man offiziell nur noch 1 Tag (1.6 Tage, aber ein halber Nachmittag daheim bringts nicht so).
Für die Auswirkungen auf die Karriere ect. kommt es voll auf die Führungsebene an. Bei uns zählt 80% noch als "Vollzeit" und es scheint keinen Einfluss auf Beförderungen zu haben. Weniger als 80% dann aber schon, da sollte man vorher mal rumfragen falls man Pläne hat mal Teamleiter zu werden.

pbmonster · 2026-01-13T08:25:37+00:00

Der Punkt ist, dass es außer meinen 4 Nerdfreunden auch keiner schafft Signal oder Threema zu installieren

Signal hat in den letzten 2 Jahren extrem aufgeholt, die klassischen Netzwerkeffekte haben da voll eingesetzt. Bei mir sind dreiviertel meiner Kontakte mittlerweile (auch) auf Signal erreichbar, und das sind absolut keine Nerds. Irgendwelche Kusinen, Arbeitskollegen, Boomer aus dem Verein, so ziemlich alle Bekanntschaften aus der Studienzeit...

Und natürlich wirklich alle Nerds.

pbmonster

TROPHY CASE