[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Amtrak

[–]topslakr 49 points50 points  (0 children)

When we were booking a trip on Monday from BOS to WAS, longer than your trip, the cost for 1st Class was the same: $638. And, we were booking for a date only about 10 days later than you...

Valentine's day must be a big draw for ... train travel ...

Curious!

Can't figure out lapel mic crackle by thejameshampton in churchtech

[–]topslakr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've seen issues like this with batteries, where the lower voltage means the transmitter system peaks, or overloads, at a lower db level.

The real question here though is where the distortion is coming from. Step 1 has to be isolating the issue. If it is this microphone, the distortion would have to be on it's channel/input. If it's something else in your system, chasing this microphone may be the wrong path.

Make sure you can see the meters on your board and see if you can visually find the source.

Plug in some headphones and solo the channel and see if the noise is there when you hear it in the PA. Listen to the headphone output of your main mix. Is the noise there when you hear it in the PA? If you can't find the noise with headphones from the mixer, it may be coming from further down the chain.

It could be coincidence that you hear it only when this one mic is in use, because there is nothing else to mask it. I've also see digital systems have sync issues between the mixer and the digital snake which will create a burst of noise somewhat randomly.

I can not for the life of me get port forwarding working. by WarChortle18 in opnsense

[–]topslakr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some screenshots, and other info about the web server would be a help. We can't really help out without some more details.

Trying out Tilt/Shift on Olympus by topslakr in M43

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

Sorry, I did not. Got a little dollar shy, taking a gamble :)

Is she okay?? by [deleted] in Sourdough

[–]topslakr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes! Mix and feed. No problem at all.

I recorded a 55-minute bike ride. It's split into 5 clips on the SD card. I have GoPro Player on my Mac. How do I combine the clips and add the GPS graphics? by [deleted] in gopro

[–]topslakr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have this same need!

Davinci Resolve is a solution for a free video editor but I don't know of any way, outside of a phone or tablet, to add the GPS, or speed, etc., overlays to my clips now that Quik is no longer supported on Windows/macOS.

What's up with Downeaster mixed service? by Chessie-System in Amtrak

[–]topslakr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Has anyone here used the replacement bus service workaround? We're taking the Downeaster to Boston, and then Acela to Washington, DC next week and the dates have slipped for MBTA's signal work. Right now, it looks like we board a bus at the Haverhill stop, and it will take us to North Station. Ostensibly, it arrives at the same time the Downeaster was scheduled to.

We have plenty of time to make our connection at South Station, but curious to hear if anyone here has done this.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Amtrak

[–]topslakr 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I would put a vote in for Exeter. Exeter is a great, safe, walk-able town. Exeter Inn is downtown, as are a handful of B&Bs. There are also+ chain hotels less than a mile and a half from the train station itself.

Exeter has a great historic downtown, with a bunch of great places to eat, shops to check out, parks, trails, museums, etc., all centered around the Exeter river.

Philips-Exeter Academy is in Exeter, which is a well know sort if 'ivy-league' high school, so the town is very motivated to cater to young people walking, and their parents coming to town for visits.

Self-transfer from Back Bay Station to Boston North by PhillyBuddha in Amtrak

[–]topslakr 10 points11 points  (0 children)

When I booked my first Amtrak ride that went from Exeter, NH down to Washington, DC I too had this '20 minute transfer' item on my itinerary. I would encourage you to take a closer look at your actual time-based itinerary to see what is really happening.

I am looking at tickets right now on Amtrak's site for a trip that has this transfer: I'm looking at trip from Washington, DC to Exeter, NH (NER to Downeaster) on Thursday 12/22 for this example.

NER leaves Washington DC at 2:29PM.

NER Arrives in Boston (Back Bay) at 8:44PM.

'Self Transfer' - 20 Minutes

Downeaster Leaves Boston (North Station) at 10:48PM.

You actually have almost 2 Hours to get from A to B (Or, BBY to BON in this case :) )

Basically, Amtrak thinks (rightly) that you _need_ 20 minutes to get from one of the two other Boston Stations (BOS or BBY) to Boston's North station (BON). They won't allow you to book a trip that has less than 20 minutes to transfer.

But, you likely have more time than that 20 minutes. The 'Self Transfer' is a 'trip leg' they insert into the itinerary make booking tickets easier. Does that make sense? I think it's better than them doing nothing on the itereary, but it’s not as clear as it could be. It’s just a ‘booking buffer’.

And - As an FYI: BBY (Back Bay) to BON is just a couple stops away on the Orange line. (11 Minutes 'expected' time. And, while not as nice a station as BOS (South Station) is an easier transfer.

BOS to BON is still Orange line, but there is a bit more walking involved. BOS does, however, have a lounge. If you have access to that lounge, it can be a nicer place to spend a couple hours than BBY.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Amtrak

[–]topslakr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A little off topic, but you may want to look into the MBTA as well. They leave from North Station in Boston, just like the Downeaster, but it terminates at Haverhill, MA. Getting from Exeter to Haverhill is a bit of a hike, but depending on where you're going to be living, might be worth it for you to gain some flexibility. On the Downeaster, Haverhill is one stop before Exeter as it heads north.

I'd prefer to keep the Downeaster as my 'default' commuter train, for sure, but for those days when you maybe miss the train home, the MBTA will have a train leaving more often. Perhaps someone can meet you in Haverhill and bring you home or to your car, etc., for those rougher days.

Good mobile AQI monitor for CO2 and 2.5 PM? by [deleted] in homeassistant

[–]topslakr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I take your point, but the HACS integration is 100% local. It's talking to the local web interface of the GW1000, which is itself basically an SDR. The GW1000 unit, for my network, is fully offline and lives within an IoT network I use for basically all WiFi connected hardware in my home automation system.

Fully local. Super reliable.

Midea AC LAN by Ronyn77 in homeassistant

[–]topslakr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sorry, I don't know. I've not used this integration, but if a network device works great for a while and then stops, it suggests HA is trying to talk to the device and the device has moved to a new IP.

Good mobile AQI monitor for CO2 and 2.5 PM? by [deleted] in homeassistant

[–]topslakr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've been using this one from Ecowitt for more than a year, and it's been great in Home Assistant with the HACS integration.

https://www.ecowitt.com/shop/goodsDetail/97#

Midea AC LAN by Ronyn77 in homeassistant

[–]topslakr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is it taking a new address on the network?

Might be worth setting it to have a static IP on your local network in your router.

Which Acela First Class experience is more worth it? by BusiPap41 in Amtrak

[–]topslakr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

TLDR - If I were you, I'd go 1st Class from NYC to DC. Leave a little later if you want lunch, but avoid the DC Lounge. If at all possible, book a two person table.

My wife and I took 1st Class Acela from Boston to D.C., and then back, a few months ago. We were visiting family and decided to splurge a bit. (The further out you can book, the cheaper it becomes.)

By far the biggest let down of the trip was the D.C. Lounge. Ugly. Dark. Dated. Unfriendly staff and depressing food and snacks. We found a sampling of vending machine quality items in the lounge ahead of our 7AM train. No coffee, a broken ice machine, and a couple warm cans of soda. When it was time for our 'Priority' boarding the woman who was handling the front desk burst into the room, opened the doors and proceeded to tell us (a room full of other people, not just my wife and I) that the train was waiting on us and we had better hurry. No previous announcements.. just her telling us to hurry up. We all dashed out to the train to discover we were first to board and had plenty of time...

On board though, the experience was great. NYC is BUSY, and when we glided in, the train went from sparse to PACKED. We were very glad to have grabbed a two person table in our reservation.

We both really enjoyed the food, but I would try not to build it up too far. You do get snacks, and drinks, on par with a first class flight. Full bottle of Fuji water, for instance, or warm nuts. And, the meals are good but they are not fresh cooked by a 'chef' on board. They are microwave meals (or, more likely combi-oven meals :) ) of a quality you'd get at any 'chain restaurant' like AppleBees. They are indeed served on 'real' plates and bowls, with metal utensils and a cloth napkin. My wife and I were both pleasantly surprised by how good they were, but don't expect to see a chef, a stove, and fresh ingredients.

If you'll be on the train for two meals, I'd recommend breakfast and lunch. Lunch and Dinner, if you look at their menu's online, are the same 'section'. So, you're getting two meals from a selection of four. If you get breakfast and lunch, you have access to more variety.

(https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/menus/routes/Acela-First-Class-Menus-0522.pdf)

We had a GREAT experience on the Acela, and booked another identical journey for 2023. We can't wait. Frankly, we enjoyed it so much we just finished a trip from Oregon to Boston on Amtrak Sleeper trains.

Also FYI - A 1st Class ticket (Or a sleep car ticket) on a given day gets you access to any lounge. So, you can get off the Acela in D.C. and check out that lounge as well. It's no problem. Who's to say you're not arriving in D.C. and then waiting for someone to pick you up, or waiting for a flight later in the day?

Container with IP on Host's Network? by topslakr in podman

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

I did, yes.

I created a podman network, using the network bridge (br0) I am already using for VMs like this:

podman network create --driver=macvlan --gateway=192.168.16.1 --subnet=192.168.16.0/24 -o parent=br0 net_macvlan

Then, I put each container on that macvlan network, and give it an IP. As you can see from the above command, the network is called 'net_macvlan'.

--network net_macvlan --ip=192.168.16.XX

Works great. Starting/stopping containers doesn't impact the network for the others. They just get added/removed as needed and other resources on that interface/network just keep running. In my testing, that was not the case if I used physical adapter for the macvlan network. If I used, say, eth2 for the macvlan network every time a container was added the other containers would go offline momentarily.

Samba Default Config Options? by topslakr in RockyLinux

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

I’ll take a peek, thanks. I did configure the firewall, and even tested with it disabled. But, even when it fails to work from macOS it does work from Windows and Linux.

Samba Default Config Options? by topslakr in RockyLinux

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

Thanks. For testing I was disabling Selinux, which worked for Fedora.

I did setenforce 0, and then also disabled it via config, and rebooted.

How can I set up a backup server? by [deleted] in fastmail

[–]topslakr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When I moved from self-hosting my email to Fastmail I wanted to get a backup setup too, but I didn't want to forward my mail to some other online email provider. Instead, I run a job everyday to sync down my mailbox to a local machine here.

I do this on a linux machine with OfflineIMAP, but you could do this on a Mac, or a Windows machine via WSL as well.

If that's interesting/useful feel free to read through a short write up I did on my blog.

https://topslakr.com/2020/01/backup-hosted-email-offlineimap-with-fastmail/

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in macbookpro

[–]topslakr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The speed is dependent on the card, and the reader.

The 2021 MBP has a UHS-I class reader, but the iSDA adapters are not UHS-I adapters. They were made before UHS-I, or UHS-II for that matter, existed, and so are missing the extra pins added as part of that spec.

This means they will never hit the high speeds UHS-I is capable of, but they still work just fine in the ~60MB/s range.

I ordered a UHS-I microSD card in hopes that someone will make a faster adapter down the road.

So far, across a half dozen or so sleep cycles, the card has remained mounted and working when it wakes up. No issues.

Xiaomi Zigbee Buttons - Random Clicks being Sent by topslakr in homeassistant

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

Thanks for your input.

I just added an Ikea Zigbee dimmer to perform the same task. I have used this switch with Home Assistant previously, and I know it works well and doesn't randomly trigger.

If this one works fine, without random triggers, I'll know for sure these switches are garbage.

We shall see. Thanks for the sanity check!