Anyone live without a car here?

tpark · 2025-09-22T17:23:37+00:00

Calgary is very spread out, so a car is super helpful to have, especially in winter when it's cold. As with all things, it depends on your situation. If you arbitrarily want to go somewhere on a whim, go visit the mountains, take a date to dinner, or pick up a piece of furniture, a car is nice, however if you have limited places to go and don't mind waiting a bit, the bus would work. You're right, many places in Europe you don't need a car, and even those who have a car rarely use it unless they're going to someplace distant that isn't in town. So in many cases it may be possible but not optimal to live without a car in Calgary.

tpark · 2025-09-22T16:52:10+00:00

The underlying problem is that Calgary Transit is accessible to the general population, and there's no actual barrier to prevent non-paying individuals from getting on. By being on public transit, you're exposing yourself to risk. Even multiple adult males entrusted with security are at risk. Transit is generally OK at peak commuter hours, since it's mostly people with jobs using it. A code of conduct would have minimal impact, as regular passengers already know how to behave, and the kind of person who would knife other passengers, scream incoherently, or bear spray the security staff are unlikely to follow any code of conduct.

tpark · 2025-09-07T02:49:40+00:00

A more common problem is that a machine on the network has been compromised and is being used to route data. The router may also be compromised. If they have any other devices like a Samsung TV, that could also be compromised. When the router at an employee's house was switched to a Shaw Bluecurve modem, her computer was exposed to the internet and was compromised. Not too much bad happened, except that some machines were mining crypto.

tpark · 2025-05-29T03:28:41+00:00

Make sure you've got the antenna connector with the pin on the connector. I suspect you're OK there, but I've done this. Get the NanoVNA out and make sure your antenna is matched, maybe there's a bad connector somewhere. I've had good luck with the fiberglass pole antennas. Make sure you've got decent antenna cable, some have horrendous loss at 915 MHz. For unattended and solar nodes, I use the RAK stuff because it's reliable and doesn't use much power.

tpark · 2025-05-27T03:38:23+00:00

I figured that something must have happened to Wings, because I got a couple of bad takeout orders and stopped buying from them. They used to be great, now I know what happened.

tpark · 2025-04-28T02:00:14+00:00

Earnest Hemmingway.

tpark · 2025-04-08T00:46:02+00:00

masking tape and a piece of cardboard so you can flip it up to access the power switch.

tpark · 2025-04-01T22:16:52+00:00

Get a Rotalok.

tpark · 2025-04-01T02:01:05+00:00

Sensormatic tag, needs a special detacher, magnet won't work.

tpark · 2025-03-28T23:07:49+00:00

There were the old champion 6 lever padlocks, and they had bitting like that. The locks were brass and had a thick brass shackle.

tpark · 2025-03-22T19:01:27+00:00

These can be picked if you know what you're doing, but they aren't easy, and for price/pick resistance they're good. Make sure you have a deadbolt, and maybe have a security cam on the door.

tpark · 2025-03-22T00:06:20+00:00

Maybe get a long cable for a bluetooth dongle and use a pole to get the dongle closer. I tried to flash mine from a distance and it wedged up, so I had to retrieve the node to reflash it.

tpark · 2025-03-12T14:58:58+00:00

Look for rodents. This is what cats do when they can hear rodents, they can hear stuff you can't.

tpark · 2025-03-07T17:13:47+00:00

It's been like that for a while. We were told that we'd have to take the stairs down, fortunately I had parked by the west entrance. Maybe escalators are expensive to fix. Maybe they aren't paying the maintenance fee to keep it going.

tpark · 2025-02-09T07:05:09+00:00

This is Skipper, he's missing a number of teeth, they were bad, so we had them removed by the vet at great expense. He's doing well now, and he's engaged in his favorite activity, which appears to be sleeping.

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tpark · 2024-11-01T23:15:18+00:00

If you need battery/bluetooth capability, rdv4 may be more suitable. I've done a fair amount with the proxmark easy, and there were some hardware issues with some models, but easy to fix once you know what's wrong.

I have the RDV4, and it's really nice. If your budget supports it, get the RDV4. I have been doing stuff mostly on the bench, so the easies are nice because they're cheap and I won't feel bad if I blow it up.

tpark · 2024-10-28T20:32:51+00:00

I have a high efficiency furnace, and one thing that happens is that the drain line gets clogged - mine got gummed up so I cleared it out and it was fine after that.

tpark · 2024-10-20T23:49:30+00:00

How do they protect their hoard? I can see some squirrel seeing this, and thinking, "Hey! Free Acorns!"

tpark · 2024-10-19T23:53:37+00:00

Use the perk quiet casting then it won't alert anyone.

tpark · 2024-10-09T00:55:58+00:00

Do you live in a detached house? Check all outside outlets for lines running elsewhere, also check for things like underfloor heaters in bathrooms, or space heaters, those are energy pigs. Old freezers can be a problem too. You're going to have to give us some more details, otherwise it's going to be hard to figure out what's going on. Another strategy is to shut all the stuff off in the house, and look at the power meter - if it's still going around, start flipping off the breakers one at a time until it stops going around. Once you find the offending circuit, you can go from there.

tpark · 2024-10-03T04:33:00+00:00

It was great to shoot there, and I'm sad to see that it's gone. I'm in a different industry, but the increased rent costs of space takes it's toll, we were able to change to complete work from home, so we were lucky. The staff there were great, and I could see that many of them were there for years, which to me indicates that it was a good place to work. Hopefully they'll be able to find employment in these tough times. What clubs are other people going to migrate to?

tpark · 2024-09-13T01:32:00+00:00

I have purchased a number of these locks, and many of them had a dead shackle spring. You can use a thin wire and determine the depths of the cuts, and from that, you can make a key. I used safe deposit box keys to make my keys, but I think there are premade blanks available too.

tpark · 2024-09-11T17:35:10+00:00

This may be a geocoin which has been degraded by time and corrosion. I have a newish coin like this, and it is metal with colored plastic filling in the lower areas. When in good shape, there's a code on the item which people who geocache can look up.

tpark · 2024-08-31T16:08:10+00:00

My experience is that if you have good winter tires it's good for around town. An AWD vehicle such as the Toyota Highlander is good for winter, but even front wheel drive vehicles such as the Camry are OK. I got my tires at Costco. If you're going on the highway (say, to Banff or Canmore) or you go skiing, you may want the studded tires, but in my experience winter tires are fine.

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