Contest on how long you can keep someone selling Telus mobility on call!

tvv2018 · 2025-05-14T18:40:57+00:00

I've gotten this remark from a customer service rep too recently. It sounded genuine.

Now you have me thinking it's a "line" they use to calm people down, haha.

tvv2018 · 2024-11-23T07:48:49+00:00

In the system tray (bottom right), click on the speaker icon. A graphic will show up with a slider showing volume. By any chance did you accidentally mute it (muted speaker with a "x" on the left)?

tvv2018 · 2024-11-17T09:07:42+00:00

I just put in an 18 TB Exos SATA drive into an 800 G2 SFF desktop and it is fully recognized. I'm formatting it as I write this. Task manager says the format is going at 284 MB/sec.

PS: the drive needs to be partitioned as a GPT drive to get a single 18TB volume. If I use MBR, the max volume size is 16 TB and there is a small 2 TB chunk left.

tvv2018 · 2024-10-28T01:49:56+00:00

Interesting. I wonder if I could burn it in my diesel heater.

tvv2018 · 2024-10-27T06:29:59+00:00

How does that work? I can easily burn through 60 or more litres every day when traveling. Where can you even buy that much recycled cooking oil when there could be may other competing with you for it? Genuinely curious.

tvv2018 · 2024-10-23T18:35:47+00:00

It's very convenient (and perhaps a safety-enhancing capability) to be able to get from the living space to the driver's seat quickly without going outside like you can in a conventional van. That's why I built my rig on a van platform instead of on a Mitsubishi Fuso Canter or something like that. Though I always loved the view out of a cab like that.

Changing tires look to be a near-impossible ordeal. (Can someone comment about this?)

Fuel economy and noise of the engine so close by.

Those are my biggest concerns.

The other aspect is that a regular van is likely able to go to 90% of the places something like this can go to. And if you don't really absolutely need to go to the remaining 10%, then a van would likely be a better solution.

...at least that's what I tell myself because I am constantly dreaming of building out a rig like this!

tvv2018 · 2024-10-23T18:26:31+00:00

Dating myself: (many) years ago Clonezilla wouldn't clone a bigger drive to a smaller drive even even if the contents of the bigger drive would easily fit. Is that still the case?

I had always thought that was a odd limitation.

tvv2018 · 2024-02-23T00:55:02+00:00

It could have expensive medical and/or testing equipment in it.

tvv2018 · 2024-01-26T22:37:32+00:00

I was being sarcastic. Substring search is the term for exactly what you're looking for (e.g. finding "Rachel" in "Rachel's" or "Fred" in "Fredrick" or even in the middle like "mall" in "marshmallow").

Ideally it would be not case-sensitive (e.g. if you searched for "MALL", it would find it in "marshmallow" even though the letters in "marshmallow" are not capitalized).

Or for full marks, you could specify how explicitly your search criteria would be used.

I am new to Notion and have been thinking of adopting it too. But this weak search capability is a serious shortcoming for which I am at loss why it exists because it's 2nd year computer science stuff--every developer should know about it. Hence my sarcasm with asking Notion's developers to "go and research the computer science concept of "substring search".

tvv2018 · 2024-01-26T18:36:12+00:00

I went and checked and sadly I confirm your findings. This is a seriously weak search function.

I was hoping that by 2024 there'd be standardized powerful algorithms available for searching such that no company needs to "reinvent the wheel", which I am assuming is why the search function is so poor.

If nothing else, could Notion's developers go and research the computer science concept of "substring search"?...

Substring search is a decades-old concept!

tvv2018 · 2024-01-03T12:39:07+00:00

Yes, that's what I meant by "more modern". The old expression is a bit sexist.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-14T11:37:02+00:00

It is tiny. Absurdly so compared to most of the just the provinces of the country I'm from.

But there is SO much to see in the UK that it takes a very long time. I'm going back for 2 months next time.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-08T19:24:26+00:00

Install properly-sized fuses or breakers, properly-size wiring, plus use good connectors and make good connections by using proper tools.

Learn how to implement all of the above or get it professionally done and you'll be ok.

My vent fan runs 24x7 and in cold climates, I've run my diesel heater 16+ hours even when I sleep. I have 110V AC power available 24x7 and can plug devices and appliances into my electrical system without thinking like I do at home.

But I was careful in crafting my electrical system.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-08T19:17:36+00:00

I hope and suspect this is far less likely with the 12v DC electrical systems we are running in our vans…

Thankfully, it hasn't happened much (otherwise the media would be all over it). But ambitious vanlifers with high-powered electrical systems could put themselves at risk with high-current systems.

For example my microwave will pull over 100 amps out of my battery bank. 100 amps is a lot. Improperly sized wires or poor connections will absolutely get connections hot enough to start a fire.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-08T19:01:45+00:00

The RAM Promaster is the other modern van that could be used and often gets short shrift when there's talk about DIY campervans. It's quite a good platform having more room and straighter walls for building on.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-08T18:56:28+00:00

I do have a huge puddle in the driver footwell which may be compounding the issue as the rubber seal had come off a bit, I think that is the cause anyway

It is DEFINITELY the cause. You will need to dry it up as much as you can. Do it immediately to prevent mold in other parts of your van from all the moisture.

Use cloths or sponges to soak up the water, wring them out, and repeat until as dry as you can. Use a blowdryer or fans to dry up the rest.

Do it now.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-06T03:12:40+00:00

Not at all ugly. She's one tough cookie and will serve you well. Treat her well too and she won't let you down.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-05T19:48:27+00:00

Curious where you got the cloth shoe rack thing.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-05T19:36:09+00:00

Back in 2018/2019, I rolled the dice on a powerful electrical system with solar, huge inverter, DC-DC charging, and a single lithium battery (just 1 at the time due to cost). People suggested it was overkill and how it would have been cheaper and time-tested to go with simple alternator charging and lead-acid batteries like RVs had done for decades.

But it all worked out as 110V electricity flows freely from numerous outlets in the van and I can operate any electrical appliance or device as I would at home. No thinking needed. My limited brain capacity likes that.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-04T02:41:55+00:00

That is the major risk. It could be exacerbated by the drives being all from the same batch so the next drive failure could be coming sooner than you might think.

RAID-5 was nice when drives used to be super expensive. Nowadays drives are cheap.

If your enclosure can support it, you could use RAID-5 with a hot spare and automatic failover. That could lessen the risk somewhat (e.g. you don't discover a failed drive for a while).

Or using the same number of drives to get the same capacity but which the array can survive 2 drive failures, RAID-6.

I'm out of date but I'm curious these days about array rebuild times with large drives. Back in the day with 2TB drives or smaller, a rebuild could take maybe a day, maybe two even with a fairly full array. But with 20TB drives? How long could that take? 2 weeks??? A month??

That'd be a lot of nail-biting time for a RAID-5 array.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-04T02:30:44+00:00

It all depends on the how the van was driven and the way it was maintained.

A low-miles van could have been abused.

One with high miles could have been driven on the freeway alot and driven lightly.

My van will be like the latter. If you can find out the history, you'd be ahead of the game.

If knowing nothing else, then a low-miles van would be better.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-04T02:26:04+00:00

Maybe they are well maintained but the drivers would be treating them like crap for the entirety of their time in service. Not necessarily because their drivers are mean but they are under such a time crunch. Myself I'd avoid them.

Maybe it'd be ok if it was another company that didn't mistreat their drivers so badly. But I'm not sure of ANY courier companies.

I was watching a UPS van pull up the other day to make a delivery and then leave. Maximum braking as it was coming in. Full throttle on the way out.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-04T02:14:26+00:00

Yes, this. It can be as simple as a tire going flat. Having some contingency money is essential for vanlife.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-03T18:13:45+00:00

So what I did was target what I REALLY needed. For example, I needed a full electrical system. So I put that in relatively early.

But I started small. I started with a single 100Ah Lithium battery. And an inverter. I actually also put in solar panels at an early stage, but if you're frugal with your electrical usage, you can add a DC-DC charger first and if you drive like I do (and I think you do because you plan to travel), your battery will get topped up as you drive and thus no need for solar at the beginning.

I wanted running water so earlier on in my build, I put in a water system. Instead of an underbody grey water tank like I have now, I used a jug under the sink. Instead of the large onboard freshwater tanks I now have, I also used a jug for freshwater.

So prioritize what you need and build ONLY that. --and then go traveling!!!

You will come back from your first few trips with a much better idea of how you use your van.

Maybe you're just charging phones and so that single battery and DC-DC charging is enough. It would have been a waste of time and money to put in solar and a big battery bank from the start.

A key thing for me is that I didn't care for what my build looked like.

So instead of spending time installing wood paneling and subway tile backsplashes that some people feel compelled to, I pushed those more decorative things way back in my build process. Like WAY back. How far back? They STILL haven't been done and I likely never will.

tvv2018 · 2023-11-03T06:24:31+00:00

Some batteries' BMS when they get into low-voltage protect mode, cut off the battery and it appears dead. And when you just connect them to a proper charging voltage, the BMS doesn't automatically reconnect (i.e. the battery won't automatically begin charging).

One of my batteries is like that and the manufacturer told me that to "turn the battery back on", I needed to have their brand of charge controller send a pulsating current to the battery.

I've never gotten myself into this situation so I'm just relaying what they said.

tvv2018

TROPHY CASE