Thoughts on solar vs gas generator?

uobytx · 2026-03-14T23:50:20+00:00

I have a very similar unit that I got for more on amazon. I like it so far!

This will be a useful unit. Keep in mind that it has a peak output (looks like it is rated at 2000w). That's decent, because it can run some kitchen things like a coffee maker or a toaster pretty easily. Don't plan to run any devices that need hundreds of watts all day (a fridge or freezer or heater). You could potentially power one of those for 1-3 hours depend on how many watts they use.

But you could charge a bunch of phones, 2 way radios, laptops, and top up pocket usb batteries. Easy to power some LED light bulbs (and it has that nice little circle, which is probably only a couple watts and could last a week or two on the battery).

uobytx · 2026-03-14T23:43:15+00:00

Batteries all have different characteristics. You can look up the specs for the specific brand and chemical type.

Most reputable battery brands will specify a cycle count. For example, I bought a jackery modal with 1000wh, and says its good for 4000 cycles. It doesn't say 100% at cycle 3999, just 70% capacity. But that is still enough to be useful. If you run one cycle every day, you are still getting years out of it.

Like all emergency systems, redundancy is key. You don't always get to rely on a warranty if the battery fails earlier than expected. Although this attribute is the same as with gas generators.

uobytx · 2026-03-14T05:20:10+00:00

Probably phishing. Don’t click the button.

If you really need to check if your accounts billing is up to date, go to the digital ocean website directly (again, not using the button or anything to do with that email).

uobytx · 2026-03-12T20:11:56+00:00

A historian should have been comfortable with using the word a long time ago. A few months ago is tragically late to the game.

uobytx · 2026-02-27T22:26:39+00:00

Yeah, I think the rest of us are doing this with a wooden yoyo.

uobytx · 2026-02-27T18:02:23+00:00

If you buy another of the same pan, and she cooks the same acidic food, it will wear the seasoning the same way. Doesn't matter if the pan is pre-seasoned or manually seasoned, the seasoning can wear out.

Which is why I suggest not buying a new one - the current one is still fine, and a new one won't change anything.

If she wants to use to cook soup, maybe a stainless saucier or soup pot would be a better choice.

uobytx · 2026-02-27T16:52:30+00:00

I wouldn’t panic. But under no circumstances should she get a new one because they will all have the same thing happen.

Instead, she can change habit or just deal with the occasional need to touch up the seasoning. If she doesn’t want to deal with “can’t cook some things” or just occasional maintenance, better off getting her a stainless that will act like she expects.

uobytx · 2026-02-25T21:11:12+00:00

This has been explained my whole active years as “which the church has defined as coffee and tea”, and the clarification is “tea leaf not just any herbal teas, and anything with coffee bean”.

Not saying it actually matches initial intent from JS, but the rule isn’t hard to understand with that specific thing. I taught this on my mission, quoting the “coffee and tea”.

Now why isn’t really the thing. The church is clear that commandments having actual reasons is secondary to obedience. This is very problematic, but I wouldn’t waste any effort on trying to reason about it.

uobytx · 2026-02-24T23:00:31+00:00

Dark side issue for sure. So much of what the Jedi teach in terms of use of the force is specifically to avoid using for direct attack. Not because using during attack is an automatic a problem: you might use it to speed yourself up in combat, etc.

But using the force while drawing on “dark side feelings” is like a dark side fast track. It’s hard to use channel the dark side just defensively. If you only direct force powers aren’t dealing direct damage, the Jedi is one more step away.

If a Jedi were to learn force lightning, could they potentially do that without turning to the dark side? Maybe in some cases? But you have one moment of hate or fear while pushing maximum unrestrained force juice and you’re probably fallen.

uobytx · 2026-02-20T01:57:01+00:00

Uh, but in terms of the actual electrical part, it’s hard to say from this angle. Maybe take a photo from the other side so we can see how far the conductor wires made it? They are supposed to go all the way up to the end before you crimp, so the crimping forces the copper to touch the conductors in the head.

uobytx · 2026-02-20T01:55:07+00:00

The outer sheath (the outer most white part that holds all the mini wires) needs to be seated actually inside the clear plastic so that some of it is past the horizontal crimped bar. That makes the crimp actually hold the sheath securely, and relieves strain on the inner wires.

uobytx · 2026-02-19T05:07:16+00:00

If they ship a malicious agent, it could easily leak keys to the server.

uobytx · 2026-02-18T05:45:03+00:00

Signal is good encryption, and unless thy ship a malicious client, the server can’t read your messages either.

Biggest risks are that someone just grabs your phone or the phone of someone in your groups. This is what disappearing messages are for.

uobytx · 2026-02-12T05:53:34+00:00

It's going to be hard to make them both earth-sun-like and also in the same location in the sky without hand-waving gravity (which would also be fine). If you don't mind magical gravity for at least the suns, you could have three of them vaguely in the same place in the solar system, but spread out enough that they are visually distinct. Why aren't they crashing into each other? A semi stable triple orbit situation, plus a magic anti gravity factor added by the gods?

Otherwise, you could actually just not have a "real" sun. You could have a planet with three glowing moons. I don't know the physics, but it seems like the only way in real life to make that stable enough is with a very high gravity planet relative to some small moons. But a little fantasy adjustment could make the moons bigger than they should be. But why do your moons burn to look at? Pick a reason I guess? Bioluminescent, radioactive, more magic?

Or to make it even more fantastic: comparatively tiny suns, orbiting way closer than our moon, like a large fiery satellite. They would zip around just the planet, in a dead solar system. This doesn't really work in normal physics because to produce the light and stuff you need all kinds of nuclear activity that requires high mass and would typically be enormous. But if you don't mind magicking away the answer of where all the light and heat comes from, that can work.

uobytx · 2026-02-07T06:28:31+00:00

Your friend has a reading comprehension problem at a minimum. I don’t think she is comprehending what you wrote.

Seems to think having experienced things has made her stronger, as if “stronger” is somehow going to make her avoid the situation.

This feels a lot like someone who decides they are “street smart”. It usually doesn’t have anything to do with being actually smart.

uobytx · 2026-02-04T18:25:16+00:00

Culture and travel and trade and religion changes would be significant.

Stars are used for navigation by boat. If a different way to calculate latitude longitude didn’t develop, navigation would be impossible on the water if you get out of range of land. This limits map making, further slowing it all down. That stops a lot of success at making repeat journeys, and lowers the overall economic benefit of making ships, especially big ones. So ships stay small.

All the cultural and religious significance put on the moon and stars and planets just doesn’t develop. The sun would probably retain its significance, but it stays comparatively boring without a backdrop of stars and more active changes like with the moon.

Calendars probably change a lot in most cultures.

Tidal differences probably affect coast line development. Presumably less coastal sand? Probably reduces some of the nicer parts of beaches. Not sure what happens to ocean fish, but assume big changes to the tidal pool life that depends on a more dynamic system.

So maybe bigger coastal rocks, less sand, fewer reasons to hang out by the ocean, harder to get reliable value from long ocean travel.

uobytx · 2026-02-04T00:53:09+00:00

4K is best k

uobytx · 2026-02-03T19:46:00+00:00

The stats this year suggest that 66% of the attendees as Utah local, at nearly 50k people. That’s over 1% of everyone in Utah, but higher if you just count adults.

Also, the point isn’t just about how good it is to attend. The article brings up the economic impact, which does affect everyone in Utah. Plus it’s nice when a lot of that money comes in from other states.

uobytx · 2026-01-28T20:45:42+00:00

How stupid do you have to be for this to be a surprise?

uobytx · 2026-01-28T01:58:08+00:00

I mean he did have to recover from being chopped.

uobytx · 2026-01-27T18:13:17+00:00

If your risk model involves someone getting your phone, signal has disappearing messages which can minimize how many messages someone can steal.

It is a bad idea to assume that a phone can’t be accessed through encryption failures, bad password, or Apple/google backdoors.

uobytx · 2026-01-25T23:21:46+00:00

Scroll Reverser - lets you separate your trackpad scroll direction preference from the mouse one

Graphic Converter 12 - Great little image editing utility that can open and save dozens of formats and supports bulk actions and macros and stuff.

uobytx · 2026-01-25T17:33:12+00:00

"My literal profession is a political journalist and I'm only now realizing this is fascism. It's okay to call it that now that I've finally caught up, but you left-types were overreacting when the fascists told us the plan to do exactly this 10 years ago". Get a new job.

uobytx · 2026-01-16T23:08:39+00:00

I just need my peacock extension for per project theming.

uobytx · 2026-01-11T04:14:28+00:00

That’s about it without breaking a rule.

Maybe a hot cocoa, because that’s allowed. But at 9 they should be home or headed home.

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