@jamesholden@mas.to
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

jamesholden

@jamesholden@mas.to

Husband/Dad of three+doge. Old school geek, maker and tinkerer. Based in #Leeds. I'm into #3Dprinting, DIY #drones, #RetroComputing, #photography (particularly black and white developing and printing). Sometimes these hobbies collide and combine in interesting ways. Films and all kinds of music, low budget audio and home cinema. I still buy vinyl and the occasional CD. Cycle commuter. Send me your #borderCollie pictures!

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coldclimate, to random
@coldclimate@hachyderm.io avatar

Geeks, any thoughts on home mesh kit?

  • I don't want anything that has a SAAS component/subscription to it
  • I've a 3 bed semi - does not need to smash through lots of walls
  • Ideally the mesh points would hve USb so I can power other things off them and reduce my plug us.

What's all this 4/5/6/7 stuff about?

Follow up - is this article https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-mesh-router,review-5191.html full of shit of should I just buy their best value recommendation the TP-Link Deco XE75?

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@coldclimate I wouldn't touch mesh wifi to be honest. It adds latency and reduces throughput. I have UniFi access points hard wired in and they work very well. Same setup as we have in the day job office. Two APs would be sufficient in a 3 bed semi. My AC-PRO access points only support wifi 4 and 5, but that's adequate for most situations unless you have gigabit Internet.

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@coldclimate Gigabit internet and no Ethernet port on the router?! That's bonkers!

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@coldclimate Oh I see. I ran as much cabling as possible during lockdown, so quite a lot of things are on Ethernet now. It was quite a pain to do but very much worth it. All the access points and CCTV cameras are on PoE now, all cabled back to a small rack in the utility room.

revk, to random
@revk@toot.me.uk avatar

This is more like it.
Even with washing machine and tumble drier we still net exported yesterday.
Bring on the sun!

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@revk Yesterday was very good here too, 32.9kWh although I think we have fewer panels. We exported quite a bit, but also imported at a lower cost during the night due to Octopus Agile and the load shifting script I wrote to minimise cost. Overall net cost for the day was 20p for 35kWh consumed, with approx 4kWh left in the battery at midnight.

jamesholden, to BelieveInFilm
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

Some shots from the roll I developed on Sunday

jamesholden, to BelieveInFilm
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

Some shots from the roll I developed on Sunday

ctietze, to php
@ctietze@mastodon.social avatar

A question for more experienced #PHP developers than me:

We have this setup where all requests go through a PHP script for authorization (think: cookie) checking before serving files.

That's fine with HTML, but less ideal for 5MB PDFs.

I'm trying to search for ways to use PHP to allow/deny access, but otherwise let the web server (Apache) do its job.

Is there such a facility to rewrite requests for auth, but then go on serve the static files?

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@ctietze If the PDFs are in S3, you could have your PHP generate a signed URL and redirect the user to it, which will authenticate them directly with AWS to get the file.

foone, to random
@foone@digipres.club avatar

I ran into a bug in a program but logging is off. I'll just enable logging and run it again, surely I'll quickly run into the same bug again, it'll definitely reoccur!

Behold, a fool.

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@foone One of the test automation QA engineers at work once told me that most of her job was inserting delays so the tests work properly.

jamesholden, to solar
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

Yesterday I let my bot manage the inverter charging and discharging for the entire day. It did quite well! Our entire electricity demand was met for less than zero cost with solar and automated load shifting on the Octopus Agile tariff. #solar #renewables #solarpower

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@bazcurtis Also, what app is that in the screenshot? I’m a dev so I just wrote my own obviously 🫠

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@bazcurtis I wrote this a couple of days ago. The battery levels are projections based on pricing and historical data. It just finished boosting the battery because it was cheap rates. If I’d screenshotted it half an hour ago it would have had a 🪫icon.

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@bazcurtis Battery level shown here is the forecasted charge level, simplified to an icon. If it shows the lightning bolt, it intends to charge at that time. It forecasts taking into account the price, expected demand, and a solar forecast based on weather and time of year/day. Then decides on a threshold price that it will charge at. Currently working on a 12 hour sliding window.

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@bazcurtis Also I do need to look into Home Assistant. Most of my smart home stuff is in that janky Tuya app but I can’t do everything I want in it.

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@bazcurtis Haven’t got a clue. It’s a Solax one. I’m quite happy with my own bit so far, as it has an idea of our own specific load profile, which I might make dynamic based on historical data.

analog_cafe, to webdev
@analog_cafe@mas.to avatar

So #UPS wants a payment + brokerage fees for import dues. Fair.

Unfortunately, their website won't take my payment unless I create an account. Sucks, but terrible web service is a corporate standard in 2024 so I proceed.

The website will not create my account. The UI does nothing (not even an error message). The browser console shows an endless stream of errors and messy log messages. The page is 17MB in size.

Had to resolve this via phone call (x4), like it's 1984.

#webdev 😱

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@analog_cafe Interesting here in the UK, only Royal Mail is legally entitled to charge a customs handling fee. UPS and others cannot. But they still do, pointing to their terms and conditions. However, as a recipient, you are not obliged to agree to the T&Cs. If you argue enough they will refund it.

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@analog_cafe oh I’m not implying that it’s a regular thing that people do. I think @revk managed it once.

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Bailed after 45 minutes of #TheHoldovers.

It seemed to just be Dead Poets / Breakfast Club / Every other boarding school & detention movie.

Does it actually become interesting? Or is it just ➡️acting!⬅️?

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@Edent I enjoyed it. Yes it has a slow start, but it’s a decent enough film for when you don’t want anything too complicated.

exador23, to random
@exador23@m.ai6yr.org avatar

seems legit.

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@mansr @revk @exador23 I honestly thought I'd see everything that audiophiles get up to. This one's new to me, they really are mental aren't they?

cstross, (edited ) to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

The Nvidia DGX GB200 server of 2024 consumes 120kW of power, about the same as the Cray-1 supercomputer of 1975. The Cray-1 cost $7.9M and ran at 160 MFLOPS. The GB200 runs at 1.44 exaFLOPS, or roughly ten billion times the power. But you can network 8 of these racks together, and AWS is building Project Ceiba around 20,736 of the CPUs (there are 72 CPUs per DGX server rack).

10 billion times more performance per watt, in 49 years.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/21/nvidia_dgx_gb200_nvk72/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-1

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@cstross 10 billion times in 49 years? That’s almost spot on for Moore’s law.

Edent, to privacy
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “What the UK Government gets wrong about QR codes”

One of my most memorable experiences in the Civil Service1 was discussing link shortening services with a very friendly2 person from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I was trying to explain why link shortners like bit.ly and ow.ly weren't sensible for Government use. They didn't …

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/what-the-uk-government-gets-wrong-about-qr-codes/
⸻
.uk

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@Edent Ah yes, we had a near-incident at $dayjob when the URL shortener that marketing were using to direct users to the correct iOS/Android app store inserted a deceptive interstitial ad, which tricked people into signing up for a scammy online entertainment package. We weren't the only ones, a few of the parking app companies had the same problem.

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@Edent Example: https://www.trustpilot.com/reviews/64c82be7186d976162efc02d

louisa_, to random
@louisa_@mastodon.social avatar

Spent the afternoon in Lincoln. @johnl was joyous to come across a shop selling random old RAF electronics and we both enjoyed spotting cats in windows & around the cathedral (though all were inaccessible). There was an amazing sunset but my camera refused to capture the colours at all accurate so here's a pic of its reflection on a wall instead.

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@louisa_ @JohnL Oh, you found Birkett’s! It’s been there years. John Birkett passed away a few years back, but I think his daughter runs it now.

skinnylatte, to random
@skinnylatte@hachyderm.io avatar

One of the reasons I very much dislike some of the anti-progressive candidates running for elections this year, is that for the entire six months they were campaigning to recall Chesa, their (not Asian) campaigners were yelling at ME outside Trader Joe’s constantly and telling ME I was anti-Asian for not wanting to recall Chesa. So the ‘lean into AAPI race politics and make it conservative’ angle is very obvious to me

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@skinnylatte It’s the conservative mindset in a nutshell. The solutions are obvious, but they involve looking objectively and compassionately at the problem. For example, Finlands way of dealing with homelessness; give people homes. Conservatives can’t grasp that, never will.

Edent, to eink
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “eInk Display for Octopus's Agile Energy Tariff”

I'm a little bit obsessed with building eInk displays. They're pretty cheap second hand. They're low energy, passive displays, with good-enough performance for occasional updates. Here's a new one which shows me what the current cost of my electricity is: Background After installing solar panels, a …

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/12/eink-display-for-octopuss-agile-energy-tariff/
⸻

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@Edent I do like the e-ink but Mrs H wanted something more accessible from her phone, so I built a simple HTML status page to show the pricing and charge strategy my bot is planning. Ignore any battery status more than 12 hours out, I’m experimenting with the time window it uses for forecasting. https://jamesholden.net/power.html

Edent, to Energy
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

1 year of @edent_solar. We are 100% offset!

Our domestic solar panels have generated more electricity in a year than we have consumed.

We installed 5kW of solar panels on our roof in 2020. Half are East-facing, half West-facing.

Over a full year, they've generated 4,165kWh.

By comparison, the average UK household uses about 3,800kWh of electricity per year.

But

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/03/1-year-of-edent_solar-we-are-100-offset/

#/etc/ #electricity #energy #power #solar

jamesholden,
@jamesholden@mas.to avatar

@Edent Our generation in 2023 was similar to yours - 3641kWh, on a slightly smaller system up in Leeds with a south-east facing roof. However our power usage is significantly higher than average as we have fully electric cooking, three teenagers all gaming, two people working from home, and a hot tub. But yes, for an average home, solar is very viable.

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