Just a quick outing today, to this little hill up in the Whisky area. It’s on my list to do for the Eastern Scotland (ES) region, and Fraser, MM0EFI, to get a complete. So he came out too, up another hill nearby, although turned out there were some bigger hills between us and our 2m contact was a bit sketchy. Was a nice walk, easy, and took about an hour to get to the top.
The server had some issue last night, and this morning I see that it’s a problem with the zfs pool. Probably one of the hard drives has failed. I’m probably best turning the computer off.
I don’t really want to buy another hard drive to fix it, in fact I don’t really want to look after a server.
Well I bought another hard drive, but it won’t arrive until Tuesday. Seems good hard drives have long lead times even on Amazon. I’m trying to mount the pool as read only and copy off some things that I want. Most of the stuff on there could be lost and not cause issues. I have photos backed up elsewhere. Might be a few docs that haven’t been sync’d somewhere else though. It’s just going super slow, haven’t even managed to export the pool yet.
Whilst this is going on, I have been thinking about not having a server. Well not having one store stuff or have services that I don’t mind about losing (like Silverbullet or the minecraft server [that no-one plays on]). I came across this, Nextcloud hosting by Hetzner. ~$5/month for 1 TB of Nextcloud. Can even use your own domain. Nextcloud has loads of features too, and apps for every OS. Before I considered iCloud but iCloud not on a mac is horrible. All my photos are 600GB, so I could keep them all on there, as a backup. Probably many of those 600GB are junk photos I don’t need and could be culled. That is going to take forever so unlikely to happen. Nextcloud can also do client side encryption on devices, if you’re worried about things. You can’t see those files on the web of course, but you can set it per folder.
Other things I use the server for are applications. Self-hosted stuff, but do I really need them? (also I’ve thought having a mini-pc on all the time with some apps could be useful). Most of them don’t really matter. Probably AdGuard, Actual Budget (as I’ve been using that) and Plex are the main ones. I’ve since switched to NextDNS, so the interest keeps working even whilst the server doesn’t, and I quite like it, so I might just stick with it. Seems to do what I need. Once I get my data off, I should move ActualBudget to my private apps VPS. Plex (and I have tried JellyFin but I have lifetime plexpass so seems a waste not to use it) is good for stuff I’ve collected over the years, plus a few favourites saved. Admittedly much of it is never watched and could probably go.
I’m talking myself into returning to the server I had about 1-2 years ago, which was a small box with two SSDs in it.
It’s difficult, as pros and cons to it all. Whilst I had the server, I might as well use it, but if the hard drives are going to fail, do I want to buy replacements? They’re all 9 years old, and if one has gone then is it soon until the others? I’ve bought one with the hopes of fixing and then giving myself time to decide. I’ll probably keep it in my main computer as a backup drive if I retire the server.
I used to love selfhosting stuff, but these days I have no interest. As I get older, I want more time, not more chores, and so I’d rather go without or perhaps pay a small amount for something. I used to host Nextcloud, but found it overkill for what I wanted and didn’t like the potential maintenance of it, but if someone else is doing that… It also has a whole app store. Probably not use many of them, but things like the music app is quite nice, as it also uses the subsonic backend so other apps can access it. There’s also the photo management app, Memories. Perhaps I’ll buy a month and test it out. Or just play with the demo.
I thought about using it as an excuse to reorganise all our documents. Perhaps with the Johnny.Decimal system. Nextcloud has a notes app, so I could keep the index there too… Although the JD is maybe too much, and all I really need is to see someone else’s folder categorisation and copy that a little. Nextcloud also has tagging for files, so that adds more dimensions, although I like the idea of leaving it plain to make it useful in a simple file structure as well.
I went to find a photo to add to today and then 30 minutes later I was in folders 20 years ago. This one is literally 20 years ago in 2005, when I went to Greece on some dolphin conservation volunteering thing. It was me, a young couple and an old aussie. We’d go out on a boat each morning and count various things to do with dolphins swimming in the sea. I remember we mostly just wanted to take photos but were meant to be recording stuff. Then we’d come in, have lunch and then do whatever you wanted in the afternoon. This was some tiny island and so there wasn’t much to do. Don’t really remember what I did. We took it in turns to make dinner each night. Think my night was a disaster. I was trying to do dauphinoise potatoes but forgot it was milk and used water…it was interesting. I then got a taxi across to Athens and took the high speed Catamaran to Crete where I met my parents for their holiday. I was sharing tehe taxi with the young couple and they got off on the way. The driver took out all the bags from the boot and drove off. The lady then started shouting at him and he turned around and went back. Turns out he’d taken my bag out as well and left it on the side of the road. In Athens I had to get the bus to Piraeus to get the ferry. Except I couldn’t remember the name of it exactly, and so when buying a ticket I kept saying all sorts of other Greek sounding P words. I managed, and then found the ferry, and met my parents at the other side. I don’t remember what phone I had, but it sure wasn’t a modern iPhone with Maps and 5G.
Someone emailed me today to thank me for my blog post on my radio site about getting a custom amateur radio licence in the UK. It was nice to recieve it, and the guy wanted to get his late wife’s name in his callsign, so it made it feel extra good that I had helped him achieve that. Even though I have posted to that blog in a while - got overwhelmed with writing up trip reports - it’s nice to just leave the content up for others to find. I have tinylytics on that site and each week there’s a small and steady stream of people reading posts.
I’m enjoying the new office layout. I like the corner computer setup, there seems to be more space for it and I like resting my forearms on the desk when typing. But I really like the clean and tidy nature of it. I’ve still not brought anything back in. I’ve probably got space under the desk on the small shelving unit to have a few boxes of things, and that won’t make it look messy. Probably have the camera and lenses in one, and maybe some select items in the other. Otherwise the aim is to keep it clear as possible.
With the new setup, I’ve plugged my headphones into the back of the computer, directly into the sound card. This makes cable management nicer as it comes out from under the monitor and I can leave the headphones on the desk. I’m sure they sound better plugged into the sound card (well it’s onboard the motherboard) directly vs. the header on top of the case. It is one less cable that travels across the computer and potentially picks up interference, or I’m just telling myself that.
I wrote a catch up post on my radio blog about all the SOTA summits I’ve done since I last made a blog post in April this year. It took me a while to do, mostly picking the photos, compressing them, then adding their markdown. It’s a lot easier on this site! Was nice to write up a little summary, plus links to the reflector where the SOTA chat is. Not sure what I’m going to do going forward. It’s much easier to make a little post on here with some photos, but I do quite like keeping them on the radio blog too. Or just add them to the reflector and leave it at that. Adding them there is more useful to others, who might look up routes or even photos of the location to help them plan. Maybe doing the catch up posts, perhaps once every 3 months on my radio blog is a good way of doing it. I suppose I should include more radio details, as mostly it’s just photos and the walk! I was trying to make a template that would load my radio log and plot a map of all the contacts automatically, but it required too many things to work out. Probably easier just to use a mapping site, like this one, and take a screenshot.
Office is back together, and whilst mostly the same, it is slightly different. It’s so neat and tidy, I really don’t want to move all the boxes of things back in. Maybe they can live in the garage? I’ll have to look at what’s in the boxes. There was all sorts of random things on the shelves, which I don’t want to go back, but what am I going to do with them? Part of me thinks I should get rid of a lot of it. Lots of things I keep but never use.
Pleased that I cut the lawn before it rained. Was overdue and would’ve been another week otherwise.
Sister is visiting and we went out to this nice hill which overlooks Braemar. Meant we could have tea and cake afterwards. Plus she wanted to look at the Highland tea towels and other tourist tat. Was pretty windy at the top!
The office is finished but yet to put the furniture back in it. I can tell you that I do not like using a laptop as my only computer, specifically using a laptop as it is - no keyboard, no monitor (I did use a mouse). I like a big monitor. Using the laptop every so often on the sofa or in the kitchen is fine, but only for short periods or one offs. I can’t do anything on the laptop, at least I feel that way. The screen is only enough for one app at a time, maybe two, but not lego train designer and images/videos to look at. It is possible, I just don’t like it, and feel like I’ve not made any progress with what I wanted to do. Although maybe I wouldn’t have made any progress regardless!
This has helped me realise that I should not buy a laptop - macbook, framework, whatever. Aside from already having three thinkpads, it is not worth me getting one. That’s a good thing. Still occasionally think about an iMac 🙈. Also, probably just going to put the office back how it was, may move the main computer from the edge of the corner of the L to being across the diagonal. Have to see how the space works out, but hope it’ll be more efficient with the desk.
I’m also trying to optimise the Lego setup too much. Think I’m going to go for a somewhat arbitrary big square “with a tail” that’s in front of one window. That way we can still keep the other stuff in there. It could be made bigger later but it’ll be fine for now. Plus the fun part is building, and so I don’t want it perfect for one build, I want it open enough to accommodate different ideas. Just need to see if it’s multiple IKEA tables or if I’m doing the self build option. Still like tables better for the future rearrangement options. I’ll price it out and see.
All the parts to make the super big TGV have arrived. Still having second thoughts about it, but extra Lego parts isn’t really a big deal. So we’ll build them both and see.
All those Trixbrix pieces just add more combinations and permutations that make it even harder to figure out what to do.
The Horizon Express sets arrived. After being annoyed about import duties, I was surprised to find a 9V train motor in one of them. That’s a £50 piece on its own. So that was a nice surprise. Plus a 9V setup was on my plan. Somewhere.
Also feel like I’ve forgotten what I was trying to achieve and starting design tracks that aren’t that. Although, for what I want to achieve, I think I’ll need a massive space, so maybe I have to pick lots of track or scenery. I’m stuck in a bit of a chicken and egg situation, between layouts and surface area. I want to know how big a track layout is, to see what surface I need but I also have somewhat fixed dimensions of surface. I was just a bit all over the place.
The office redecorating is coming along nicely. Should think about the office layout too. Thinking maybe one screen per computer and having three areas but spaced out. Also moving the main desktop to the corner area, and putting the radios under the monitor. Won’t really know until I start to try it but seems silly to not use the custom fit worktops that we already have.
I found Mattzo Brick’s website, and realised the huge number of options if I get into 3rd party tracks, specifically from Trixbrix. I like that they’ve added all the custom tracks to Bluebrick but now I have no idea what to make. I did start collecting images from online of various layouts for inspiration. What I should probably do is figure out the tables and layout arrangement and then see what I can fit on it. I like that the Trixbrix makes it seem possible to fit more on a narrower table, so should be able to get in two loops, plus stations or sidings. Trixbrix also sell bridges, whicch are probably cheaper than building a technic bridge myself - although not as Lego-satisfying.
Also found that Mattzo Brick;s website includes custom controllers, firmware, software and signals and all sorts. Basically, like a real model train set has. This is a lot, but I’m glad it exists. I suspect once I build a layout, I’ll get a bit bored of it - as it’s never going to be a full room size with so many routes. However, with signals and control systems, then you can do more with it. Part of me is hesitant though - it’s not “real Lego” but real lego doesn’t offer a great deal - colour detection, for moving/stopping/reversing trains when they see a certain coloured block (which is quite neat, and could be useful for a back and forth train), and maybe motorising switch points, so you can build a control console but I don’t think there’s much else that can be done with stock stuff.
Up until this point, I’d been using random keyboards from Amazon or I don’t know where. Somehow I ended up on /r/mechanicalkeyboards and decided I needed one. It dread to think how many hours I spent reading, researching and determining what I should buy. In the end I asked for this for my birthday in 2013 - The Poker 2. I liked the compact nature of it, and Cherry MX Browns sounded a good compromise between clicky and linears and “ideal for gaming”.
It’s time to paint the office! 🎨 Which means dismantling all the computers and radios, and pulling everything out. There are so many cables. Seems like the opportune time to sort it out™️. That does mean deciding what it’s being sorted out to.
In the interim, I’ve setup the worktops I use as desks in the playroom and setup a Lego train loop on it. They’re a little bit narrow for the loop but with a few baseplates I can manage the overhang. There isn’t enough space for two full loops but one main loop plus a couple of switch tracks for smaller ones. I also setup a similar loop underneath the table so another train can run down there. Here’s a little video of them running on it:
I am pleased that BlueBrick runs on linux without a song and dance of Wine (which is what the internet said it needed). Just need to install mono-devel and run it with mono. It’s a bit of a funny piece of software but it’s good for figuring out track layouts. I’m sure I can put shapes for tables or room layouts in it somehow. I’ve forgotten how to use it since last time. I was thinking about building a lego table with plywood etc. but I wonder if a collection of IKEA tables would be cheaper/better. At least with them I can dismantle in pieces and reuse elsewhere or sell/give away individual units if things change. The only thing is I’m stuck with fixed dimensions (or three tables sizes to use). I did want to make a little gap where you could pop up in the middle, as I thought that would be fun - that would require custom made, unless I’m doing a super huge layout (which I’m not). The other thing with the IKEA tables is that they’d have a nice finish, all be exactly the same height and could allow for new layouts in the future. I’ll make a design I want to do, see how big it is and then decide what’s best.
I still can’t believe how many things were in the office. When I took it all out, except the last table by the window, I did think about just having one desk in there, with one monitor and one computer, then using the rest of the space to have an arm chair for reading or listening to music (probably on headphones). It certainly wouldn’t feel cluttered. I could still fit in the printer and radios, either on the desk or on the little shelf thing I have sitting under it. All the rest of the surface is just there to gather stuff. The only downside would be the monitor being in front of the window, and blocking the light a little. Unless it’s off to one side. Although arm chairs are always bigger than they seem, and we have lots of seating elsewhere. I dunno, would just like it to be a little less cluttered. Maybe keep the desktop all the way round but just one computer, or rearrange things. Perhaps I’ll sketch out a few options and see what I think. Torn between one computer to minimise it and all the computers.
Came across this guy’s website which is thousands of photos of UK trains from mid-70s to today. I don’t take trains much these days, but used to take them fairly often growing up, so the 90s ones bring back memories. I’ve thought about making some of these trains in lego, which isn’t a new thing as others have done that. Most of them aren’t that recognisable, except maybe the intercity 125 or 90.
I didn’t really think about it before ordering, but I had to pay import duties on the lego trains I bought from a German bricklink store. It made them go from reasonably priced to not, so that was disappointing. Especially as it would’ve bought a vintage 9V set that I was thinking of starting to build up a collection for. Also I’m worried the custom design is going to be too big. I can just make it the normal train but I’ve bought all these other pieces! I’ll make it and see.
Trying to research some layout and build ideas for the Lego table. Most of the content is in YouTube videos, so I’ve been screenshotting them and using kinopio to keep a montage. I should make some layouts to see what might fit. Lego stock track has quite a large radius, so circles and loops take up a lot of space.
A lovely day out in the mountains. I’ve done these two before - Ben Macdui (UK’s second highest mountain) and Carn a’Mhaim, but I wanted to do the walk via Derry Cairngorm - another munro but not SOTA summit. The weather was lovely, but it was incredibly windy, and at some points it was hard to stand up! Another couple were out and managed some VHF contacts with them, and then two folks from Portland, OR - who are keen SOTA activators over there - are on holiday here and popped up on a nearby hill top.
This one is from 2016. Think I found it whilst browsing deskthority and the guy was selling PCBs for $30 or something cheap, so of course I bought it. I liked the idea of trying out alps switches, vs. the usual cherry mx ones I had been using. Alps were common on older Apple keyboards, and I’d found an ebay listing for a couple of Apple Extended Keyboards (AEK). One of which I was going to try and use as is and the other I dismantled to get the alps switches out.
This VS Code plugin for micro.blog looks very interesting. It would mean there’s finally an app for Windows, and the ability to manage files locally as well as online, and with the apps. Admittedly, I don’t really mind using the web app or the iOS ones to add content. Using the web app means I have two tabs, one for uploads (to add photos and get the html) and one for writing the post. Or my phone to upload some photos, and then the browser to edit.
I’m now thinking about the possibility of building a lego table at home. Something custom to fit in the space, ideally with a couple of layers, and, if I can, a little opening on the other side so you can climb under the table and then pop up on the other side for access. I think the kids will like that, and if there’s an “underground” section. If the train can access multiple layers that would be good too, but don’t think they can manage too much gradient and so that could end up being too big. Probably just have upper and lower loops. Going to measure out the space and then collect some ideas from others setups. I’d previously thought about buying a few ikea tables and putting them together but they limit the size and shape.
I’m also worried this TGV train is going to be way too big 😅
I’m back in deep with Lego trains again. I blame myself. Last time I left it, I’d decided I’d spent enough on them and to leave it be. Well now that it’s been a while, it seems okay to start spending again. This time it’s two discontinued sets plus another 1,300 pieces from bricklink to build a huge TGV… I still have my models and designs for the Maersk train in another colour. I might relook at those to validate I’ve got the right pieces in that. In the meantime, I’ll watch videos of Youtubers showing off their ridiculous collection of trains. That will in no way whatsoever make me want to get more…
I also remember wanting more switch junctions, but I forget which way. Might design some track layouts and then see what I need for that.
Let’s continue with the Apple keyboards for now. This one is most ubiquitous and there are probably absolutely thousands of them about. This is the one I bought to use with the mac mini, instead of the older A1048. It and the trackpad were pretty cheap off ebay. I actually really like this keyboard. It’s a good size, keeps your hands in a nice position and not too much reaching for the mouse or trackpad, and the butterfly switches are so light to use.
Over the years I’ve bought and sold Mac computers. I do enjoy using macOS and the Apple hardware is alway very nice. However, I struggle to justify new models, and so go with older ones, only to get annoyed with their performance or lack of latest OS. Plus I have too many computers already, so I really don’t need anymore! A common purchase (and later sell) is the Mac Mini. 2021 saw me buy a 2012 mac mini server, which I upgraded with SSDs and maxed out the ram.
After having found a cd wallet of my wife’s CDs in the cupboard, I’ve been enjoying Eyes Open album by Snow Patrol again. No wonder it was the UK’s best selling album of 2006.
I’m pleased Apple’s EDU store promo up’d the Airpod Pros to the new version. Technically getting the black keyboard is the best value, as it’s the most expensive free item at £199, but the air pods would be more useful. Although not sure how comfortable I’d be wearing £220 ear buds. Plus you still have to pay £50 when getting a macbook air. All this is redundant as I’m not buying one. 👀
Spent all day pressure washing the driveway. Amazing just how dirty it was. Still need to weed some patches and then fill in the sand. Plus I think I got better as I used it, and so the first part I started with isn’t quite as good as the rest.
I have 143 games on my Epic account. I’ve paid for none of them, they’re all freebies from the periodic promos they do since 2020. I’ve also played none of them, but when I see new free ones appear, I still “buy” them. Long gone are the days where you and your friend would save up money and buy a single computer game (in a box from a shop) and then play it for the next 3 months as there was nothing else.