#future-plans — Public Fediverse posts

So.

Power tools for ants. Let's think about this. Many creatures such as snakes, rats and others will learn to drive or operate other machines. So what kind of machines could we make for ants?

I think bull ants might be good candidates since they are naturally curious and have good eyesight.

#ants #dreambig #futurePlans

Chinwag Tomorrow

Mike here! How’s it going? You good?

I usually write Chinwag “official” posts in a bit of an abstracted and formal third-person form, but this time we’re going to pull up a chair in front of a fire and have a little chat instead. See, I kind of let it drift by without comment at the time, but Chinwag, as a project, is ten years old as of last month.

The reason that milestone got to go silently past is that Chinwag today is really not the same thing as Chinwag then. Initially it was a domain I picked up on a whim to use as an example deployment as part of a tutorial series on running an XMPP messaging service. Today, the anniversary I really keep track of is the start of Chinwag Social becoming part of the fediverse – that’ll be eight years as of this December.

So I didn’t think it worth making a big deal at the time, but it’s certainly led me to doing a lot of thinking along the lines of “Well, if Chinwag isn’t what it once was, what will it be next? What the hell is it now?” and so forth.

I’ve used taglines like “communication for humans” and “find your flock” to fill in blank spaces in templates for a while now, and it’s kind of my vibe, but fundamentally Chinwag is a selection of services that I need to exist, personally, and it doesn’t add much work to open them up to others that need them as well. One thing I need is social and messaging services that don’t elevate my anxiety and demand space in my brain with incessant notifications. Simple, right? By deploying my own sites for this, I’ve got a degree of control that’s impossible without it.

I’ve got the skills for this, which is great. I know not many others do, so you’re welcome to piggyback on my stuff if you value the same things, for sure.

I guess my main thing is not exerting pressure to engage. I don’t notify anyone if there’s nothing to say, I won’t manufacture engagement, I won’t put users in a Skinner Box and sell access to advertisers. I just won’t, because that bullshit fries my brain big time and I’m so much better since I cut those other big sites out of my life.

I also won’t email you if we haven’t seen you log in for a while, and I won’t threaten to purge accounts if they don’t meet some activity threshold. If you only have something to say once every five years, your accounts will be here, as you left them, until you decide to delete anything.

Of course, all this means I’m terrible at marketing and user retention.

What’s next then?

More of the same? I don’t know, but that’s why I’m writing this, to explore some ideas and float possibilities for feedback. Things will likely potter along as they are for quite some time, there’s no reason to do otherwise. However, it is an investment in time and money and both always seem to have a lot of other demands on them besides all this technology stuff.

I wish Chinwag was my job. I wish I could give it the attention that it deserves and that I want to give it, but it’s hard. If there’s a way to leap forward to a point between here and some kind of larger scale thing I’d jump in a heartbeat, but I can’t do the work required for that and the work required to avoid being crushed to death by the boots of capitalism.

There’s also a big blob of uncertainty around mandatory age verification that’s looming over us all, given the complete lack of any details or specifics around what’s required, and required from whom. Free, independent services in other countries have shut down over this kind of stuff, but I would like to say that despite making light of age verification in the past, I am going to fight like hell to do whatever’s needed to stay in the game.

I’m also going to add a couple more services, tentatively, in the near future. Things I need, personally, but that may also be helpful to others. It’s a model that’s worked out so far, in terms of not being an undue mental burden to maintain while working full-time in a day job.

I’d like to hear from you as well, the Chinwag user or potential user. What’s missing from your life that maybe I can help with? I’m considering outright offering paid services for people but this comes with support needs and service levels that may be hard to meet alone, if I’m not on it full time, so it’s hard to find good fits.

If you think me, Mike, is a person who should be working more on this then you can always support Chinwag financially like many fine people already do! At the moment we run at a bit of a loss, but if that ever tipped to a point where it wasn’t I’d be picking up pace quite a bit.

Over to you, folks. I’m going to go finally merge in that Mastodon update from a few weeks back and make sure our house is in order to incorporate 4.4.0 when it releases.

#birthday #FuturePlans #mastodon

I can always tell I've entered a new phase of my life when the answer to, "What would you do if you could retire today?" changes.

The answer is now, "I'd write updated editions of important programming books."

#Books #Writing #WebDev #Programming #HTML #Ruby #Rails #LifePhases #RetirementDreams #TechBooks #Writing #CareerEvolution #KnowledgeSharing #LifelongLearning #TechIndustry #BookUpdates #FuturePlans

NAS updates and drive stuff

So, the first of my 16TB hard drives have arrived to be used in my new NAS, so I still need to get 3-5 more, depending on how I want to handle things; if I want to do g for RAID5, I’ll probably go with a total of 4 drives minimum to replicate my old (4 bay) NAS setup. If I want to do RAID6, I’d need a minimum of 4 drives, but would want to have 5, with both setups leaving me with 48TB of storage, which is 4 times that of my old NAS as it’s configured! I imagine that 48TB should be a decent chunk of data to be working with, although maxing out the bays and using RAID6 would give me 64GB, which does offer double redundancy! As for the cost of the drives, I got this first one (an X18 Exos drive) via an eBay offer of £193.50, which is a significant discount compared to the £215 normally asked for!

I figured I’d need up to a total of 6 months to get all the drives if I buy one a month, and try and get the best prices for the drives. I also have 2 1TB WD Blues (SN580 if I recall correctly) that will be acting as cache drives, with the option of adding 2 more later if I want, though maybe I should actually keep an eye out for 2TB SSDs for the future, as having 4x 2TB SSDs – sticking with the WD Blues unless I find a cheaper supported SSD – sounds like a better idea, as then I’d have 8TB of cache to match the 64TB. Of course, to facilitate that, I’d also need to have heatsinks for each drive too, as it’s required by the NAS to have that. I also need to update the firmware as it’s a later ADM version that supports the Blues.

As for the overall costs of everything… Well, that’s definitely significant! This is what I’ve paid so far:

• Asustor Lockerstor 6 Gen2 AS6706T: ~£850 (paid)
• 2x WD Blues/SN580: ~£103.98 (paid)
• 2x ELUTENG SSD heatsinks: ~£11.18 (paid)
• 1x Seagate Exos X18 16TB (): £193.50 (paid)
• Total Paid: £1158.66

And these are my current estimated prices, based on what I would pay to buy them right now, for the stuff I need:

• 2x ELUTENG SSD heatsinks: ~£21.98 (waiting for sale)
• 2x WD Blues (SN580): £113.96 (waiting for sale)
• 5x Seagate Exos X16/X18 16TB HDDs: ~£1250 (monitoring prices)
• Total: £1385.94

I will note that when I do purchase additional items from the above list, I will update the prices I paid accordingly as I’ll probably pay for a few things at a time when it comes to the cheaper items, but this is why I need to buy things over a number of months! I’ll probably deploy RAID6 on the NAS just so I can use it because even with 32TB, it’s still not going to be filled up with everything I’d want to put on it, so I can gradually expand it at the very least! I do also need to recover the data from my old NAS array to put on the new one, but I need to get a 12TB drive to access that data! I’m also going to need to find the 4x SATA to USB adapters and USB hub I bought, so I know where they are, as they need to be with my portable archival station PAS!

I do also have a pair of HDD docking stations with 2 bays that I plan to setup at my desk later; I actually bought one with a card reader to go with one of the two I got at auction that don’t have a card reader at the front, because it’ll save me on space. The idea with using those docking stations is to setup the old array within them, and hopefully (when I can find it again) I can use the third one for my new array if I ever need to do so. The card reader bit is especially important as it means I will constantly have a card reader available, because it saves space! One issue though is that Linux is needed to access the array, which is a major reason why my PAS will be using it as its main OS. I do also want to get a USB adapter that would let me connect a 1541 drive to it too, but I am also getting a non-USB X1541 cable to use with my Toshiba Satellite Pro 4200/4300 Series with a crap screen just in case the USB method doesn’t work for some reason at the time!

I forget if I ever mentioned why the screen is crap; it has a passive matrix rather than active matrix screen, which is a damn shame because it would otherwise have been a perfect retro gaming laptop, as it has decent specs otherwise, including a DOS-supported sound chip, an OPL3, which is extremely important for running DOS games! Additionally, it has an 8MB S3 Savage/IX card (if I recall correctly) which will be powerful enough for most, if not all DOS games, and at least some early Win9x games too. Additionally, it has both parallel and serial ports, which can be pretty essential for certain applications. It might fall a bit short with games like Unreal Tournament, but by that point, you’d be fine running an XP based machine with a more powerful GPU anyway!

The best way I can compare it is that it’s basically a Toshiba Portegé 3440CT with parallel and serial ports (it has neither), and a sound chip that will work under DOS with no tweaks or extra software needed. Truth be told, I need to revisit the 3440CTs and the 3110CTs to see if you can enable the sound cards to work in DOS as they were aimed at Windows. All 3 of these model sets are capable of running Windows 98 SE and also XP, though as the 3110CTs have a Mobile Pentium II CPU, you’d probably be better off running XP on the other 2, as they use Pentium IIIs or Celerons based on that architecture. You do also have a single USB port on all of them as far as I know, if that’s useful at all. They also have dual PC Card slots as well, so adding a parallel or serial port to the Portegés isn’t a problem, though you are best off adding those to the top one to keep the bottom one clear for a card without a big thing sticking out the end!

Of course, with the parallel and serial cards, it’s one or the other and not both unless you manage to source a docking station, but at that point, you probably will have those ports (and maybe even a game and Ethernet port) anyway! I haven’t delved too much into the Portegés beyond compiling their specs into a spreadsheet along with other Toshiba models, but that’s been left incomplete for years at this point! That said though, if anyone wants to see the unfinished sheet, do let me know! I’ll probably get back to it eventually, but I also need to take a couple of days to work out what else I need to do to finish it off! Either way though, looping back to the Satellite Pro I have (I think it’s a 4210), it’ll never work for most games unless there’s slow movement, which rules out most action games, but anything turn-based or text based should be fine! It does also have built-in floppy and optical drives too, which makes it easier to rip those media types without needing anything extra, apart from more exotic formats.

But yeah, I still have a long way to go to meet some of my goals, especially as I need to find a decently priced 12TB HDD to transfer the data, be that an external, or an internal connected via a SATA adapter or even just using a purchased enclosure to keep it safe till I’m ready to move over the data, especially as I need to wipe the old array to reset and also fix it! This is by far my longest post to date, but it does go into detail about my plans regarding both my NAS boxes, and the associated hardware I need to achieve those plans. I’m doing this all entirely out of pocket, hence why it’ll be accomplished slowly, and with more emphasis on saving money, although even if I was getting supported by others – which I’m not really ready for at this point, hence why I don’t talk about anything like that – I’d be inclined to get the best prices for things anyway! I do need to shake up all of those platforms as I have presences on them in order to have provision for when I think that I’m ready to be at that point, plus it’s about reserving the handles, especially as it’s not just myself that I’m doing it for!

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for now. I will be updating the lists as and when I get more items, but I’ll probably be keeping an eye on any upcoming sales too, so I can save as much money as possible, especially due to the sheer amount of stuff (not just mentioned here) I have to purchase to get stuff moving along! I’m also probably going to be doing a short video of me installing the SSDs (with putting the heatsinks on) and HDD in the NAS, as well as also showing where to put the outside stick of RAM whilst I’m at it, but not the inside because that was a bastard to get in there! Hopefully, this year will be the time where everything can take off, because I have other plans including a Web server and game server, as well as also a home lab, but more on those later!

#2025 #computerHardware #computerRepairsUpgrades #ComputerStorage #Filming #FuturePlans #hardwareUpgrades #LBRYOdyseeVideoPlatform_ #NewsUpdates #rantsRaves #StormSWorkshop #StormSWorkshopSGU_ #StormkeeperSWorkshop #Toshiba3110CT #Toshiba3440CT #ToshibaLaptops #Update #Videos #Windows2kXPLaptops #Windows9xLaptops #YouTube

Future Plans - Zukunftspläne
#wahl2024 #election #street #streetphotography #spoe #wahlplakate #babler #parlament #parliament #futureplans #leicam11 #voigtlander #nokton #voigtländer #voigtlander28mm #vienna #billboard #streetphotographers #People #City #Night #Architecture #Monochrome

🚀 Exciting News! 🚀
We’ve just launched our brand-new Roadmap page on our website!
Stay updated on our upcoming features, improvements, and future plans.
👉 Take a look at the roadmap now: https://www.openproject.org/roadmap/
#OpenProject #Opensource #WhatsNext #Updates #FuturePlans

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#UltimateGuitar
Buck Dharma Reacts to Ghost Being Compared to Blue Öyster Cult, Reveals How Long He Plans to Keep the Band Going
UG Exclusive: 'To the degree that there are some similarities, that's fine.'

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/buck_dharma_reacts_to_ghost_being_compared_to_blue_yster_cult_reveals_how_long_he_plans_to_keep_the_band_going.html

#BuckDharma #Ghost #BlueOysterCult #Interview #Music #Legend #RockBand #Longevity #FuturePlans #UltimateGuitar

In this episode of our podcast we talk about our future sailing plans now that we are back home in Cape Town.

We are not planning to do weekly podcasts any more for now, but if you like hearing what we are up to you can listen to our weekly Princess and The Big Blue radio show on Radio Free Tankwa, every Wednesday 6pm South African time (GMT+2) which is 1600 UTC in nautical speak.

As always feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions, remarks, feedback, or whatever.

https://svtropicaldawn.blog/2024/03/01/48-what-are-our-future-sailing-plans/

#futurePlans #podcast #sailing

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#BLABBERMOUTH
MIKE PORTNOY Almost Played Drums For NICKELBACK In 2022

https://blabbermouth.net/news/mike-portnoy-almost-played-drums-for-nickelback-in-2022

#MikePortnoy #Drummer #Nickelback #2022 #MusicIndustry #RockMusic #Collaboration #CareerOpportunity #Musician #DreamTeam #FuturePlans

#lispyGopher show at Wed 000UTC #archived https://archives.anonradio.net/202310250000_screwtape.mp3
#climate haiku by @kentpitman
Climate resilient societies
@hayley pigeon proposal
#gopher
#gopherMOO #VR from @masinter & kmp^
#lisp
#ExploratoryProgramming #veilid
#SSB after
#mastodon
@mousebot calms me down after I got in one argument once
#futurePlans
I'll work on #usim with @amszmidt for [Nov Jan]
#redacted
Student Correction for using a chatbot leak

Show #unix_surrealism by @prahou
#music from @mxv

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sailing Tropical Dawn (@svtropicaldawn)

Hi everyone,

We have some big news to share.

As you know, our sail from Saint Helena to Brazil was our most challenging yet, not because of the ocean or the weather but because we literally ran out of energy (first our batteries, then our bodies).

As with all challenging experiences something beautiful came out of it 5 days before we arrived in Brazil.

We had been hand steering for 10 days by that time at 2 hour shifts and 1 proper meal a day. Dimi came off his shift at 6am and I went on shift. In the previous 2 hours we had both been having the same thought unknowingly.

Before Dimi went to sleep he said: I have a crazy idea, I thought and said, ‘oh no’ and laughed. And he said, ‘should I rather not say it?’, and I said ‘no please tell me’. Then he said what I had been thinking in the hours before:

‘I think when we get home we should adopt a baby’.

We will start this process when we get back to Cape Town but we wanted to share our happy news with everyone in the meantime.

We don’t know for sure how long the process will take and obviously there are no guarantees but that’s where we are at.

💗

https://svtropicaldawn.blog/2023/10/22/big-news/

#bigNews #futurePlans

Ruby Central is growing and moving towards exciting new goals! 🚀 Let's take a look at the role of the board, its evolution, and future plans. Check it out: https://rubycentral.org/news/ruby-central-board/

#RubyCentral #Growth #TechGoals #FuturePlans #ruby #rubyonrails #rails https://rubycentral.org/news/ruby-central-board/

I'm tempted next year to go to resurrection festival in Spain.

I'm glad this year I attended rock im park festival (Germany), but next year initial lineup is not up to my taste(except Arch Enemy and ARCHITECTS ,for now)

#futureplans #ifihavemoney

https://www.thestranger.com/news/2022/12/02/78749856/why-you-should-care-about-seattles-comprehensive-plan
Will you attend an upcoming meeting?

There’s a get together this week for D6 residents & their families ahead of next weeks in person comp plan meeting. It is at a family friendly brewery. All are welcome. Reach out for details.
Wednesday 5-7 pm
#Seattle #LandUse #FuturePlans #MoreNeighbors #WelcomingCity

You can find the agenda and notes for today's discussion of @mayel's proposal here.
#socialcoop #futureplans #maastodon #sysadmin #hosting

https://www.loomio.org/d/jgGJ8ucA/proposal-to-take-over-a-mastodon-hosting-service-hosting-external-instances-but-also-to-enable-the-creation-of-thematic-sister-coop-instances