litchralee

@ litchralee @sh.itjust.works

Posts

29
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785
Joined

3 yr. ago

14h ago

Forget electric bikes, Kawasaki is building an electric horse for actual production
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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 14h ago
In the same way that torque/current-limited ebikes will cause less soil erosion in national parks -- case in point, Tahoe National Forest in California now explicitly permits Class 1 ebikes on trails, once they had enough data to support that assertion -- I would expect that an electric horse could also be tuned to limit its acceleration on tricky surfaces.

3d ago

That awesome wireless charger for electric bikes just hit a surprise hurdle

If time is of the essence, then wireless charging is even worse in comparison to wire conductors. Almost by definition, any stationary wireless charger laid into the ground is supplied by wires, so might as well have conductors all the way that are position-independent and free to use. A dangling USB C cable of any power capacity is going to be a more common standard for more people, while also being compatible with phones and other accessories.

3d ago

That awesome wireless charger for electric bikes just hit a surprise hurdle

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 3d ago

Ok, but why wireless charging? The reason that wireless charging works for mobile phones but not automobiles is precisely one of efficiency: delivering only 60% of input power to a phone is fine because that's only a few Watt-hours of loss, but is definitely not fine when it takes 100 kWh to charge a 60 kWh electric car battery. The wastage is catastrophically not worth the convenience if not plugging the car in.

Why then would we want wireless charging for electric cargo bikes, as pictured? Even for normal electric bikes, a bike shelter with USB C cords dangling down from retracting reels would be far superior, and provides weather protection and locking options.

4d ago

Mountain biker alleges Specialized "swindled" millions from customers

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 4d ago

The lawsuit (which the article has included a link to!!!) claims that Specialized's website did not disclose certain fees (eg handling fee, battery disposal fee) prior to the checkout page, in violation of laws in both Virginia (where the plaintiff lives) and California (where Specialized is headquartered).

The suit was filed in the Northern District of California federal court, because: 1) a national class-action suit can only be filed in federal court, not state court, 2) both the lead plaintiff and Specialized reside in different (ie diversity) states, and 3) that court's geographic district includes Specialized, as the defendant, and also is the presumed location where their website was designed.

4d ago

Forget electric bikes, Kawasaki is building an electric horse for actual production

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 4d ago

In the early 1900s, horses were the original "mobile emissions" source of pollution, causing great consternation to anyone that happened to be in their wake at the wrong time. Yes, we have troughs that catch horse poo now, but still doesn't perfectly mitigate the problem specific to horses.

And then there's the issue of horses on surfaces: on dirt, their weight cause erosion. On pavement, they can injure their hooves, plus the sound of horseshoes at full gallop on asphalt must be deafening.

(I promise this isn't a subtoot about automobile environmental impacts)

As an aside, in wilderness in America, where there is the most protection for the environment and anything mechanized (like bicycles) are prohibited, it is a bizarre historical exception that horse riding is permitted, in spite of the obvious degradation caused by trampling over everything. Wilderness is meant to be a nature-first place, but somehow it's actually horseriders-first, then nature.

5d ago

Are there programmers that still don't use AI?

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 5d ago

Having spent much of my software engineering career training and mentoring interns, new-hires, and transfers from other departments, and having toiled with some of their truly inexplicable questions that reveal shaky technical foundations, I can understand why so-called AI would be appealing: inexhaustible, while commanding the full battery of information stores that I could throw at it.

And yet, the reason I don't use AI is precisely because those very interns, new-hires, and transfers invariably become first-class engineers that I have no problem referring to as my equals. It is my observation that I've become better at training these folks up with every passing year, and that means that if I were to instead spend my time using AI, I would lose out on even more talented soon-to-be colleagues.

I have only so much time of my mortal coil remaining, and if the dichotomy is between utilizing inordinate energy, memory, and compute for AI, or sharing my knowledge and skills to even just 2 people per year for the rest of my career, I'll happily choose the latter. In both circumstances, I will never own the product of their labor, and I don't really care to. What matters to me is that value is being created, and I know there is value in bringing up new software engineers into this field. Whereas the value of AI pales in comparison, if it's even a positive value at all.

If nothing else, the advent of AI has caused me to redouble my efforts, to level-up more engineers to the best of my ability. It is a human legacy that I can contribute to, and I intend to.

5d ago

Recommended surge protector / power supply

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 5d ago

Did ATT specifically say that their modem will factory resets due to loss of power? Because that's genuinely unbelievable as a design feature for domestic-grade equipment. More reasonable would be that the modem will reboot when it encounters a brown-out condition, where the AC voltage briefly dips too low for the circuitry to continue operating.

A power strip with just an MOV circuit would only help if the problem was a brief spike in voltage. A power conditioner would only help if it's the shape of the AC voltage that needs to be cleaned up. That is to say, no dips or spikes, but rather the sinusoidal shape is messy due to other devices in the building.

A UPS (which almost always includes an MOV circuit and power conditioner) would switch to battery power whenever there's a problem with the AC voltage, so any momentary issues will be addressed. This switchover tends to happen within 2 cycles of the 60 Hz AC frequency, and that's generally good enough most home appliances. I'm guessing the modem has a switch-mode power supply, so even a cheap UPS with square/stepped wave output will work.

5d ago

Earbud question: Does anyone actually like to silicone tipped earbuds over the solid plastic ones?

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 5d ago

I too have issues with silicone earbuds, and also with them falling out. Which is why I was over the moon when I discovered wireless clip-on earbuds. They meet my criteria of being convenient (because wireless) while also not falling off (because clip-on). The specific ones I bought (Anker Soundcore c30i) are not noise-cancelling, but I found that I can adjust their position up or down my ears to meet conditions. For example, I wear them high up when out in public, to hear wayward automobiles that might run me down.

5d ago

Moving to Chicago

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 5d ago

Please see my review of the Ninebot GL30P, here on c/micromobility, which I purchased after receiving advice from this community.

But my own sensibilities aside, it’s fairly capable with large – but still jarring – dips in the road surface, and does not bottom-out at sidewalk ramps or turning into driveways.

After 8 months of use, I can say that it has no issue with gentle slopes, although you may have to be in "drive" mode (the middle power mode), since "eco" (the lower power mode) is power and speed limited. I personally don't use "sport" mode, since the thing will take off very quickly, and that's too much of a handful for me.

Walking it off a typical curb, it doesn't bottom out. But with no suspension (by default; I'm informed this is a not-uncommon upgrade that can be made), the drop is very jarring, so I don't personally ride the scooter off a curb. But up or down a driveway cutout, it's very smooth and I do that regularly.

6d ago

Network Security Audit

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 6d ago

Fair, though I personally don't let my ISP indirectly dictate what I do with my LAN. If I didn't already have a v6-enabled WAN, I would still manage my LAN using IPv6 private range addresses. There are too many benefits to me, like having VMs and containers be first-class citizens on my LAN, rather than sitting behind yet another layer of NAT. That lets me avoid port forwarding at the border of my home Kubernetes cluster (or formerly, my Docker Swarm), and it means my DNS names correctly resolve to a valid IP address that's usable anywhere on my network (because no NAT when inside the LAN).

I will admit that NAT64 is kinda a drag to access v4-only resources like GitHub, but that's only necessary because they've not lit up support for v6 (despite other parts of their site supporting v6).

This is my idea of being future-ready: when the future comes, I'm already there.

6d ago

Network Security Audit

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 6d ago

The approach isn't invalid, but seeing as you already have the framework set up to deny all and log for IPv4, the same could be done with IPv6.

That is to say, your router advertises an IPv6 gateway to the global internet, but you then reject it because your VPN doesn't support v6 (sadly). I specifically say reject, rather than drop, because you want that ICMP Unreachable (administratively prohibited) message to get returned to any app trying to use v6. That way, Happy Eyeballs will gracefully and quickly fall back to v6. Unless your containers have some exceptionally weird routing rules, v6 connections will only be attempted once, and will always use the route advertised. So if your router denies this attempt, your containers won't try again in a way that could leak. v6 leaks are more likely when there isn't even a route advertised.

This makes your apps able to use v6, for that day when your VPN supports it, and so it's just a question of when the network itself can be upgraded. IMO, apps should always try for v6 first and the network (if it can't support it) will affirmatively reply that it can't, and then apps will gracefully fall back.

This also benefits you by logging all attempted v6 traffic, to know how much of your stuff is actually v6-capable. And more data is always nice to have.

6d ago

what is this

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 6d ago

I'm so confused on what the point of such a hash would be. If the time that an email was sent was so important, would existing DKIM timestamps also work? Is this basically the digital equivalent of including today's newspaper in a ransom note?

Not to say that DKIM as-used is perfect.

7d ago

No, a moped doesn't always have pedals – and other inconvenient truths you may hate

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 7d ago

Once again, shame on the editor for distorting what the author wrote, using a clickbait headline when the article can stand on its own. No, there is no "inconvenient truth" in the article, but rather a sober discussion of the fluid colloquial definitions of "moped" and "scooter", as a result of technological change being much faster than the written language can adapt, all while legal language remains as tight (and impenetrable) as it's ever been.

On that latter point, I will rehash what I wrote earlier:

In California, the largest motorcycle market in the USA, this would be regulated as a moped (CVC Section 406), since it is electric, has a motor less than 3 kW (4 HP in old money), and a top speed of less than 30 MPH (48 kph).

Riders wouldn't need an M1 motorcycle license, but instead an M2 moped license would suffice. An M1 license allows riding anything that needs an M2 license, such as this moped. The process for an M2 is classroom instruction, and then a brief practical exam. There is no annual registration for mopeds, but there is a one-time plate fee, to obtain a plate from the DMV. There is no insurance requirement for mopeds.

A moped can be ridden in either traffic lanes and bike lanes (but not shoulders, which only bicycles are permitted to use). Whereas bicycles are obligated to use a bike lane when present (with a few obvious exceptions), a moped is not forced to use a bike lane. When riding in a traffic lane, a moped must keep to the right-most lane if slower than all other traffic.

This is all to say, California explicitly allows certain non-pedal, electric two-wheelers to be mopeds. But also the original, pedal, combustion two-wheelers are also mopeds. Rather than quibbling on definitions, this state would rather people go out riding.

1w ago

Honda unveils new electric moped cheaper than gasoline equivalent, no motorcycle license needed

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 1w ago

If you have a question about your own ebike and not the Honda moped in the OP's post, you should start a new post so that other people can try to answer.

That said, at least in California and many other states, 28 MPH is not allowed on a Class 2 ebike. Only a Class 3 ebike can do 28 MPH, but a throttle is not allowed on a Class 3. Class 2 tops out at 20 MPH.

1w ago

Honda unveils new electric moped cheaper than gasoline equivalent, no motorcycle license needed

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 1w ago

In California, the largest motorcycle market in the USA, this would be regulated as a moped (CVC Section 406), since it is electric, has a motor less than 3 kW (4 HP in old money), and a top speed of less than 30 MPH (48 kph).

Riders wouldn't need an M1 motorcycle license, but instead an M2 moped license would suffice. An M1 license allows riding anything that needs an M2 license, such as this moped. The process for an M2 is classroom instruction, and then a brief practical exam. There is no annual registration for mopeds, but there is a one-time plate fee, to obtain a plate from the DMV. There is no insurance requirement for mopeds.

A moped can be ridden in either traffic lanes and bike lanes (but not shoulders, which only bicycles are permitted to use). Whereas bicycles are obligated to use a bike lane when present (with a few obvious exceptions), a moped is not forced to use a bike lane. When riding in a traffic lane, a moped must keep to the right-most lane if slower than all other traffic.

IANAL, but all of this can be verified in the CVC. The result is that mopeds (a vestige of the 1970s oil crisis) could absolutely make a comeback if priced correctly, since ebikes already provide similar mobility.

2w ago

'Acer has not only adopted an unfamiliar design but also hedged their bets on AI features' What it's like riding Acer's futuristic electric bike

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 2w ago

$4,999.99 USD

single-armed front fork

not a foldable e-bike

airless tires

a SIM card

the ebiiGo app

Every single one of these design decisions -- except the single front fork -- seems entirely unjustified when taken together as a whole. This is not an ebike for actual use, but a technical demo, not unlike proof-of-concept automobiles that never make it to series production. But the reason those cars never see production is because they're often exceedingly impractical, like when mechanical engineers go racing in concrete boats. They do it for the challenge and the lolz.

But unlike cars, the triumph of lithium ion batteries and cheap production costs means that ebikes like this can actually enter production. But should it have? I don't think so. We are basically using time, energy, and resources to build instant ewaste. It's the fast fashion problem, but with ebikes.

2w ago

Why is amperage more "obscure" than voltage (or watts)?

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 2w ago

For an example of where constant current sources are used -- and IMO, deeply necessary -- we can look to the humble LED driver circuit. LEDs are fickle devices, on account of their very sharp voltage-current curve, which also changes with operating temperature and is not always consistent from the factory. As a practical matter, the current through an LED is what predominantly controls the brightness, so constant current sources will provide very steady illumination. If instead an LED were driven with a constant voltage source, it would need to be exceedingly stable, since even a few tens of millivolts off can destroy some LEDs through over-current and/or over-heating.

For cheap appliances, some designs will use a simple resistor circuit to set the LED current, and this may be acceptable provided that the current is nowhere near overdriving the LED. Thing of small indicator LEDs that aren't that bright anyway. Whereas for expensive industrial LED projectors, it would be foolish to not have an appropriately designed current source, among other protective features.

2w ago

Why is amperage more "obscure" than voltage (or watts)?

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 2w ago

In a nutshell, voltage incompatibility is generally more damaging than current mismatch, typically in a frightening or energetic manner. Many Americans tourists find this out when they bring their 120v AC hairdryers to an overseas hotel with 230v AC power. If there is only room for one number to be emblazoned on an outlet or plug, it should be the rated voltage, first and foremost.

For current protection, we've had thermal fuses since the 1890s, and thermo-magnetic circuit breakers since the 1940s. There are even more fancy transistor-based current protections available for industrial equipment that can shut off extremely fast. In a sense, protection against over-current has basically been solved, in the scenarios where there's enough of a risk of humans or property.

Whereas voltage mix-ups still happen, although consumer electronics are now moving to automatic voltage detection (eg an 18v electric drill battery charger refuses to charge a 12v battery) and through actively negotiated power parameters (eg USB PD). And even without human error, under- and over voltage transients still happen in residential and commercial environments, leading to either instant damage or long-term product degradation (eg domestic refrigerator motor drive circuits).

It should be noted that a current starvation scenario, such as when an ebike is current-limited per regulations, does not generally cause a spike in voltage. Whereas in a voltage starvation situation, resistive loads will indeed try to draw more current in order to compensate. Hence why current protection is almost always built-in and not left to chance.

3w ago

Element/Matrix Official Docker Install Method?

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 3w ago

Firstly, I wish you the best of luck in your community's journey away from Discord. This may be a good time to assess what your community needs from a new platform, since Discord targeted various use-cases that no single replacement platform can hope to replace in full. Instead, by identifying exactly what your group needs and doesn't need, that will steer you in the right direction.

As for Element, bear in mind that their community and paid versions do not exactly target a hobbyist self-hosting clientele. Instead, Element is apparently geared more for enterprise on-premises deployment (like Slack, Atlassian JIRA, Asterisk PBX) and that's probably why the community version is also based on Kubernetes. This doesn't mean you can't use it, but their assumptions about deployments are that you have an on-premises cloud.

Fortunately, there are other Matrix homeservers available, including one written in Rust that has both bare metal and Docker deployment instructions. Note that I'm not endorsing this implementation, but only know of it through this FOSDEM talk describing how they dealt with malicious actors.

As an aside, I have briefly considered Matrix before as a group communications platform, but was put off by their poor E2EE decisions, for both the main client implementation and in the protocol itself. Odd as it sounds, poor encryption is worse than no encryption, because of the false assurance it gives. If I did use Matrix, I would not enable E2EE because it doesn't offer me many privacy guarantees, compared to say, Signal.

3w ago

'E-bike for your feet': How bionic sneakers could change human mobility

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litchralee @sh.itjust.works 3w ago

Stroads are best understood as a product of emergent evolution. That is to say, no thinking went into their development, except as incremental, thoughtless upgrades from what was probably once a rural country road.

The only good thing about stroads is that when they're demolished and rebuilt properly, there's usually enough room to build an express two-lane road, or two-way busway, or dual-track light rail line, plus room for adjacent frontage/access roads for local traffic.

The land and technology exists to build things properly, but often not the political and community will.