qjkxbmwvz

joined 1 year ago
[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 88 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Look, if you don't want to listen to some random dude who thinks reading is cool, fair enough. But if that random dude also runs level three diagnostics on the warp core and can swap polarity on the main deflector dish with one hand tied behind his back? Yeah...you should probably pay attention.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 4 points 18 hours ago

Nah just give them the .tex source and let them deal with it.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 3 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I'm really bummed I missed this event


a streetcar has a period appropriate jazz group for a free show. And they didn't charge fares either.

Turns out you can also rent the streetcars for events, which is pretty neat


would make for a fun night on the town.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 3 points 21 hours ago

Nice!

This isn't the service route for the vintage streetcars


they use those tracks to get from the rail house to their normal Market/Embarcadero route. But you can still ride them, kind of a Muni "secret menu." Easy way to find them is to use an app/website with realtime locations and look for an F streetcar that's on the wrong tracks.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 8 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

They don't dominate like they used to, but we still have vintage streetcars on Market and the Embarcadero


https://www.streetcar.org/

Same fare as other Muni busses and trams.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It is "backwards" from some other commands


usually you run copy/rsync/link from source to destination, but with tar the destination (tarball) is specified before the source (directory/files).

That, and the flags not needing dashes always just throws me for a loop.

And the icing on the cake is that I don't use tar for tarring that often, so I lose all muscle memory (untaring a tgz or tar.bz2 is frequent enough that I can usually get that right at least...).

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 40 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

There was an old Top Gear episode with a race in a Nordic country with an interesting take on a price cap


the price enforcement was that anybody could buy your car (for no more than the price cap) after the race.

So I think you technically could enter the race with a brand new tricked out rally car...but anyone could buy it for $500/$1000/whatever.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 5 points 2 days ago

I think some commercial TVs might do what you want.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

In grad school I picked up a an old free HP LaserJet, with an Ethernet NIC card (it was an upgradable printer, maybe from the mid 2000s?).

It was great! Only complaint was no duplexer, but the thing printed great from Linux and the generic toner was cheap.

Today though...the experience is a bit different.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

At work on a slack it just means "I'm watching this discussion."

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You discounted space dust.

No I didn't


it would thermalize and radiate.

This is not my paradox, and it's not really a paradox at all, as the big bang model explains it nicely. There are many nice articles on the topic of you'd like to read more about it.

[–] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 3 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Yes. But why is there an absence of light?

If there are infinite stars, then every direction you look would encounter a star. (Things stay the same brightness per subtended angle as they get far away. Space dust doesn't matter, as it would thermalize and radiate.)

So, the universe can't have infinite luminous matter, be static and ageless, because if it were then the night sky would look like the surface of a sun.

This may all seem obvious, but it's neat that you can figure that out with the naked eye.

 

People often complain about San Francisco's public transit


and to be sure, it's not perfect by any means (multiple separate agencies doesn't help). But the historic streetcars are pretty neat!

They're painted with the livery of various historic streetcars from all over the country (and a few international, I think). Best of all, they run alongside the modern fleet


same route, same fare.

 

Noticed a few days ago that Sutro Tower's red blinking lights are now white. Just asked them on their website form, but wondered if anyone else knows the story with this.

Personally, I miss the red ones!

6
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website to c/amateur_radio@lemmy.radio
 

Howdy!

I got my Technician in early 2000s, and last year finally upgraded to Extra. Looking to set up a very basic shack.

I'm looking for an HF setup, with most of my use probably using digital modes, but would like the ability to use voice.

Current transceiver is on loan from girlfriend's dad, a Ten-Tec Scout 555


50W HF unit with separate modules for each band. One limitation of this is that the modules set the mode, so it's LSB on 40m, making e.g. FT8 not possible (without some hacking of code or perhaps hacking the module).

Antenna is end-fed with an off-the-shelf 49:1. Currently only have 20m half-wave, but have just enough room for a 40m half-wave in the attic, which is the ultimate goal.

For digital modes, it looks like there are sort of 3 classes of radio:

  • "full digital" where the radio has e.g. a USB port and handles audio, transmit, and frequency set.
  • Some computer-control with RS232, but uses computer audio+adapter to transmit.
  • No digital, use adapter to transmit. This is what the current setup uses (and it works great!)

I'm leaning towards a conventional transceiver, e.g., something from ICOM, Kenwood, Yaesu, (or others) rather than an SDR unit. I'd like the ability to go up to 50-100W if possible.

I don't have a hard-and-fast budget; would like to keep it <$1000 if possible; mostly just looking at used transceivers. Something like a Kenwood TS-590 looks pretty amazing and very "plug-and-play" (but pushing up against price). Something like a Yaesu FT-920 looks pretty feature-rich too; and even something more affordable like an ICOM 706 or even a 725 is probably more radio than I need. Or just grab a new 7300 and call it a day!

Anyway...clearly, I don't know exactly what I want, but figured I'd ask folks with more experience if they have any wisdom. Thanks!

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