The current project I'm working on is a hat for a #RaspberryPi Pico that will let you plug in your USB keyboards and mice to your computer's PS/2 port.
Why? #Security. Everything connected to your USB controller can see every keystroke you type. So if you ever have a malicious USB thumb drive, camera, microphone or anything else, it can sniff your Full Disk Encryption (#FDE) #password, for example.
By only having your keyboard and mouse plugged into the hat, and that connected to your computer via PS/2, it's isolated from all the other devices.
For more information on the risk, I'd suggest reading the security warnings from the #Qubes documentation.
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/device-handling-security/#security-warning-on-usb-input-devices
#QubesOS #infosec #GrowNostr #cybersecurity #hacking #electronics
I have a professional #circuit designer who has agreed to review my designs. He has taught me SO MUCH over the past few days! I've seriously leveled up my game.
He's about to start his own company too. If anyone here wants a custom #circuit made, you should absolutely hire John!
He focuses mainly on #electronics and #microcontrollers (think Arduino Raspberry Pi Pico), but also does things with the normal Raspberry Pi boards too.
Want a solar powered camera that does Automatic License Plate Reading and uploads data over #Meshtastic? I'm sure he could do it.
A custom pager that has less expensive hardware than all the existing standalone Meshtastic pagers? No problem.
A customized #bitaxe? Probably doable.
Hardware to monitor plants in a #greenhouse and automatically, circulate air, vent, and water plants when needed? He already has one for himself!
Whatever you can dream up, he can probably make it happen. And unlike me, you can hire him to do so. I doubt he'll be cheap, but you get what you pay for.
#GrowNostr #pcb #CircularEconomy
These are taking longer to dry than usual. That's the disadvantage to doing them in a bigger batch.
If I don't see more progress by tomorrow, they'll go into the dehydrator to speed things up.
Oh, I forgot to factor in #nostr to my economic calculations. If I get 11.5K sats in zaps, I'd break even. Hahaha.
#prepper #prepping #food #foodstr #gardening #GrowNostr
Also, the organic dried mangos from the local food coop, which is what I was trying to swap out for dried peaches, are $15.99/lb.
No more dried peaches unless they are on an even bigger sale!
My estimate was pretty close. 10.5 lbs of peaches in, 1.47 lbs out.
I paid $3.02/lb, so that's $31.71 total. This probably used under 50¢ worth of electricity. That means it's $21.90/lb ($1.37/oz), not counting my time of course.
When I compare this to commercial dried peaches, I can see that I'm losing money on this deal. 🫤 And my peaches taste fine, but I don't think they're any better than the high quality store bought stuff.
I found some on Amazon for $16.69/lb that are no sugar added, unsweetened, all natural. Another one is $18.99/lb and it shows the ingredients as being peaches and nothing else.
The moral of the story is that unless I can get peaches for $2/lb or less, or the price of commercially produced dried peaches goes up, I should spend my money elsewhere. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. 🤓
I don't know what TG is, but yes, spin up your own homeserver! 💯
I'm on fire today. Fixed a #signet and improved the troubleshooting instructions.
Worked on a new prototype. 🤫
Failed my KiCAD review, but learned a lot and I believe I have it all fixed up now. That's up for another review.
When that gets approved, along with the several other PCB designs that I have submitted for review, I'll place the smallest order possible for boards.
Then I'll need to order some components and I should be able to make some prototypes.
Also fixed some leaky hoses, went grocery shopping, washed, pitted, sliced and started dehydrating 10.5 lbs of peaches. 💪
In the immortal wordsof The Presidents of the United States of America:
"I'm going to eat a lot of peaches"
10.5 lbs into the dehydrator
Probably get about 1.4 lbs out
😋
Victory is mine! I put a few drops of rosin flux on the board and the CPU snapped right into place, just like it should.
I've now added this to the list of things to check when a board doesn't work on the first try.
Had I given up, not only would this board have been wasted, but future boards would take longer to rework. This is why I don't give up easily. Unless the CPU is actually damaged, it should be able to be fixed!
#electronics #OpenSource #hardware #repair #decentralization
Gotta be real with you all today, #Signet #Saturday isn't going great. I've spent the last hour and a half reseating this CPU, and adding/removing solder, waiting for it to cool and then testing it in my machine and I'm making only tiny amounts of progress.
I know many would say that I am wasting my time; that I should just call this one unit a loss and move on. The problem isn't the sunk cost fallacy, but that I don't want things to go to waste. At some point I will give up, but not yet…
My goal is to grow an absurdly large quantity to build up stock and then rotate varieties until my reserves get low.
Hopefully I can grow more than a year's supply in a season. 😅 That is step 1
And we are HEAVY spice users, at least by American standards. After someone heard me mention a couple spices they never heard of, which we just normally keep in stock, they asked "How many spices do you have?!" So I counted them up and it was more than 80.
Before someone asks, no, we did not grow them all ourselves and we never will. Some things are tree sized and won't overwinter here. We should be able to grow 90% of them though, and we have every intent on doing so.
Not with these peppers. These babies are HOT!
and delicious
#Homegrown Hungarian #peppers
About to be air dried (zero energy, practically speaking), andd then ground into a powder.
#gardening #homesteading #prepper
Transform that account balance into delicious food! 😋
So uh, what do I use these on? Like sure I could grind them up into a powder, but they look so pretty in rings...
I follow you because your ideas are very different. I frequently disagree with you, but you seem generally respectful and sincere.
This is very different from the trolls, who just spout ignorant (and to be honest, very unoriginal) things just to make people mad.
I admit, the idea of hopping across radio frequencies is pretty attractive!