Well that got really dark, really fast! 😯

The worst thing about modern AI isn't that it's ruining the web, search results, books, online product reviews, news, and so on.

It's that it sucks all the air out of the room.

Even if you're working on some other tech, the comments are polluted with questions about how AI will be leveraged. When you explain that it won't, the next question is how AI might affect what you're working on.

It's like a mind virus, infecting nearly everything & everyone.

AKAIK you basically have three options:

- Fancy UI Meshtastic firmware

- Stock Meshtastic firmware

- Some LilyGo firmware image

You probably want the Fancy UI. Instructions for how to get it without too much hassle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0zZfnctZQw

The Fancy UI is still in the code, it's just that the developers pulled the CI job to automatically build it after they were overrun by support requests for code that isn't done and has never been officially released. In theory you can compile it yourself and post instructions on how to do so on #nostr for other #plebs to benefit from.

Are these songs like 20 seconds long or does Spotify not work like YouTube? I don't have accounts for any of these music services, so I can't tell if I'm doing something wrong or if that's just how it is.

I liked the little bit that I heard though!

If you want to make a literal 2025 bingo card, now would be a good time. That way when some crazy stuff happens next year, you can say "I didn't have that on my 2025 bingo card"... or that you did!

Think big.

- 7% inflation in the US (per gov numbers)

- war in (Insert Location Here)

- aliens

- Chicago Cubs win the World Series

- military deployed against protesters in (Country)

- taxes able to be paid in BTC

Whatever bold, unlikely thing you want to put down.

Nope, they're shipped randomly. It doesn't look like it'd be easy to replace either. But here's another one I got with a boring keyboard.

Anything can be a UFO if you are poor at identifying objects.

Never stop building!

Yeah, I can't figure out what language(s) are on there in addition to English. It doesn't look like Chinese. Maybe Arabic?

Whatever it is, I think it's super cool looking 😎

It's WAY better than the stock UI. I'm rocking the old version right now (before they pulled the CI build job), but I plan on compiling a newer version myself in the foreseeable future.

Here's my #LilyGo #TDeck, just finished putting it together! 🎉

The 5000 mAh battery had a larger connector on it, so I had to splice in LilyGo's tiny one. I don't think they were expecting people to use batteries this large! 🤣

#meshtastic #decentralize #mesh #decentralization #LoRa #radio

I'd suggest getting started with just getting two (or more) Heltec v3 devices, flashing them with the Meshtastic firmware and tinkering around.

https://meshtastic.org/docs/hardware/devices/heltec-automation/lora32/

Links to buy are at the bottom of that page. Just a warning: the stock case doesn't have room for a battery. But it can be powered via USB-C, which works fine if you're just tinkering around. If you want to go mobile, you'll need a cellphone battery pack and a USB-C cable. You can get a 3.3V battety (any LiPo will be fine), but you'd have to use double-sided tape or something to keep it from flopping around and breaking off.

If you want to get into piecing together your own hardware from parts, trade offs between different components, and all that, check out the vloggers. There are many YouTubers yakking about this, and I hate to say it, but they're a pretty good source of information despite frequently being paid by the people that make the gear they're recommending. Just make sure to hit a variety of them who are shilling different gear to try to understand what their biases are.

In the end, going the more advanced route is likely to be expensive and time consuming. I'm speaking from experience. I've now placed 3 orders from RAK Wireless and I still don't have enough parts to make a single node. I think I will once this 3rd order comes in, but it's been frustrating and a bunch of money wasted on shipping costs.

Full disclosure: I do not get any money from anyone for helping people get started with mesh networks. I just recommend the gear that's worked for me.

Building my own #LilyGo #TDeck devices looks like it's going to cost me about $100/each. That's after tax, shipping, printing cases, batteries, and an upgraded antenna.

Importantly it will NOT have a GPS (I actively do not want one) and it WILL have an upgraded antenna and a 5000 mAh battery (2.5x the size of what comes in the TDeck Plus, which costs $86.67 and only comes in black or white).

If I bought them in bulk, I could probably match that price and have what I would consider to be a superior device. 😎

And if I change my mind and decide I want a GPS, they're available for $16. Not breaking the bank there.

Every time I hear that, I immediately think of the movie "Antitrust" (which is a fantastic film, BTW).

I enjoyed it. If you've never read/heard Chomsky before, I'd say it's a good introduction to a lot of his philosophies.

It is taking all the self-control that I can muster to wait for some final parts to come in before posting pictures of my latest #meshtastic device (#T-deck).

ETA is by the end of the week! 🥳

For those #privacy advocates out there, here's a stark reminder about how important it is that the solutions be #OpenSource and you be able to compile and run the code yourself. The #FBI secretly ran an #encrypted #phone company that was #backdoored to intercept tens of millions of messages. It was the largest sting operation in history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFyk5UOyNqI

The latest news in this story is that the confidential source who first created the phone company and provided it to the FBI is going to be publicly identified in court documents. Considering they contributed to the downfall of multiple large operations (e.g. $1 billion/year drug cartels), this is going to put them in grave danger.

https://www.404media.co/email/4adca5a6-04bf-49fb-9b3d-cb60bb740245/

Side note: 404media articles only cost you giving out an email address, but this crew is real, independent, investigative journalism and I think they're worth supporting.

Homegrown basil in spaghetti squash. 😋

No, I just downloaded a copy of the last offically built version before the devs pulled it from the CI pipelines.

If you get to compiling it before I do, please hook me up with some instructions. I'll do the same if I get there first

I've been tinkering around with LoRa and Meshtastic lately. Also tend to mention work on the firmware/software for the hardware password manager that I maintain. Amd when it's harvest season, I post pics of food I'm dehydrating or otherwise preserving.