Tag: Thoughts

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StarLink – Initial Impressions

I am trying a Starlink roaming package. I picked up a standard 3rd generation package online and am pleased overall with the portability and ease of use. I’ve read a few reviews and the commentary thus far has been generally positive, however if you are relying on portable power, it is taxing on power. The good aspects from the reviews I’ve read state improvements over past iterations, regarding connectivity to the StarLink via an ethernet dongle – with is now included in the router.

For my purposes, I would take StarLink when out camping or out to a Ham POTA activation where I am in close proximity to my vehicle or available power and/or use it with my Jackery AC power supply. It is portable, however it isn’t conveniently portable. If you needed to hike to a remote location, one man would need to dedicate packing the equipment and power supplies. Starlink sells a backpack for almost the current cost of the standard dish. Also, For an extra hundred dollars you can get the DC adapter and plug it into a car or DC power source. The power draw I have seen from the testing thus far is on par with the reports – I am seeing a power draw of between 60 -70 watts while StarLink is plugged in and online. For now I think I would plan to have my vehicle nearby for carting and housing the gear, with solar and DC power to keep the Jackery powered.

The speeds I have tested from two different locations range between 150 to 300 Mbps Download and 10-20 Mbps upload, with a ping between 25-50 ms., however that is just on my phone. a Speedtest on other devices outside of my phone produce worse results – typically 1/10th of what my phone is (and I tested with a 2018 iPad Pro and a 2021 MacBook Pro with wifi6. maybe there are some additional configurations I can make, will have to research it further.

So after a couple of hours of use, I’ve used up 15% on my Jackery and a little over 2Gb of Data of the 50 gb allowance. I didn’t really pull down anything too heavy for download, just a FaceTime call and a few minutes on YouTube, and some basic browsing on different sites. I would not plan on doing a lot of internet on the cheaper Roaming package, but for occasional use I think it would serve someone well that maybe out of cellular data range and needs to connect occasionally.

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How to Prevent Data Loss: Backup Tips

Have you ever lost data on your computer because of a hard drive failure? It can be super frustrating! Since our lives are now so computer-dependent, our data, memories, history, and even our lives are stored on tiny magnetic cylinders and solid-state transistors.

Pictures, videos, documents, emails, and chat messages, as well as financial and health data, all live on these devices. Our identities are stored here too.

You never know when you’ll lose data because of a technical glitch, someone being mean, or an error. Whether it’s a mechanical or solid-state device, these components will eventually fail.

The other day, I was trying to copy some photos to my Mac Mini that has an external SSD attached to it. Somehow, the connection got lost, and the drive was disconnected while writing data. Now, unfortunately, the Apple File System partition map is corrupted. I’ve tried fixing it with Disk Utility, but it didn’t work. So, I’m trying some deeper data recovery options. If they work, I’ll share the process. But back to the point of this post – before you run into it, regularly back up your data!

Where you back things up to is up to you. You can use cloud storage, local storage, thumb drives, or anything else you like. Just make sure you keep a copy of it somewhere important. There are lots of storage options available, from free to the cost of your right arm.

Here are some backup options to consider:

Thumb Drive:

My favorite way to back up smaller files like office documents, tax records, health records, personal financial information, and other sensitive data that you keep on your computer and only really need to access from home regularly is to use a thumb drive. Back it up once a month, encrypt it, and keep it locked in a safe.

Cloud Data Backup:

You can get a few gigabytes of free data storage that you can access from anywhere with iCloud or Google. This is great for essential documents and info you might need in case of a disaster. Just be careful, not every online service is foolproof, so make sure to encrypt your data where you can and use a VPN when you’re storing and retrieving sensitive info. Prices range from free to a monthly subscription for more storage.

Local NAS or USB-attached storage:

Network-attached storage devices are a great way to back up your entire computer locally. Mac users can use Time Machine, while there are other options for Windows and Linux devices that can be encrypted. USB-attached storage devices can also serve as full computer backups, but make sure your storage volumes are bigger than your local hard drive.

Security:

This should probably be the first thing you think about, but keeping access to your data is super important. Identity theft is a real thing that can have serious consequences. Not every system is secure, but with some simple steps, you can easily protect yourself. Wherever possible, use multi-factor authentication, regularly update your passwords on your devices and online accounts, and never use the same password, especially when it comes to financial and health info. Use a VPN service whenever you’re accessing health or financial records on any wireless network where you don’t know what devices are connected to it. Better yet, don’t join public networks at all if you can.

This post doesn’t cover all backup options, but these have worked well for me. Have you backed up your data recently?

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NOLA

The year thus far, it’s been a bit crazy. I find myself waking up the past couple of days here in New Orleans, Louisiana. Three days ago on New Years Eve. I was invited to tag along on a trip to the Sugar Bowl. celebrated New Years with friends and went to bed mentally preparing for the journey.

The next morning was surreal. En route to the city, ran across news alerts for the attack in the city. The train kept a rolling. We were witnessing on news reports in surreal disbelief. We weren’t willing to turn around by the time it was announced the game would be delayed, we were practically already there.

We stayed in at the Airbnb that was rented, played some games, went to the store for groceries and had dinner. And yes for New Year’s Day got some black eye peas and leafy greens in.

The next day prior to the game we went to have some breakfast and did a little exploring around the French Quarter. Despite a few closed streets the city was vibrant and alive. A testament to the resilience and perseverance attitude of this city. Sure there was an extra police presence and a few streets closed. But the city was alive! I had felt no concern for safety walking around and enjoying the day. Football fans and locals about, we all did what we would normally do

We will lick our wounds be defiant and fight back.

What happened was tragic, unfortunate, and horrible. Yes, I say thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families. In these times, under these circumstances , the action to do as we normally do, we win. The fear and terror they strive to accomplish dies a quick death when we remain resilient to their objective.

We can’t get back what we lose, we will bear these scars a long time. Stay strong NOLA.

And next season, for your football team, may you find little to marginal success.

Sincerely your favorite Falcons fan. Rise Up.

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the new year

It’s a few days away.  How time flies, doesn’t it? 

To be quite honest, I do not know what 2025 will bring to the table.  If it’s anything like 2024, it’s saying, hold my my beer.  I, however, am not one to let the outside world dictate everything about my life.

I’ve been reminded on countless occasions that attitude is everything.  Others perceptions, are meaningless if you discount and disregard them, and everything when you, yourself define them.  It’s best to steer perception truthfully.  All this because, the worst thing you can do to another person is to not meet their expectations. No, you can do worse but, I digress.

In 2025, the number one thing i need to do is to be more consistent.  Is it going to be writing in this blog?  Do more with this aging social infrastructure I’ve established.  Has the content creation ship sailed for me?  Nope.  What has sailed for me is time.  There are going to be challenges ahead that I may not be able to tackle on my own.  There are going to be adventures.  There are going to be failures, mishaps and the like, and there will be success. I will see to that.  Persistent consistency will shape you.  The trick is, will you enjoy what you persistently are consistent about.

I’ve read from many resources that successful people always follow some sort of rhythm in their lives, they stick to a pattern of what works.  They surround themselves by others who are successful and feed off that synergy.  I could be a little more consistent in seeing where I succeed and fail in this. 

I plan to continue down this path, wherever it may lead.

Words to be: consistent, persistent, resonant, thoughtful, kind.

cloudland canyon
Cloudlannd Canyon
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Better, Stronger, Faster, More Productive

Well, it’s been a while since I actually posted anything on here.

I realized yesterday my certificates expired a few days ago and lesson learned, they are super easy to renew… if you use the right command. I did have a cron job running, but somehow it could not run the last update.

Well, lesson learned, NGINX has a unique command for certbot to renew certs from lets encrypt…. who knew! Use this:

certbot renew --cert-name withme.algorithmz.net --nginx

replace that withme.algorithz.net with your domain though….

Special thanks to the forums for lets encrypt

At this point I have the site and its hosting server back to a normal functioning state. I would actually like to rebuild it on a Pi4. Don’t tell Hood I have a spare one.

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From 23,000 Feet And Climbing…

It seems there are times that I totally forget I have a blog. I created this site to serve as a medium for content creation.

That being said the pilot on this aircraft stated we’d get some Turbulence. If you are one of the three people that actually read my posts, I hate to disappoint you, I doubt this flight will be a Hollywood Blockbuster… or could it?

I am flying back from New York City today. I flew up to New York this past weekend for a short getaway. I’ll send some links to a photo gallery soon. I came up to mark a few things off my bucket list. There are still plenty of things in NYC that could complete the bucket list, but some could be accomplished at home too. I needed a recharge, the kind I would think only a city like New York could provide.

I think one of my biggest pet peeves, in particular with transportation, is that it is inefficient. Being able to get from point a to point b on a system that just works? It’s not easy to do unless you own a car, which is the case at home but the exact opposite in NYC. If City and County governments in the Atlanta metro would get their act together and build reliable mass transit… wishful thinking for the south I suppose.

End that rant.

I’ve found it easy on this trip to be humbled. There is a lot to experience in this world. A lot of it is bad. At least we live in a place where most of that is filtered for us. Sometimes we want to reject or change that filter for ourselves, sometimes to our own detriment, although we think we are doing what’s right. We live in a place, The U.S. where we are allowed to be free. Free to move, free to think. Are we?

Rant (again).

The last two years are obviously different, and a lot of different things are troublesome. The cracks in the building are showing. not just in this country but in our society as a whole. From my perspective, I pray that the forces that dictate the opposite, that are demonstrating their opposition to our freedom to roam, create, explore, educate and expand freedoms, would come to some enlightenment.

/rant

We reached 36,000 feet a short while ago. It’ll be time to start approaching to landing soon, only an hour from landing. I,m gonna sign off and end this random musing that I paid $5 to have an internet connection to be able to post from the air.

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April, 2022

Hello friends!

It’s been a minute since the latest update on this site. Content creation has clearly not been on the top of the priority list in life. It’s not gone, it just needs to sit on the back burner. Life dictates that sometimes. The story could be different, but I am not at the point where I work for myself. Most of us may never be.

Today is April 12th. Happy Birthday, Chris! If you read this, first round is on me!

Time to seize the day, because there is a lot I need to get done on a day off from work, and before going to a Braves game.

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Published Thoughts on Success

Rambling thoughts on Quality over quantity and success.

I wish I could say that has always been my practice. There are times at the end of the day you need to meet your stats and numbers. You need to reach towards some attainable goal. The 80% will get you by, won’t it?

It’s a lot easier when you can set your own goals and no one is interrupting your day and dictating them for you, demanding your services on demand and immediately, because someone, somewhere along the line made a mistake, or got lazy and suddenly found themselves in hot water, or some dim was left in charge to make bad decisions and turn your life into hell. That’s one way to look at things. The people part of the equation is why I have a job. On the same token, I am just as guilty of making mistakes, waiting to the last minute and creating unnecessary chaos.

Doing it wrong a thousand times over gets you nowhere. One of the things that appears to be a universal constant, success breeds success. When one surrounds themselves around successful people, open minded to sharing ideas and thoughts, intent on acting and achieving their goals, the game changes drastically in your favor.

That is what some games may teach us when we win, others may demonstrate as they trudge through their lives & overcome the obstacles of life, and what I need to figure out what’s working, what’s not and what needs to change.

Find out what successful people do and try to do it better than they can. If I fail, get up and try again a different way, their way perhaps. If that doesn’t work start over at square one, and if you still don’t succeed, reconsider your position, do your homework and tackle it when you have a better grasp of it.

That’s all for today.

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Word of the day: Efficiency

According to the Merriam-Webster: the collegiate definition of efficiency is an effective operation as measured by a comparison of production with cost (as in time, energy and money) or the ratio of the useful energy delivered by a dynamic system to the energy supplied to it.

I am probably the least efficient person I know when it comes to certain things, yet I demand efficiency in others on those same things. In many ways we are spoiled by expectations, certain logic. and things that are quite ironic.

For example, last year I wanted to obtain a Peachpass for my new car so I could use the express lanes on an upcoming vacation in Florida. The act of obtaining an object that could make a more effective commute (time wise) – to be more efficient – is housed in one of the buildings of a place that is jokingly mocked as one of the slowest operations in government – the department of motor vehicles.

To be honest, I have to give the PeachPass Administration credit, at least they kept their operation in a separate area of the building and in person service was immediate. However, their computers were down at the time I made it there. They were kind enough to call when it came back up, which was just right at the time I was arriving back at my home – so I made another half hour trip to the DMV office- only to find out their computer went down again. “Just my luck.” I thought as I left again, only to be hunted down by a worker while I was still in the parking lot to inform me the computer system was back in operation.

All that being said, had I been a little more proactive and not waited until the last minute to order a transponder in the first place, I wouldn’t have had to put up with that hassle. Ultimately all turned out well in the end, despite my lack of effort. I would not call that particular effort to being more efficient an example of being efficient.

Any time I am in a rush to get something done, the example above is a good demonstration on how things usually turn out. It takes double the time, effort and money to get the task done.

What happens though, when we allow ourselves to budget the time to accomplish a task ahead of time? We can figure out all what we want, how we want it and when we need it by and what we need to do to get it done, efficiently, ahead of time. One would think that is what we all do, right?

Wrong. Why do we end up spending a ton of time in a drive-thru line – because the dip-wad in the yellow Mercury ordered half the menu and took twenty minutes to make up their mind on the order? And ended up behind them because we were being polite and had to yield to them in traffic, and we had to yield to them because we got stopped at a red light because the cement truck ahead of us is slow, and we got put there because, ultimately, we decided to hit the snooze button.

Why in the world would I even want to complain about any of that. I should be grateful for being able to wake up, own a car, drive said car, have a nice restaurant to go to, get there safely and return safely, all while being fuming mad while doing so?

This all happens when my expectation of others is not met. When others don’t operate my way, in my view in a way that makes sense, that becomes upsetting. I know I’ve done the same to others. I’m in a different mind set about the topic. I’m in no rush or just allowing myself a lazy, relaxing, carefree moment. Should I do that more often?

My personal philosophy is not to become lazy and carefree at the expense of others as much as possible. The hard part is – I can never expect that of anyone else. And honestly, some people may be operating as efficiently as they can, and yet still be slower than I would like. We have to get over that and let it be.

I also realize that in some cases, others cannot get over it so easily, other people may escalate a situation into a conflict, become angry, upset, explode into rage and turn a situation violent. I would hope that is not the case, however we live in a world where people do behave that way. They may be misunderstood and misunderstand the situation. And when someone intoxicates themselves, well we can only go downhill from there.

But honestly, quit being a dumb ass and get out of my way so I can get back home in time to catch the start of the ball game.

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