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I joined Bluesky a month or so ago and one of the things that has caught my attention is that it seems a lot of folks who post there are posting the books they’ve read, are reading, or plan to read. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I have been known to do that myself. What caught my eye, though, was the number of people who boast about the number of books they’ve read or, as the new year begins, have set goals for how many books they will read this year. Can I just say I think that’s the stupidest thing you can possibly do? ...

Many months ago I started hearing a good bit about a technology referred to as “MeshTastic”. MeshTastic is a decentralized mesh communications network that uses LoRa radios to provide communications, particularly in situations where other technologies such as cell service are not available. The first question, of course, is “what the heck is a LoRa radio?” I’m going to avoid getting into the weeds here, but LoRa is a portmanteau of ‘LOng RAnge’ and refers to a technique to communicate over long distances. That technique involves “Chirp Spread Spectrum” to encode information in “chirps” or short pulses of data. Because much of the data transmitted by IoT devices is just a few bytes, LoRa is an ideal technology for IoT and, in fact, is often used for exactly that purpose. A LoRa device, for example, could be used to communicate with an remotely controlled gate, issuing commands to open or close the gate, or to check its status. ...

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. Not only because of the holidays, but because my brain has been on a massive overload of information. I love learning and tend to be very curious about, well, damn near everything. While mucking around in my office/shop I pulled out my MeshTastic devices and started playing around with them again. That required that I do a bit of research to get up to speed and add to my understanding of that technology. And down the rabbit hole I went. In looking for information on MeshTastic I ran across MeshCore, so I started researching that and went through the process of installing that on my devices and experimenting with that technology. ...

After years of having only a single option for internet service in our area, two – count them: TWO – new providers have moved into our neighborhood in the past few months. Both of those providers boast that they provide fiber internet and in their marketing push the idea that fiber automatically means faster internet. I call BS. In all honesty, I truly considered switching to one of the fiber providers early on, but then really began to think about what I would be getting for my money. I realized that it was just hype and that the whole “speed” thing is essentially marketing: all aroma and no substance. ...

In my previous post I noted that I was getting back into Ham Radio. For those not familiar, Ham offers a ton of opportunities for experimentation, learning, and exploring new ideas and concepts. Part of what brought me back to radio was messing around with Meshtastic, a technology that allows for unlicensed communication between devices. It is commonly used for IoT type scenarios, but can also be used for messages ala SMS. Unlike SMS, though, Meshtastic and similar “LoRa” technologies don’t rely on an intact infrastructure. That means that it can be used for areas that don’t have cellular access and for those times when the cellular network may be down. ...

Way back in 2017 I obtained my Ham Radio License. I spent a bunch of money on all the ’toys’ that go along with that hobby and actually spent a good bit of time working some of the digital modes over the HF frequencies. I routinely hit South Africa as well as a bunch of places in Europe. Then we moved. After we moved I had so many irons in the fire that I didn’t set up my ham gear again. In fact, I actually sold my HF rig because, to be honest, I didn’t feel like I was getting enough out of the hobby to continue it. Not to mention that it is expensive. ...

My wife and I decided to take our Grand-daughter to the “Christkindle” German Christmas Market in Lawrenceville, GA this past weekend. Now, as a general rule I’m not terribly fond of these kinds of events because of the crowds and the prices. Still, it was something different and it seemed like a good way to get our granddaughter out of the house and engaged in the world around her. The trip down there took about an hour and traffic wasn’t bad (which was a surprise because traffic in the Atlanta area is always bad!). Parking, too, was very easy, though we ended up parking a fair distance away because we didn’t know the area and didn’t know that there was parking much more convenient. Well, actually we followed the instructions from the website that suggested this was the best place to park. ...

It’s hard to believe, but in a few days, I will celebrate sixty-seven trips around the sun. I have now lived longer than both of my parents and several of my uncles. Given a family history of deaths at younger ages for the men, I’m just a tad surprised that I’m still kicking. And kicking well! It’s odd, though. I don’t feel 67. I feel more like 25 or 30. Well, except for the bad knee and tweaky shoulder. In fact, I actually feel better today than I did, say, twenty years ago. ...

Over the last few days I’ve been playing with a number of new options for the internet. I’ve written about micro.blog and an increasing interest in the “indieweb” and I am continuing to explore the opportunities available there. The one thing that has surprised me is that I’ve become interested in the Fediverse. If you’re not familiar with that term, well, which rock have you been under? Seriously, the “Fediverse” is decentralized network of individual servers that interconnect so that you can experience the whole network even though you’re only signed into the one server. With a few exceptions each server is designed around specific community interests, whether that’s technical interests, social interests, and so on. There is likely a Fediverse community for pretty much any interest you may have. And, unlike X or Facebook and other corporate entities, the Fediverse is distributed: No one owns it, no one entity controls it, and no one entity can shut it down. Oh, and it’s free to join and use. ...

In Rolf Potts’ Vagabond’s Way one of the many lessons he shares is that traveling allows one to be “someone else”. Reading that reminded me of something I’ve often thought of through the years: Who would I be if I was not who I am? Growing up we develop into the person that we think others want us to be. What I mean by that is that who we become is strongly influenced by our parents, our peers, and our community. We want to fit in, we want other’s approval and acceptance, so we follow a path that we perceive is expected of us. How we dress, how we perceive the body, how we pursue a career, a marriage, a life, is all mediated by the expectations we perceive from others. ...