I’d have to check my logs, but it was something like spring or early summer. Honestly though the solar cycle has a much larger effect on propagation, and right now we’re near solar maximum so things are really hopping. At the beginning of COVID we were just starting to come out of solar minimum.

I haven’t been super active lately, so I can’t comment on how often you’d be able to make contact. But with some coordination it’s definitely doable. Especially if you get some decent metal in the air.

You still have US citizenship? You might be able to do your testing in the USA over zoom and use a reciprocal license, though I haven’t looked deeply into it.

I had a similar but very different experience. At the beginning of COVID my buddy and I got our ham radio licenses.

One of my earliest contacts was a guy in Japan, over 6000 miles away! Nothing between us but some wire strung up in a tree, and a couple of radios. Using the ionosphere to bounce our signals around the world.

So. Stinking. Awesome.

I’ve been hooked ever since.

It’s funny because it’s almost the opposite of your story, you were using the amazing new technology and infrastructure to make the trip. These days we take that very infrastructure for granted.

It’s fun to try doing it with as little infrastructure as possible!

Thanks for the recommendation!

I like the fold concept in theory, though it’s a bit exhausting protecting the screen all the time.

Being able to set the phone anywhere at an angle to take a picture has come in handy super frequently.

If this phone was full price though I think I’d be mad. I baby this screen line no tomorrow, and I’m diligent about keeping my pocket free of any dust and lint, let alone dirt or bits.

I’ve got a tiny scratch in the middle of the fold, and the entire fold area has long tiny cracks forming from folding. I’ve only had this phone for like 7 or 8 months.

My buddies broke in 30 days of buying it, and he had to fight to get it replaced.

Again, I like the idea, and I enjoy using it. But there’s still too many pain spots for me to make the jump. It’ll have to get a lot cheaper or a lot more sturdy before I’ll get another.

I had the original Galaxy Note and loved it. Then I went to oneplus one and loved it. Then I went Nexus 6 and liked it enough. Then I got the first Pixel.

I’ve been pixels ever since. But there was a deal on the Galaxy flip5, $0 up front, $300 over 2 years. I couldn’t pass it up, for the novelty if nothing else.

There’s a lot I like about this phone, but a lot more that I don’t. I’m looking forward to going back to Pixel when I can.

This phone is missing so many standard features, and so many others are locked behind Samsungs walled garden that I refuse to sign up for. It’s just a mess. I’m frequently frustrated.

As I understand it, there’s a range of sizes that are problematic, from small to micro to nano and beyond.

The problem is the more plastic we make, and the smaller it starts, the easier it is for it to get worn down into smaller and smaller bits that become more problematic for us.

One of the problems with all the macro plastics in the ocean is that that as they get churned up and baked in the UV from the sun, smaller and smaller bits break off and become part of the… Everything.

Micro plastics are so prevalent that they can’t even do proper studies on how harmful it might be to us, because there are no control groups that have no plastics inside their bodies to compare against. Even babies in the womb have plastic in them. You have plastic in you right now, almost a 100% guarantee.

There’s probably more to it than that even, but that’s my understanding of it.

I used to like the a400, had a few of them in service, but a few years ago I tried another one and it was terrible. Just… Slow… like an HDD. I did some research and apparently they changed something with the nand somewhere along the line. Did a bait and switch. I don’t remember the details but it annoyed me.

I actually needed to buy a budget SSD just today, and I got a BX500. We’ll see how it goes. I know not to expect much from a drive without DRAM, but at least I know that going in.

This happened for me with the scene in one of the new star trek movies where they play beastie boys while busting out of a cloud or something. Idk, it was a really cool scene, but I was mad that I’d already seen it in the trailer. It’s ludicrous. I still complain about it to my wife to this day.

Thanks!

This is very informative thanks. I’ve printed a lot of PLA on my Creality glass plate with no issues, but I recently started with PETG and it’s insane how much harder it sticks.

I learned through trial and error to only remove it while the bed is still hot, but even then it really sticks too well.

Is this legit? Or are you making a spaghetti joke? I actually can’t tell lol

Thanks, I thought of something even better. Slap Linux on that thing! Wipe the whole drive on “accident”. Linux is way more innocuous than pirate Windows 🤷‍♂️

Go with humility first, you screwed up. Follow it up with a joke about how you discovered a flaw in the configuration of work laptops, and now they can fix it to prevent someone else from being able to do that 🤷‍♂️ I think you’ll be ok

Yes.

I would also like to know the answer to this

Thanks, I guess I still don’t understand though.

I see now that watts and therefore kW are rates. So it’s silly to add another rate to the end by appending “per hour”. But what is the time component of the watt calculation? To me it’s essentially instantaneous, even if that’s wrong. Even if that breaks the math, it’s still essentially true on a macro scale. And if it’s instantaneous, or even just close like microseconds, then it doesn’t hurt to apend another rate to the end, does it?

So why not use it? Batteries come with capacities rated in Wh and kWh, and it weirdly still makes sense to me because of my usage rate per hour example in my last comment.

And if we shouldn’t use it, then what should we use?

Is this problem we’re discussing, one that only occurs if you try to get really accurate with the numbers and times? Because for my uses it’s always seemed to work well enough.

Not being argumentative, just trying to learn, thanks

Thank you. My favorite thing, can never not think of it

Wait wait Wait, can you give me more on this kWh thing? I thought I understood this already.

A single kW is a unit of power, literally 1000 watts.

A kWh is a unit of energy, as in stored or delivered. Draw 500 watts for 2 hours? That’s a kWh. Or have a battery that can hold 1 kWh, then assuming 100% efficiency you could draw 1000 watts from it for an hour before it was empty.

All of this is kW times hour, I would say? But in my mind I would interchangeably say per hour as well, they feel the same.

Obviously I’m wrong, but I’d like to know why lol

True, it’s more of an “everything goes in the round hole” kind of bag. And I’m occasionally swapping things in and out of it, but still. When I travel for only a couple days, I use it at a suitcase. When I hike locally, I use it as a trail pack. When I’m not sure what I’ll be doing that day or where I’ll end up? I load it with a mix of clothes, steam deck, laptop, and other goodies I might want.

I have an actual suitcase, and I’m gonna buy an actual backpack for hiking and camping, but still. I find it very fitting for my needs.

When I need to clean a lot into it? I can, and it’s huge, and I can strap stuff to the back and sides.

When I only have a couple things? It compresses down pretty small and lightweight. I’ll never ditch it 😬

I love my thinkgeek backpack of holding, I’ve used and abused that thing and it still keeps kicking.

Legitimately my buddy has the same bag but doesn’t use it as often, mine is slightly lighter brown I think because of all the sunshine it’s seen.

I’m sad that you can’t buy it anymore. Some of the thinkgeek guys are at rollacrit now, and they have their messenger bag of holding, a spiritual successor. I haven’t looked closely, but from a glance it’s not even close to the original.

I don’t know what I’ll do when my bag dies, but from the looks of it, that will be a long while.

That’s me more or less