No money for projects? That sounds like my life.

The level of involvement here is going to largely depend on the vehicle and how many sensors/cameras and other crap the manufacturer shoved in the car. Something like a Tesla? The only viable way forward is to hack the onboard computers that collect and report the data, there’s just too many codependent systems.

Most other cars, the only cameras installed are ones that you can access, like reverse cameras, plus maybe one for Lane keep or something? Which isn’t facing the cabin, the only risk there is that someone will know that you’re driving on a road, and maybe get your location if they’re really good at Geo guesser, they get lucky with a road sign, or they have GPS info (which is more likely). Microphones, as far as I know the only cabin mic in most cars is for handsfree operation of phones and whatnot… Disabling that would ruin that functionality.

I’m sure there are cars that are more invasive on these fronts, but I dunno how much I’d want to bark up that tree.

For sensors, stuff like seat pressure sensors actually ties into SRS safety systems, so I’m not sure I’d want to mess with that. It could disable the passenger side airbag if the pressure switch is disabled… The driver side basically can’t be disabled, the car doesn’t go if there’s no driver, so even if the pressure switch is there and disabled, the SRS should still function. Belt sensors (to tell if the belts are fastened) all tie in here too.

A lot of the external sensors are either for adaptive cruise, driver awareness, or safety systems (like crash detection for SRS).

I’m just not sure going and unplugging a bunch of sensors is the way to go.

I would assume that the data collection would come from the CANbus, so it can operate without interfering with the functions of the car, or from the BCM/ECU or other various computers around the car directly.

If the monitoring device is independent of other systems, either remove it, or sabotage the connection between it and the CANbus. Should cover most of the data being collected.

This is a good point. I’ve been mulling around with the idea of building an EV from the chassis of a car I’ve liked since the first time I set eyes on it. The Pontiac Fiero. Specifically the 86-88 GT.

It just looks like a wicked fun car and with the power of an EV driving it, then it probably is.

I don’t have the space, money, or time, for a project car like that, but if I ever do, then that’s definitely on a short list of possibilities. My only real concern is with insurance. I’ll for sure be doing everything I can to bring the safety standards up to something modern (air bags, etc), and to reinforce the frame and make sure everything is copacetic, but I don’t think insurance will care, they’ll see an 80’s era vehicle, that has been heavily modified…

I dunno. I’ll make that call when I get there. The only real “new” features I care about are adaptive cruise, and Android auto/Apple car play… Everything else can be very bare bones… I have a very short list of things I care about beyond that, almost all of which were standard in some level of trim for the original car.

The vehicle has standard GM mounting points for the engine, same as any 3.4-3.8 V6 supercharged or NA engine from that era, so I’m sure some EV conversion kit will fit into the frame with little if any modifications needed.

Worth considering at least.

This isn’t limited to Linux. There’s a ton of “why would you want to do that?” Type unhelpful comments everywhere.

This stuff is why I’m apprehensive of buying anything remotely new.

The problem is, I also don’t want to burn prehistoric forests to travel.

So this sits in opposition to the fact that I want to travel around using the light from the sun as my primary energy source.

For those that can’t read between the lines, I want an EV, that I can charge by solar.

I am also aware of the slate truck. I have thoughts on it, but it’s worthy of consideration.

You could just pull out the LTE/IoT module, and disconnect the service…

Whether that will have major down sides for the usability of the vehicle is the big question.

Not yet.

Probably not. That’s basically a full week of take home pay for me.

I definitely want it. If it’s cheap, I definitely want two.

Actually everything they recently announced looks great. I really want to try to frame.

I gave up on VR after the oculus CV1 got canned. I bought one, got a few decent years out of it in spite of “meta” buying the company and making it shit, but when they stopped selling the connection cables for the CV1, which was the part that broke most frequently, I just backed the hell off and thought to myself, “this shit is cool, but it’s clearly not established enough to be predictable, maybe some day”.

Whelp, I think we’re finally there.

Until now, you had the “option” of either something mainstream like the quest 7 (or whatever number they’re on), or you can pick from either the index, which was on the pricy side for what you were getting, or the bigscreen beyond, which required an iPhone to scan your face so they can make a custom face shield just for you (and to get more you had to scan those people in and get face shields for them at a premium). Anything else was so niche that you probably were not getting support, if the company even existed in a few years to support you.

Now? A first party VR that actually looks good and works natively with steam…

So yeah… Where do I sign up?

I’ve wanted a steam deck for years but I don’t game on the go so I can’t really justify it, but the rig I’m using for couch gaming is getting pretty dated… So this seems like a great time to get back into everything… Though, finding the money I need to get the systems is going to be a challenge…

I hope this name sticks.

fracking clankers.

As a network guy: Ethernet over power lines can be fine, but you basically need to be an electrician, and have a working knowledge of how powerline Ethernet works before you can get there.

Even if you do, or stumble into a working setup by accident, you can absolutely end up with all kinds of bad things happening because power lines are notoriously bad with crosstalk and EMI, both on the wire and emitted from it.

If you absolutely cannot do rj45/Ethernet runs, and WiFi isn’t viable for whatever reason (or even if it is), look into MoCA. Thank me later.

It won’t cost you any more than powerline, and you’ll get a cleaner signal, more consistent performance, and overall a better experience.

In order of preference, I prefer the following connection options:

• fiber
• Ethernet
• MoCA
• Wi-Fi
• powerline

Fiber, not because it’s faster or better (there are many ways it’s actually worse than Ethernet), but because it’s almost impossible to interfere with, unless someone physically disconnects the cable (or breaks/cuts it). As long as the line is protected from damage, it will give the most consistent performance.

Ethernet, more robust than fiber in terms of physical disability, can be faster at propagating data (the time it takes to get from one end of the cable to the other), but only works over relatively short runs (100m or less, by spec), and it’s susceptible to alien interference and crosstalk. However, it is far more rugged than fiber.

MoCA is half duplex but shares a lot of the benefits of Ethernet. The main improvement here is that coax is commonly present in most homes already, while Ethernet is relatively uncommon in homes, so many homes are already wired in a way that works with MoCA.

Wi-Fi is also half duplex, it can go faster than Ethernet under the right conditions (which are almost impossible to achieve in real world conditions). Propagation is as fast as Ethernet but it has more overhead, and it is much more prone to interference from other Wi-Fi networks or other things operating on the same, unlicensed, bands.

Powerline should only be considered if all of the other options are disqualified for some reason.

Also, anyone using wifi extenders (not talking about mesh or anything, just actual Wi-Fi extenders), should probably not be doing that. Wi-Fi extenders are often just retransmitting the packets on the same wifi channel, which dramatically cuts the available bandwidth. You’ll end up with a stronger connection, but a much slower one.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

What about piefediles?

Maybe. But in my experience, the most valuable team members are not the ones with the experience, but the ones that are curious and resourceful.

Lol. I think it’s more likely that I’ll win the lottery than users RTFM enough for me to worry about my job.

It’s just a funny thought that any of them would try.

I work in IT. I’ve read so many manuals that I don’t need to read manuals almost ever.

As soon as you learn the design language for stuff, it usually just makes sense where to find stuff and how to fix it. It’s rare that I have a problem that I can’t solve just by looking at it.

If I ever get stuck, guess what? I RTFM. That’s basically my job. I RTFM because end users can’t be arsed to do it themselves. If everyone read the manual, I’d be out of a job.

The inky blacks of my terminal window match both my apparel and my soul.

Jokes on you. I use Ubuntu with no GUI.

I like that this is both true and false.

The memory management of an OS is almost always entirely dependent on what it’s doing or designed to do. Linux and Windows are able to do similar things, but are rarely tasked with the same workloads.

Windows desktop (aka, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, 11) are designed to be more pretty and run desktops that the user will see/interact with, etc. I will say that Microsoft knows their audience and the windows prefetch stuff is quite good, all things considered…

Windows server on the other hand… Until recently, it still shipped with IE11 as the only browser. Of course as soon as you started it, the whole system would complain and tell you to go download edge… Server is a beast unto itself.

Additionally, as an IT support person, I always prefer people have more RAM than they need, rather than less. Getting that figure just right is nigh impossible. And if you have the RAM, you should use it, right? Because otherwise, why would you have it? It becomes a waste of money.

Prefetch and memory caching is a good use of memory, and a big reason why Windows has very little memory actually “free” at any given time… I’ll note, I’m mentioning free memory, not available memory.

It’s a fascinating topic, honestly.

With all that being said, I’m not saying that Windows is actually better in any way. My entire point is that there’s merit to the different methodologies of the different operating systems. They’re built differently and that is a good thing.

I work in IT support, the options for good, and Foss software on the technician side of most RMM tools… Vanishing small, if any.

There’s a lot of platforms that support monitoring and management on the client side, but when it comes to technician side tools, GFL. Most vendors don’t even mention it at all, fewer support anything other than Windows. FOSS isn’t concerned about the IT support folks because almost all FOSS is made by people who can build their own computer and don’t need support.