efaardvark

Apart from the backup power it's a bit of an experiment as well. I'm using it to test out some of the technology that's been developed since I put up the old PV system 25 years ago. I can't build or install a new system all by myself anymore but I've found over the years that things go much smoother when you can tell the contractors exactly what you want and how to do it.

A few weeks ago I finished putting a new roof on the house. Unfortunately to do that I had to remove the solar panels that were up there. They were part of an old system that we put together way back in 2001 so time for an upgrade anyway, right? Well, after paying nearly $30k for the new roof I'm a bit low on cash so that project is going to have to wait. In the meantime I ordered a couple single panels for minimal emergency power if SoCal Edison pulls a PSPS and shuts down my power. Took delivery today. They're a bit larger than I expected but not too heavy or awkward to wrangle. The specs say they're rated at 320W each so between the 2 of them they'll generate nearly 4kWh on an average sunny day here in SoCal. Probably more like 3kWh if I'm being realistic but that's still easily enough to make the morning coffee, keep the cellphone and laptop charged, and keep the food in the refrigerator from going bad. Maybe even enough for a bit of air conditioning on particularly sunny days. I already have a charge controller, an inverter, and a 1200Wh battery that should work with the panels to provide the AC output and power overnight. I'll be wiring all the pieces together and setting the panels up on the driveway in the sun this weekend to give them a test run.

Welcome!

This is cursed...

For the record, my OP (quoted by AshleyZirka) had none of the words "ferrari", "rental", or "dubai" in it.

Mostly smokey, with chance of fire in some places due to the "Sandy" fire.

The first time I saw Mimi's hair ornament I said, "brass knuckles? This oughta be interesting." Turns out....

drat.. sounds like I'll be taking it off my list. Thanks for the info.

Is it just me or is Release that Witch falling behind? It's on my to-watch list but I haven't watched any beyond the first few because I usually wait until the end of the season to binge. However, I've noticed that crunchy hasn't added any new episodes for a while now. Is it done already? Studio having money problems? ??

More early-access Hytale. Managed to get some decent armor and weapons so I did a little more exploration of the caverns. Found a lot of lava, a bunch more iron, and some silver. Managed to not fall in the lava. The iron I can definitely use. Not sure what the silver can be used for yet.

Roofers finally finished so today I had to write a big check. Tomorrow I get to call around to find someone to paint the exterior.

Played a little bit more early-access Hytale. I've spend most of my time in the game so far just working on farming and getting familiar with building mechanics. I've done a tiny bit of caving to mine copper and iron, but really just enough of both to make tools like a hoe and watering can for the farming. I went deep enough to know that at some point the environment underground turns into lava and scary monsters but given my lack of proper armor and weaponry I avoided interaction and exploration at/beyond that level. Crop farming works pretty much like in the other block game. Use a hoe to till dirt into farmland. Plant seeds in the tilled soil. Wait. Plants require light to grow so adding a light source to your fields will let them grow at night and adding water from a watering can a-la Stardew Valley will shorten the growing time even more. Unfortunately animals can't be bred. (Yet?) Babies can be found in the wild and can be tamed but they don't seem to grow into adults or produce anything. Adults can also be tamed but can't produce babies You can get milk from (adult) cows, wool from sheep, and eggs from chickens. Milk can be turned into food so there's a use for cows. Chickens can produce eggs, which can be eaten directly as food. Sheep/wool I haven't found a use for yet but there's rumors of future loom and weaving mechanics. Most food restores health when eaten. You can eat wild/raw food but generally it doesn't restore much health. Crops, milk, and eggs can be used as ingredients in recipes to make cooked food however, which is typically much better at restoring health and can even provide short-term stamina or healing buffs, making farming and cooking valuable skills for adventuring.

peanut butter.. and honey

I enjoyed it. Probably not in my top 10 but I've re-watched it a couple times now. For me it's kind of in the same category as Acchi Kocchi, another one I enjoyed.

Cold and rainy here today so this morning with my 1st cup of coffee I'm pseudo-randomly clicking around in youtube looking for gaming ideas. Found one KSP machinima that triggered nostalgia for seeing the old Pan-Am logo on a spaceplane. It's been a while since I played with my Kerbals. I might have to do some KSP this afternoon.

Welcome!

Been playing Hytale this evening. As expected it's a lot like Minecraft. The blocky looks and a lot of the building and crafting mechanics will make any Minecraft player feel right at home. It's still a sandbox that gives the player a lot of freedom and at this point in the early-access cycle there's not a lot of plot that's been implemented. There's mining and smelting for metals and punching trees for wood. But it's also a lot more structured than Minecraft. Or at least it looks like it will be at some point. (There are areas literally labeled in game with "WIP" signs.) There's also game elements that are definitely not pulled from minecraft. One is "memories" that you collect as you encounter different animals as you wander around the world and then take back to a "forgotten temple". Once registered there they unlock or enhance game elements such as crafting recipes. I've only got a few hours of gameplay to go by but so far I'm liking it. For an early-access game it's surprisingly glitch-free as well, at least here on my linux system. Definitely interested in seeing how it develops going forward.

Welcome! I hear you! What would Itami do??

The soundtrack for this one is awesome.

So Minecraft v26.2 Snapshot 3 has an option to switch between Vulkan and OpenGL! A quick and completely unscientific test showed that OpenGL was using 87% of my GPU to get 484fps while Vulkan used 57% of the GPU to give me 562fps on the same scene. Not bad considering that Vulkan is the new kid and likely still has some room for optimization. Then there's the whole shaders-in-vanilla thing that Vulkan enables as well.