User Blogs

In need of a low-power and small PC which could run conveniently from a small solar power system with a 24V battery bank, I browsed Aliexpress for days and finally settled on the GMKTec NucBox M5. This particular system has two specifically relevant characteristics. First, the SOC has a 15 Watt TDP, and second, it's a Zen 3 and therefore a good match for my big PC.

I am working on designing a mobile solar system for our RV conversion. I finally have most of the parts and pieces either here or on the way, so it's time to start thinking hard about what this is actually going to look like. The system is based around four 12V, 100Ah LiFePo4 batteries and a 3.6kW hybrid inverter/charger. This contains an inverter, charger, and solar controller, and also functions as a transfer switch. It's quite a bit smarter than just a transfer switch, and can control where power from the solar panels goes based on AC input and AC load.

Guess who's back, back again? I've been fiddling and fettling and I'm still not quite happy with my site, but here it is again for your consumption, hungry internet. Search still isn't working very well at all (I am having a hard time finding content I know is on the site with it, which I can easily locate with content administration) but otherwise things seem to be okay. You can now access The Hyperlogos with or without encryption, at the domain name or at www etc. I've been writing the odd article while it's been behind locked firewalls, mostly as an aid to my memory.

QGIS is an open source Geographic Information System (GIS) application which can handle most data formats, and is highly extensible with an included plugin installer. It is tolerably durable and extremely capable, and is able to produce basically any sort of map you would like. It runs on most everything and will cost you nothing. It also has a server which can be run in tandem or standalone, or in a container, and which can also serve a web client directly.

One of the coolest features of ZFS is that you can create snapshots of filesystems before making changes, and revert them later if those changes cause problems. This is great for major updates, especially involving experimental software. If you had your whole system on a single filesystem this would be very easy, but you probably don't, especially if you are using ZFS. Luckily, it is pretty simple to make and destroy these snapshots.