hamtron5000

(image via daily-dragon-drawing on tumblr, specific post here)

happy spring to many - here in western Colorado we're vacillating between warm and cold in a true, classic Colorado manner.

i do these posts about praxis periodically because i seek inspiration and motivation for concrete actions i can take in my life, and you, the community of people who are into solarpunk, are creative powerhouses. with that in mind, what kind of projects are you all working on, or have you seen going down? any ideas that you're excited about doing as the weather gets warmer?

thanks for being rad, friends.

Imagine I want to create a local internet for my community. Things that will be useful, helpful, and easy to use. Ideally, setup/maintenance would be relatively straightforward too, since I will for the time being at least be running this solo.

So if I'm going to be the community SysAdmin but also have free choice of what to run, what would you think about the following ideas of things to share with people?

-Radarr (movies) -Sonarr (TV shows) -Lidarr (music) -Calbire (or Readarr I guess, for books) -Jellyfin (media streaming) -Nextcloud (file sharing)

And then as for me myself, I'd probably set up a Graylog Open instance to aggregate issues, and have a couple of separate physical servers for these different things.

Do you think that would be helpful/useful/fun for getting community members to think about the potential of hyperlocal internet?

Alternatively, are folks doing this already? If so, how do you have this kind of thing set up?

If I'm dreaming big, I would also love to set up a mesh relay to offer this intranet stuff to the community.

I'm hoping that these ideas are solarpunk enough and selfhosting enough to warrant community feedback.

Basically, I guess, are there any other community SysAdmins out there doing this kind of work?

Thanks for your time.

middle-aged IT generalist guy, United States. from left, lens cleaning cloth, REI 1L nalgene, handkerchief, coffee tumbler, ridge wallet, generic grid lined notebook, Leatherman Signal, Pilot G2 .07 pen, keys for work with included tiny flashlight, and phone case (Peak Design Mobile) to represent the phone (Pixel 7 Pro) used to take the photo.

not pictured: car/bike keys, as the wife has the car today and it was snowing so i didn't bike, and wristwatch because i forget, constantly, that i'm wearing it; it's just a part of me. generic Timex Weekender with a nylon strap. does nothing special but tells me the time, accurately, on a face i can read, even in the dark.

https://imgur.com/a/ivFq4VE

Hi all,

A coworker gifted me a free Trek 4500 from the early 2000s, largely unused in the last many years. It sat in my back yard for a few months while I thought about what to do with it; I've finally made the first movement towards having a badass utility bicycle.

Step one involved knowing that I like a more upright riding position and am not the most comfortable or agile person on a bike (that's nice-speak for "I'm a pretty fat guy" and "I never really rode bikes as a kid so I learned how in my mid-20s and am still not 100% comfortable with it"). So I bought a pair of swept-back handlebars which I then kept in a closet for a month, lol.

Finally I decided to just move forward, so I took the bike to the local bike shop and had them do their inspection, basic needed maintenance, and installation of the handlebars. Now I have something fairly comfortable which also looks kind of neat.

Four more things I have planned to do:

• Add a back rack that I have on an old trashed frame also in the backyard.
• Acquire and add fenders. While it rarely rains here, when it does I'd like to be prepared.
• Acquire and add a front rack, since this is going to be largely for groceries and errands.
• Add a bike trailer, again for groceries and errands.

Other possibilities include a different seat, a handlebar bag in lieu of a front rack, essentially anything else to make it cool and functional.

Do y'all have any recommendations for stuff that might be worth adding or doing to this bike to make it comfortable for someone overweight to commute with and do basic errands and groceries with?

well, my plan was to fix up a free entry-level mountain bike a coworker gave me - and, to be clear, i still intend to do it. however! i ran out of time, money, and know-how, all relatively quickly. and combined with that, i also decided somewhat last minute that i don't really want to drive to work any more in 2024 if i can possibly help it.

so instead i dusted off my electric chariot, my Shadowfax, my E-Motion ebike which i have named "Thora". she's my go-to ride in nice weather, but has been packed up for the winter. last night i got her out of her "garage" and charged her up, and this morning i did my quite short 1.5 mile commute in cold weather for the first time. 21 degrees F, -6 degrees C.

just wanted to say, i super appreciate all the advice shared in my other thread about winter biking. i wore my snowshoeing coat, gloves and glove liners, and a stocking cap. it worked! the only rough part was my face; it got so cold i got a headache. that said, i can just try a scarf tomorrow.

here's to functional transportation, even in the wintertime.

hi there, comrades! just curious, what do you all actually host for yourselves?

i currently run a two old PCs refurbished as Ubuntu servers and am looking at adding a Raspberry Pi 400 that i was gifted and don't know what to do with. i have ideas though!

anyway, i'd love to hear what you've found useful, helpful, and/or fun to run. my own answer will be in the comments.

hi all - i am wondering what your daily riders look like - for example above i have my ebike (a secondhand Eco-Evo by Easy Motion), which is my summer daily driver since i can charge it with solar energy and don't get as hot cycling (i'm fat and i live in a desert, which is a miserable combo sometimes).

right now i'm working on putting together a winter "acoustic" bike by putting together a bunch of parts stripped from old bikes i've salvaged or been given, but i'd love to see any ideas for what folks ride.