We haven’t found the upper limit yet, but with more research funding we can get closer

I’d like to keep just one golf course but add giant versions of mini golf obstacles. Golfers would probably hate it but they need some more whimsy

The community chores category is really interesting! Do you remember what kinds of work would fall into that? Or have any in mind?

I completely agree! I have much the same sentiment in the section “The work people take on despite the conditions and poor pay”

Reticulum is a decent candidate for this (in that it’s purpose-built for more than texting).

There’s a couple good beginner’s introductions here:

https://www.carstenboll.dk/reticulum-a-beginners-guide/

https://github.com/samuk/awesome-reticulum/

Reticulum is a whole cryptography-based network stack which feels like it was developed from the ground up out of radio networking protocols. It can run over the same LoRa radio devices Meshtastic and Meshcore can use, but it can also use ad-hoc WiFi, data radios, modems, serial lines, amateur radio digital modes, and it can even tunnel through the Internet (meaning you could set up a local mesh of LoRa radios, old personal computers and laptops, and whatever wireless routers and other networking gear you can find, connect a neighborhood together using Reticulum as the underlying network, then connect that through the internet to Reticulum networks anywhere in the world. You can write software to run on Reticulum, and it already has a bunch of programs like NomadNet which can do encrypted messaging (same goal as Meshtastic and Meshcore) but also host and view text-based web pages and I think some other stuff. In a lot of ways, this one feels like the meshnet you’d see in a scifi book, an all-encrypted network stack that allows you to just link together any old hardware you can scrape together and rebuild a decentralized version of the internet grounded in much more secure protocols. (I’ll admit I straight up don’t understand how a lot of this works on the network/cryptography level, it actually seems similar to Tor in some ways but I don’t understand that very well either.)

Thank you! I’ll take a look!

I realized I never shared the resource page I ended up putting together but here’s what I made with the links and info provided: https://wiki.slrpnk.net/writing:exurbs_in_the_solarpunk_transition

It’s an ongoing project so we’re always happy to add more content

X Minus One is amazing! We have a lot of fun with that on long drives.

This is a great fit, thank you!

Thanks! I found them over on the subreddit and have started digging through their articles. Good to know about any bias.

Thanks, I’ll try to find a copy (or just read the internet archive copy) - it sounds like it’s long enough and covers enough that there should be something on rural areas

I’ll take a look! I’m aiming to have more sections on library economics so it might tie into that too

This is awesome news! Thanks for letting me know! I’ve been waiting to see these sails get real world use

The big display screens made for corporations are supposed to be high quality TV hardware minus the ‘smart’ features - if you can find a used one without burn-in. But I don’t know specifics for makes or brands, sorry. I get my TVs from ewaste so the goal there is mostly just to limp it along while ignoring whatever problem caused the original owner to throw it away.

There are some interesting oven designs that use rooftop solar collectors (mirrored troughs with a tube of transfer fluid running through them) connected to normal-ish form factors ovens downstairs. It’s basically the same setup for solar steam generators (if you run a business that uses a lot of steam). The only problem is it’s a direct use of the heat without much storage (from what I remember) so you can’t really start baking before sunup.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/04/23/aggressive-tiger-mosquitoes-are-spreading-through-europe-how-can-we-protect-ourselves

There are also some cool designs for direct solar that point a reflector dish into a hole in a wall (the inside of the hole is the inside of an oven in the kitchen). Tamara solar kitchen has one but there are lots of similar versions.

This sounds rad, which protocol/meshnet system are you using?

I’ve got two-ish projects that might count: I’ve been reading up on Reticulum mesh networking, particularly with LoRa nodes. I like the idea of that kind of network, but have no idea what amount of activity I’ll find nearby despite living in a pretty big city. I’m still at the stage of figuring out what to get and how I’d like to use it.

I’m also looking at setting up a Gemini server (the gopher-based web alternative protocol thing, not google’s dumb LLM) but I’m a bit skittish about anything that puts a hole into my home network, especially a service made by such a small group because I don’t know what kind of security holes might have been missed (I’m certainly not likely to spot them). Ideally I could set it up through Reticulum, so it’d be air gapped from my regular network, and it appears that someone has made that work, but I think it’d only be accessible to other folks on Reticulum and I’m not sure if that’d be worth it at first. We’ll see!

My active project at the moment probably barely counts because I’m going full analog. I’ve got two antique Leich 901 crank telephones (like an actual crank, not a dial. Turning it generates AC and rings all the phones on the network).

I plan to use them to rig an intercom between the kitchen and workshop. This’ll involve some woodworking as I’m making a nice box for the talk battery for one, and a display board with a voltmeter and two plexiglass-covered cutouts for displaying the wiring and batteries for the workshop end.

I got them all wired up with some really ugly splices and was impressed - they can ring each other and the sound quality is quite good when talking, no repairs needed! Attaching them together is rock simple, just a few wires, plug and play. But my plan is to wire in some old rj11 phone jacks to the display board and battery box so they can (mis)use standard phone cables to talk to each other. In fact I’m hoping to use some of the old wiring already in place in my apartment.

Okay, that makes more sense, thanks

If they’re not generating enough to backfeed even at peak, and they can detect when the power cuts off and deactivate until it comes back, is there an actual safety/legal issue?

The poor C-suite at that utility company already needs to find ever-increasing profits on a basically stable business model and now consumers can just precipitate electricity out thin air? That’s moving things in the wrong direction! Thank goodness they basically own our local government and shareholder value can be maintained.

Lore might be a good candidate - one narrator relaying stories from history that are dark or spooky in one way or another. It’s quite fun and well-produced.

https://www.lorepodcast.com/

Be warned that he approaches history from a folklore standpoint and will sort of tell you the spooky story version of what happened and how it impacts modern day pop culture - so if you compare one of his (fairly short) episodes on a well-docunented famous murder or something to a deep-dive series or book on the subject it will be missing information.