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Showing posts from July, 2020

LavaCon 2026 and the future.

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LavaCon is a conference now going on 25 years. Its always fun at conferences where folks collaborate on what the future holds. This year I drove to Charlotte NC from Duluth GA to attend. I used the Tesla in Full Self Drive. I went park-to-park without touching the wheel for over 200 miles. It's crazy. I don't think most people understand how well it works. Lots of nay-sayers still, but it really does work. Be on guard, but enjoy. I spent some of my time "driving" while conversing with Grok as part of my daydreaming. I was discussing with Grok an idea I have of building a West system (cold molded) old style barrel-back runabout maybe 20 feet long- all varnished Mahogony. Of course this boat would have an exotic 12-cylinder engine under a transparent engine hatch between the twin cockpits. We discussed the designs, available actual study plans and pre-lofted design documents for the hull. We also discussed the best engine (perhaps a BMW N73) coupled with a Velvet Dri...
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We got a new internet provider. Its pretty fast. It took me quite awhile to get the fridge, irrigation System, TVs, and ALL the other devices moved over. Networking problems are a huge time vampire to me. Its not like I feel like I am done with network configurations. It is a matter of getting the basics working and moving on.
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Summer finally started in Duluth. It is late this year. It was a hundred degrees with humidity nearly that high. We did a little canoeing and went to see some friends. I fixed up my office Zoom Room a little bit. I have more plans for the office Zoom Room . The irrigation system that brings water from the lake is working well. The lake water is so rich with nutrients. Fish west and Fish east are together. They didn't even know about each other. Fish west has a totally new battery. I took advantage of the California battery replacement rebate. Unlike a lot of EVs, the Nissan leaf battery (although expensive) is fairly easy to replace. You can tell the cars apart by color. Fish West (California) is "Starship pearl white". Fish East (Georgia) is "Toilet white".
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I definitely have too many projects open. I am trying to focus on completing some so I can get back to the mundane ones of fixing tools and such. I made a rig to tow my canoe. The self-impossed rule is that I have to use stuff I already own, no trips to the store. It was good to get the MIG welder some use. Rev A worked fine. A few tweaks here are there and we will ride bikes (and canoe) over to the other neighborhood lake.
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We are back from our trip up-north. The farm is good. We drove 2200 miles in 4.5 days. The trailer was loaded the whole time.
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Angie is now a US Citizen!