Week of 4th May, 2020

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Monday, 4th May

Star Wars Day

The Really Useful trays have arrived, from a non-Amazon direct order. As has an Amazon order of various SMA-BNC RF adaptors - this from a Chinese supplier, although you can't easily tell that, except by the long delivery time. That said, May 4th is much better than the original June 8th. These are for use with the FT-817.

As far as carputer bits are concerned, there's only the 5-port Fast Ethernet switch to come. That's Chinesium as well, on a June 5th predicted delivery. Also slow boat, but I couldn't see another 5-port switch that will run off 5 volts.

The 5 volts is important, because all the networking hardware is required to run off the 5VSB output of a Mini-Box DC-DC ATX PSU. More about that later.

Meanwhile, May The 4th Be With You.

Later: The UK's version of the CoViD19 track-and-trace app has been announced. And it's the entirely expected (by me, and lots of security professionals) privacy disaster. They opted for the centralised model (all contact data held centrally) rather than the decentralised model proposed by Apple and Google(!!) and endorsed by the aforesaid information security professionals. Not only that, but the (allegedly) anonymised data will not be deleted after the pandemic is over. No, the NHS will retain it, indefinitely, "for research". For which, read "snooping by all and sundry government (national and local) agencies". Not to mention Five Eyes. It's interesting to note that Google, which is normally a notorious privacy violator, is on what I consider to be the side of the angels in this.

Don't get me wrong, here. The general idea of such tracing is a good one, particularly for people like me, who are at (greater) risk. But this pile of excrement uses BlueTooth beaconing to evaluate "contact", which has many disadvantages, most notably excessive range. And it sends (semi-)anonymised IDs to a central server. It's the "semi" in that last sentence that worries me, together with the indefinite retention. And does it send precise (or even coarse) location data, and timestamps? This is getting close to Panopticon territory. Of course, it's a security service wet dream, regardless of the ability to process the firehose of data.

No, I refuse, despite the obvious utility to such as I. And, if compelled by legal fiat to install it, I will turn BlueTooth off. Or, in the alternative, install it on a phone I do not routinely carry. What I do, or where I go, is no business of anyone but myself, as long as I violate no law.

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Tuesday, 5th May

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Wednesday, 6th May

Comes this morning Postie, with a large cardboard box, shipped "Signed For", so signature required. And it's the LightSaver - at least a week earlier than I was expecting it. But early is good. Well done, all.

It shipped partly charged, so the first thing to do is charge it. It's a lovely sunny day today, so solar is obviously the way to charge. I put it out on a table in the garden, with the roll-up solar panel draped over the edge - 6 hours to charge from empty, but I suspect that it's at least part-charged. The battery gauge suggests as much. Little bits of paper in the package also recommend charging at least every 3 months when not in use.

You get the LightSaver, a cigarette lighter adaptor and a USB-A to -C cable for charging, and a cigarette lighter socket pigtail to get power out. There are also 2no USB-A sockets, and a EIAJ coaxial power socket, into which the fag lighter pigtail plugs. If I can work out which size EIAJ plug I need, I can feed the FT-817 directly from it, or, of course, the carputer. Or, indeed, any rig that takes 12 volts - which lets out the TH-D7G, because the Chinesium after-market lithium battery I use with that takes 8.4 volts at 500mA to charge.

<pause>

Query sent to Powerfilm Solar, via their webform. I await response, from Indiana, USA, where it's probably before their working day, as I type this at 13:40 BST (UTC+1)

Later: Well, so much for "6 hours to charge from solar". The LightSaver is still 2 LEDs (of 10) short of fully charged. And the sun has gone behind the trees, so less insolation on the roll-up panel. Let's see what USB-C can do for me.

And it works. Start USB charging at 17:40 BST or so. with 2 LEDs not illuminated, using one of the USB-C outlets of the Satechi USB charger brick, and with the Satechi USB-C power meter in circuit - 3 amps at 5 volts.

Jane went round to Liz this afternoon, to deliver something, probably food. While there, she wanted to show a video that another relative had sent to her, but couldn't get her iPad onto Liz's wifi. So I got asked, "Liz is on EE, isn't she? What's her password? <redacted> doesn't work".

Well, of course it doesn't. <redacted> is Liz's password for her account on EE's website, it's not the passcode for her wifi. Which I don't know. I used to, many moons ago, last time I set up a device on the wifi, before Keith died. But it should be possible to find the passphrase from another device, like Liz's Kindle. Which  has a dead battery.

So I was commanded to get a new one, and did. Delivery Friday. Meanwhile, maybe the old one will take a charge, and I can then find the wifi passphrase.

19:30. The LightSaver is now charged.

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Thursday, 7th May

Liz's current Kindle appears to have broken wifi - it cannot see any networks. There may be a switch somewhere that disables wifi, but if there is, it's unobvious. And until I can get the wifi enabled, I can't see any memorised access points, and hence cannot read passphrases - even if such is possible.

But Big River have shipped Liz's new Kindle, for delivery tomorrow.

Jane dug out her own Kindle, which is even older (it's a Kindle Keyboard) That needed putting back on the house wifi, it had either forgotten, or never known, the passphrase. And Jane is revealed to not know that passphrase either (hint: it's 3 separate words, with spaces)

The Chinesium gigabit PoE adaptors (2 of them) have arrived, via Amazon, early compared to the predicted June 5th, and one is now in use with the Fingbox. Which led to a blitz on work with the Fingbox, after I moved it out to the stairwell. I now have it configured to alert on status changes, particularly arrivals and departures of people. Jane and Jenny, so far. Next time I see Sarah and Katy, they will get added. People alerts are not quick, but they do come through.

The other gigabit PoE adapter is intended for the Invizbox 2 Pro, when it arrives (this year, next year, sometime, never...)

Powerfilm Solar have replied to my query about EIAJ coaxial power connectors. The Charge connector is 3.5x1.3, the output connector is 5.5x2.1, which means my after-market DC cables will be directly usable, without adaptors, although the Yaesu rigs will still require adapters - which I have.

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Friday, 8th May

75th Anniversary of VE Day

75 years ago, today, the Second World War ended in Europe. Hostilities continued for a few more weeks in the Far East, until VJ Day.

The BBC has several programmes commemorating this, and I have downloaded them.

Liz's new Kindle has arrived. Thus far, I've done no more than charge it. I haven't even put it on the wifi here. But it looks like Liz has mislaid the wifi passphrase, and her old Kindle, although it knows that passphrase, won't let me look for it.

This afternoon, we had a low-key, socially-distanced, tea party to celebrate VE-Day. Just Simon and Hilda, Roger and his sister Claire, Ann-Marie and Rose (one of Jane's former childminded children) and Jane and myself. Lots of interesting chat over tea and home bakes.

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Saturday, 9th May

May Day Celebration

This is the first time since WWII that the annual traditional local May Day celebration has not been held. And yes, as I say every year, it's late by calendar. The tradition is that the celebration is kept on the 2nd Saturday in May, which is today. This breaks the run of 74 consecutive celebrations, but it's not because we want to. In fact, AFAIK, the only times we haven't held the celebration since 1906 have been due to force majeure.

It looks as though we'll have to open a new Amazon account for Liz. She has been using Keith's account, via her old Kindle, for ebooks - free ones only, but since the Kindle won't let me look inside, and the account is inaccessible without a working e-mail address or mobile phone number - both of which are defunct - it's a new account or nothing. Small loss, though - as I say, Liz only reads free e-books, of which there are a lot on Amazon. And I am reminded that her router probably has the wifi passcode on a label underneath it - unless I changed it, which is not impossible.

I need to see if Ulysses still has enough charge in his battery to start, so that I can move him close enough to run a charger out, and top off the battery. Of course, given my luck, the battery is flat, and probably sulphated, and hence useless. No time like the present.

<pause>

The battery had enough charge to start Ulysses, so I moved him onto the drive, and ran the charger out. 2.5 amps - this is a small, low-rated charger, it normally never gets above 3 amps. I'll check the voltage in a while, but for the moment, 2.5 amps is good enough.

<another pause>

12.8 volts, unless my DMM is telling me 7-segment lies.

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Sunday, 10th May

Jane has been making face masks for family, friends and neighbours. This activity has come to a screeching halt, due to a lack of elastic, of which she needs 70cm per mask. So today, I ordered more, via Big River. Interestingly, the chosen vendor has an extremely steep quantity discount - 5 metres of the 5mm width (the one Jane wants) costs UKP6.40-odd, 50 metres of the same costs UKP23.45, or one-third as much per metre. 5 metres would have been way too little, so I ordered 50 metres, Delivery Saturday, but maybe as late as the following Tuesday.

I have long been vaguely wanting a Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 portable computer. Recently, eBay showed me exactly such a device, listed at UKP130, shipping included, and selling from the UK, as "working." That's the cheapest, working, model I've seen in a long time, so I banged in a "Buy it Now", and got it. Delivery from next Wednesday.

Checking the state of Ulysses' battery this morning saw him charging at 1 amp, which experience suggests is as low as it's going to get. So I disconnected all, and packed the charger away. I'll move him back to his normal resting site later - although there is room for Ulysses and Nyree on the drive, it's inconvenient (not to say "difficult") to do it.

 
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