ndupont's recent activity
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Comment on If you had up to US$250 to get one person into a hobby you're interested in, what would you do to get them started? in ~hobbies
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Comment on If you had up to US$250 to get one person into a hobby you're interested in, what would you do to get them started? in ~hobbies
ndupont Link ParentOk, let's go ! So, you'll learn the beginner method for the cube by following this really excellent video, as a professional communicator excels at transmitting the very little knowledge he has on...Ok, let's go !
So, you'll learn the beginner method for the cube by following this really excellent video, as a professional communicator excels at transmitting the very little knowledge he has on the matter, you'll learn with him. Following actual cubers is a dead-end. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-R0KrXvWbc
You'll want a Moyu RS3M 2021 maglev cube for around $10 (or just the magnetic one is super nice too).
First solve took me over one hour and a half. After a few weeks of practive you should be below 45 seconds. After that you have to invest 10+ algorithms to reach 30 sec, then over 80 to go below 20, diminishing returns.For the 3D printer, a Creality Ender2 is small cheap and really good, an Ender3 is probably more common and to be found second hand for $100. You can slice using PrusaSlicer or Cura, find models on Thingiverse.com and make your own designs easily with Tinkercad with little CAD knowledge required, that's basically a kid app'.
Regarding the Raspberry Pi, I had quite a good knowledge of Linux, which helps, and went deep in because of the 3D printer and Octoprint in particular. If starting with the 3D printer and Octoprint, the latest videos of Chris Riley (Chris's basement) on the subject is the very entry. https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisRiley/videos
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Comment on If you had up to US$250 to get one person into a hobby you're interested in, what would you do to get them started? in ~hobbies
ndupont LinkA Rubik's cube, a 3D printer and a raspberry pi. With that budget I can turn any willing person into the nerdiest nerd that has ever nerded.A Rubik's cube, a 3D printer and a raspberry pi.
With that budget I can turn any willing person into the nerdiest nerd that has ever nerded. -
Comment on How many of you wouldn't be alive if it weren't for modern medicine? in ~talk
ndupont LinkIt seems like I was too large to go through the pelvis, we would have both died when I was born. Note that a c-section is not the most modern thing eitherIt seems like I was too large to go through the pelvis, we would have both died when I was born. Note that a c-section is not the most modern thing either
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Comment on Raspberry pi zero w for running pihole (or home web server) - anything good/necessary accessories? in ~tech
ndupont (edited )Link ParentYou're welcome. I have quite the bunch of Raspberry Pi in operation. I'll go chronologically. Pi1B running the AcceleROB project, the O.G. Raspberry Shake initiative from the Royal Observatory of...You're welcome. I have quite the bunch of Raspberry Pi in operation.
I'll go chronologically.- Pi1B running the AcceleROB project, the O.G. Raspberry Shake initiative from the Royal Observatory of Belgium, which awaits for the next big earthquake expected to come soon so they can map the the underground geologic characteristics of the country with a network of ca 100 raspberry Pi.
- A pair of Pi3A+ running Octoprint and Klipper, each managing a 3D Printer
- Pi0W running Octoprint on a 3rd 3D printer - it takes a few minutes to boot and catch its breath
- Pi3B+ running my home automation based on Node Red and Mosquitto, backed with a 'Pi UPS' power supply that provides about 8 hours of autonomy
- Pi3A+ running my ADSB feed : dump1090, FlightRadar24, Flight Aware, ADSB exchange
- Pi3B+ running Cloudflared ingress tunnels, HA Proxy, lighttpd as a web server as well as Node Red to serve my personal weather station data. It also runs Pihole with Cloudflared DNS of HTTPS tunnel, with GravitySync, a PiVPN (Wireguard) instance, SSH opened to the internet (hardened), fail2ban
- Pi4B 4GB running Logitech Media Server with my music library, an apt-cacher-ng instance, PiHole with Cloudflared DoH, GravitySync, PiVPN, hardened SSH, fail2ban
- Pi0W connected to my weather station receiver, running a custom python script to poll the data and send it to the home automation instance of Node Red, and a bash script that uses NC to store the Unihedron SQM-LE sky monitoring (measure of the darkness of the sky for amateur astronomy purposes)
- Pi02W as a central syslog (not used)
- Pi4B 8GB that was used as a desktop computer (not used anymore)
The home lab part of it is all together in a box, all attached on a DIN rail, with a 60W 10 ports Anker USB power supply and a 8 port gigabit switch stripped naked to save space. All the DIN brackets were of course 3D printed.
It consumes 16 watts when idle, I'm really contemplating moving to a Proxmox setup on a N100-based mini PC.
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Comment on Raspberry pi zero w for running pihole (or home web server) - anything good/necessary accessories? in ~tech
ndupont LinkI did start with a pair of Pi Zero W years ago, then moved to a Pi4 and a Pi3, both running Cloudflared for DNS over HTTPS upstream. From my various tests with DNSBench, the ethernet connection...I did start with a pair of Pi Zero W years ago, then moved to a Pi4 and a Pi3, both running Cloudflared for DNS over HTTPS upstream.
From my various tests with DNSBench, the ethernet connection does not add any significant performance advantage against WiFi. The switch from the Pi Zero W to beefier Pis was to make sure I use a recent Cloudflared daemon (not compatible anymore with Pi1 / Pi zero W architecture), as well as save a few watts as the Pi4 and Pi3 were already providing other services anyway. -
Comment on What online subscriptions do you pay for? in ~tech
ndupont Link ParentI would be curious to see that happening in Europe. But if they don't want my money, I could live without their service. The fast delivery of Amazon is not what it used to be anyway... And I often...I would be curious to see that happening in Europe. But if they don't want my money, I could live without their service. The fast delivery of Amazon is not what it used to be anyway... And I often place orders on amz NL/DE/UK/BE instead of just FR where I'm 'Prime', shipping if free above 25€ or something similar.
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Comment on What online subscriptions do you pay for? in ~tech
ndupont (edited )LinkMedia : Amazon Prime 69.9€/y (video), Youtube Premium Family 17.99€/m, Nebula/Curiosity Stream bundle $19.99/y, acces to a digital edition of a national newspaper is included for free with my ISP...Media : Amazon Prime 69.9€/y (video), Youtube Premium Family 17.99€/m, Nebula/Curiosity Stream bundle $19.99/y, acces to a digital edition of a national newspaper is included for free with my ISP subscription (worth 7.99€/m)
Home services/automation : Ring doorbell (39.99€/y) , Kami cloud (security cameras, 54€/y), IFTTT ($1.99/m)
Network : Dyn.com (~35€/y), Cloudflare registrar (~20/y), Bitwarden (10€/y)
Patreon : 10-15€/month on Youtube creators.All that gives a total of roughly 700€/y or 60€/month, Youtube Premium familfy being the most expensive but totally worth it to get red of advertisement for the whole family.
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Comment on What online subscriptions do you pay for? in ~tech
ndupont Link ParentI think I also started at 50€/y years ago, and it's now 69.90€/y As fast delivery is a thing of the past and I compare prices between a bunch of amazon locations, I think only Prime Video (which...I think I also started at 50€/y years ago, and it's now 69.90€/y
As fast delivery is a thing of the past and I compare prices between a bunch of amazon locations, I think only Prime Video (which my wife watches a bit) is keeping me subscribed -
Comment on How frequently do you shower? in ~life
ndupont LinkI shower once a day in the week and usually have a long peaceful bath on the weekend, sometimes skipping a weekend day when it's not too warm and I haven't had much activityI shower once a day in the week and usually have a long peaceful bath on the weekend, sometimes skipping a weekend day when it's not too warm and I haven't had much activity
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Comment on Building a flight tracker from a Raspberry Pi in ~hobbies
ndupont (edited )LinkI've been feeding ADSB with a Rapberry Pi for quite a while now. Starting with an off the shelf SDR was fun, but getting a dedicated receiver, antenna and cavity filter really upped my game. My...I've been feeding ADSB with a Rapberry Pi for quite a while now.
Starting with an off the shelf SDR was fun, but getting a dedicated receiver, antenna and cavity filter really upped my game.My current hardware :
- Raspberry Pi 3A+ with an official Raspberry 5.1V 3A power supply (USB-C with micro USB converter). Having a weak power supply gave me "unstable clock" error messages that rendered MLAT very unreliable. I've also fixed the CPU clock to 1GHz permanently in order to tackle any clock issue. There's a Pimoroni fan shim controlled by the gpio-fan dtoverlay module. The CPU only reaches around 40% use when dealing with 1400 frames per second.
- FlightAware Pro Stick Plus, a dedicated SDR with amplifier and 1090 filter built-in (~40€)
- 1090 MHz cavity filter from Sysmocom, as a cell tower is in sight from my antenna (~50€)
- 55cm +5dBi ADSB antenna from Jetvision (~80€).
It's currently feeding to FlightRadar24, FlightAware and ADSBExchange. I've also been sharing to the Opensky Network for a while, but all combined it was using a bit of bandwidth and my DSL is not unlimited.
I've had an issue with FlightRadar24 last year (it's the base of my raspberry pi image) due to a bad setup of Flightaware that fed MLAT data back to dump1090. That gave unexpected data from FR24 point of view and my account was automatically blocked. Their support is excellent and after a few days of back and forth we understood what was going on, adapted my dump1090 settings and all went back to normal.
EDIT : It sees between 3700 and 4000 aircrafts per day.
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Comment on Have you or anyone in your family ever won anything? in ~talk
ndupont LinkI'm actually usually quite lucky, although I never enter much contests. As a kid we won a drawing contest with the whole family (cousins and all...) and won some Lego, then as a teen I won a...I'm actually usually quite lucky, although I never enter much contests. As a kid we won a drawing contest with the whole family (cousins and all...) and won some Lego, then as a teen I won a CD-Rom with english lessons, as an adult got my girlfriend and I both chosen from a literal drawing of the names from a hat to visit the top of a windmill. After that tickets to Disneyland, and a bit later a week-end for 4 people to a French amusement park from a radio raffle, including a nice hotel and the train, all inclusive. I propably won 90% of the time, but I'm not a player, it's only when I feel like it.
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Comment on Any jeepers make it over here from Reddit? in ~transport
ndupont LinkI recently inherited my dad's 1944 Ford GPW, it's been in the family since my grandfather bought it in '71 or '73, he was really in an things WW2. Then my dad was really involved in a local club...I recently inherited my dad's 1944 Ford GPW, it's been in the family since my grandfather bought it in '71 or '73, he was really in an things WW2. Then my dad was really involved in a local club at the end of the 70s, driving their jeeps to Normandy once in a while, and so on.
It's in top condition at my parents's, I'll try to take it for a spin this summer. I haven't driven for about 20 years, and it probably hasn't run for 15 years, since the engine was refurbished. -
Comment on Can you set a clock using a light sensor to detect sunrise and sunset? in ~comp
ndupont LinkThat looks like a fun project ! Cloud cover will make the detection of dawn/dusk quite tricky. From my experience with home automation, there is quite a luminosity range due to bad weather. I...That looks like a fun project !
Cloud cover will make the detection of dawn/dusk quite tricky.
From my experience with home automation, there is quite a luminosity range due to bad weather.
I would rather try to find the astronomical noon by detecting the maximum luminosity of the day, and maybe limit the sensor view to due south where the sun is expected. And even then, it would be probably be good to limit the measurement to an hour around the expected noon, then build a moving average day after day around that. -
Comment on What password management solution do you use and why? in ~tech
ndupont Link ParentIndeed. I have a hard copy printed on paper, a second access to my 2FAs on an old phone, and a copy of my main 2FAs on my wife's phone just in case.Indeed. I have a hard copy printed on paper, a second access to my 2FAs on an old phone, and a copy of my main 2FAs on my wife's phone just in case.
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Comment on What browser extensions do you absolutely love to use? in ~tech
ndupont LinkGhostery Go back with backspace, because who thought it was a good idea to remove it in the first placeGhostery
Go back with backspace, because who thought it was a good idea to remove it in the first place -
Comment on Local DNS resolution for server? in ~comp
ndupont LinkI think that if you want to replace a host:port by a (local) hostname, a reverse proxy is what you're looking for. HAProxy or nginx will do that just fine, including rewriting the HTTP headers....I think that if you want to replace a host:port by a (local) hostname, a reverse proxy is what you're looking for.
HAProxy or nginx will do that just fine, including rewriting the HTTP headers. All the DNS names would resolve to the reverse proxy. -
Comment on What password management solution do you use and why? in ~tech
ndupont LinkI use Bitwarden for my personal use, with a 10€/year subscription but have thought about hosting it myself, for fun. With the Chrome plugin and the Android app, I always have all my passwords,...I use Bitwarden for my personal use, with a 10€/year subscription but have thought about hosting it myself, for fun. With the Chrome plugin and the Android app, I always have all my passwords, OTP, backup codes and other secure notes on hand.
At work we use Passbolt, installed on premise. It has great sharing and team features. -
Comment on What belongs in your "base" hard-copy library? in ~books
ndupont Link ParentYour comment just got me back on my old idea to buy a proper encyclopedia. And what do you know, for 40€ I got a Encyclopedia Universalis in prime condition just a 15min drive from home. It's...Your comment just got me back on my old idea to buy a proper encyclopedia. And what do you know, for 40€ I got a Encyclopedia Universalis in prime condition just a 15min drive from home.
It's actually the compact version of 2005 and not the humongous 3000€ one, but still happy :) -
Comment on Home weather stations - what's the weather like where you are? in ~enviro
ndupont Link ParentRegarding the hardware, I think most of the sensors are quite good overall, but a proper installation is more difficult for a hobbyist. It's not easy to have a 10 meter mast for wind measurement,...Regarding the hardware, I think most of the sensors are quite good overall, but a proper installation is more difficult for a hobbyist. It's not easy to have a 10 meter mast for wind measurement, have the temperature and humidity sensor far from trees, buildings, roads, etc...
Weather underground has a nice guide
You're welcome. J Perm is the next channel to look into