Leasing is an attractive way to get into a vehicle – you get a modern car, sometimes LUXURY car, for far less than buying it outright, and at the end of the lease, you turn it back in and roll to a new car. New cars have warranties and complementary maintenance, less breakdowns, and you’ll … Read more
86 hours on generator, with no shutdown. Now, since I’m using gasoline, the question comes – “Aren’t you supposed to shut it down to add gas?” “Yes” is the simple answer, but why should they be shut down? You see gasoline vapors are ignitable, even though gasoline isn’t (the liquid). It evaporates into vapor quickly, … Read more
So, here I was, demonstrating my LVM script to a new friend in the Houston Linux User’s Group meeting on Wednesday, and in testing above 23.04 Desktop, I see that my LVM configuration is not even recognized – Canonical apparently changed the Installer on 23.04 and up (per Ubuntu forum posts). So, for a 24.04 … Read more
As a follow up to a previous post, I have a generator – portable – and want to run parts of my house on it. There’s 3 ways- Direct into panel, automatic transfer switch, or manual transfer switch. Direct into panel, or as the industry calls it “the dead man’s connection”, is a cable that … Read more
So, in my plan to start messing with LEDs, I found a ton of videos on YouTube for messing around with LEDs strips. Two main takeaways – one, use ESP32 boards, and use 5V LED strips with the 8212B-controlled LEDs. Also, using Python is DOABLE, but for the down and dirty and FAST, compiled C++ … Read more
With a different electric meter than most (because I generate electricity to the grid), I found a subscription service from a group called Smart Meter Texas (https://www.smartmetertexas.com). They email me the previous days’ usage and generation in a CSV file. I’ve left these in my gMail with the intention of downloading them and start to … Read more
With our use of Alexa in the house, I’m slowly replacing things with smart connections to Alexa. As for wall switches, these are interesting – I have some that are single gang (one switch), and some that are 2 and 3 gang. There is no good source for “one smart switch – 3 gang wall … Read more
Being on the Texas Gulf Coast, I have lived through a fair amount of hurricanes. As a child, I remember Alicia in 1983, being 10 years old, how the water backed up and how much fun we had outside during the “eye” of the storm passing over. We were in Rita in 2005 at my … Read more
I’d like to welcome you to MKStringer.com. I got word today (9/27/21) that this domain was available and I’ve got it up and running. What I plan to do here is document my current tech findings in virtualization, containers (including K8S), and homelab. I’m on a beefy PC on Windows 11, a local NAS device, … Read more