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Joined 4 months ago
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Cake day: March 30th, 2024

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  • You’re probably decoding noise or in the middle of the bit stream.

    What you’re looking for is called “preamble.” That’s a sequence of bits used to synchronize the decoder (marks the start of data, useful in modulation schemes for clock recovery, and a few other things).

    Looking at minimodem’s manual, try using the sync-byte option. Prepend your tar stream with a string of bytes, like 0x01, before sending to minimodem for encoding. Then use the sync code option to mark the start of the tar bit stream. This is as simple as cat preamble.bin myfiles.tar | minimodem --tx …

    Other things to consider: start small with 300 baud BFSK before speeding up. Test with wav files before attempting physical tape or speakers and a microphone.


  • “This bill would prohibit a covered platform from retaliating against a digital journalism provider for asserting its rights under the act by refusing to access content” – AB 886

    This clause is an attempt to prevent these platforms from just blocking links to Californians and its news organizations.

    It won’t work. Forced speech has been regularly shot down in the courts for violating the first amendment.


  • Oof. You definitely were taking a risk with that drive train. I’m glad the worst of it is a few broken spokes.

    That’s clearly have a working bike, not some sort of weekend roadie show piece. Put a dork disk on there! There isn’t any shame in favoring function over form.

    Awesome call-out on zip ties. They’re the duct tape of the bike world.

    One small thing I noticed is how your fender and rack are mounted. It’s fine to share a single eyelet to mount both, but it’s best to mount in the order of frame, rack, fender, washer, and bolt. That ordering shortens the cantilever of the rack load, a much higher load than a fender, on the bolt.








  • Single-track capable and a bike that easily breaks down, let alone an e-bike version, is a tall order. Very few bikes fit your needs. Absolutely reconsider 2" receiver adapters for your car and an appropriate hitch-mounted bike rack.

    That said, I would consider Bike Friday’s All-Packa. It’s designed for bike packing and has an option for a 36v front-hub motor. Their assist setup is not the most powerful system but that All-Packa will absolutely shred trails.

    Note that Bike Friday builds bikes to each customer’s specification. It can be a little daunting to spec on of their bikes online, so you may want to email or call them. The good news is that means you can spec all the details out, down to the color of the cable housing!

    Also try looking for a local bike mechanic. There are mobile mechanics (think guy with a van full of bike tools) and folks who work out of their home garage. Look and ask around for a mechanic who can help you spec, put the bike together, and make repairs for you.

    Expect to drop a few hundred more dollars into bike tools if you cannot find a mechanic. Not to mention a lot of time to learn how to tune up and fix issues as they appear. I do my own repairs because it’s fun; not because it saves me money.