A Geek Goes Flying

Pulled in at 56% SOC at 09:37. My 7%/hr guesstimate said recharging to 100% would take about 6.3 hours. The car predicted 5:50 to full. I got the notification from the Subaru app at 16:08 that the car was done charging; ~6.5 hours later. At 240V 24A (5.76 kW), 37.44 kWh transferred, the actual SOC increase approximately 31.9 kWh (44% of the 72.6 kWh battery pack), makes for about 85% efficiency, which is more or less spot on for what I’ve read I should see L2 charging. Everything seems to be working as expected. I seem to be stuck at 205 miles predicted range, though, which is more a function of my driving than anything else (I’ve had 222 miles range predicted as recently as October 14, 2025, at 11,998 miles on the odometer, so I don’t think battery degradation is at play here - especially since  Electric Vehicle Range Doesn’t Degrade Much Over Time Now (MotorTrend, Apr 27, 2026). (This Solterra has been in service about 1 year 9 months, and has logged 16,457 miles, comfortab...

Discussion I had with a friend recently... California gas prices have hit $7/gallon in some places , even as high as almost $8 at at least one station . Growing up in the 90s, gas in the midwest was generally under $1.00/gallon, often as low as $.79/gallon. Pretty much the only way I was able to stay flush delivering Chinese food, when a $5 tip was memorable. But I digress. Even in SoCal, gas dipped below $1.00/gallon as recently as as 1998 , only to surge to around $2.00/gallon by spr surge to around $2.00/gallon by spring of 2000 . Outside of like a global pandemic, they’ve never gone back down, really, though they’ve occasionally shot up much higher. June 2008 or so, adjusted for inflation , gas prices were in the $6-7 range in California . But why? I find this interesting; how little things have changed, despite multiple governors (including – ostensibly – a Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger, from 2003–2011): California Attorney General Bill Lockyear investigated accusations of pri...

Things I’ve picked up to augment the used non-Mk II, non-Turbo Fractal FM3 I found on Facebook Marketplace for a very good price: Screen protectors from ChadBoston.com ($34.99 as of this writing; $44 shipped). This FM3 came with Mooer foot switch toppers , which I noted in the Notes section when I ordered the screen protector. The Humbuster™ cable from Fractal ($19.99, $42 shipped) (I got this as I was experiencing hum running into the FX Return input on my cheap Facebook Marketplace Marshall G50RCD , but this cable didn’t fix that) Headrush FRFR-112 Mk2  and a  CableCreation XLR Cable to connect it to the FM3 A Harbor Freight Apache 3800 case to protect it from the dogs, when traveling with it, etc. The Apache case is roughly equivalent to a Pelican 1450 if you want to go “pro,” but for my modest needs, the $39.99 Apache does the trick. I cut the foam to allow transporting the FM3 along with a USB A-B cable and the power cord, which you may or may not want to do (realisti...

Iran war shows "era of fossil fuel security is over," says U.K. official, defying Trump calls for North Sea drilling : The era of fossil fuel security is over, and the era of clean energy security must come of age. — U.K. energy secretary Ed Miliband [ statement ] High Gas Prices Are Tempting Americans Back to EVs : Car-shopping platforms such as Cars.com and Edmunds say they have seen an uptick in EV interest as Americans adjust to life with gas over $4 a gallon, while auto executives say a renewed focus on fuel efficiency could mark the bottom of the EV meltdown. Edmunds said shopper consideration of EVs on its website has risen nearly to what it was before tax incentives ended last year. 🤞 Once you go EV, you don’t go back: Study finds 96% of owners plan to stay electric : ( EV Owner Satisfaction Climbs to New High Amid Sales Slump, JD Power Finds ): Nearly all EV owners would stick with electric for their next vehicle, a new study found. With improvements in battery tech...

Just a walk through of something that took me 3 minutes longer than it should have 🤔  Uploading a file via a PHP script was throwing an error. The culprit: upload_max_filesize was set to the default 2M in /etc/php.ini. (Tip: Use phpinfo() to determine the Loaded Configuration File, against the possibility there’s more than one on the system.) Once you tweak php.ini, restart the PHP FastCGI Process Manager, if that’s how PHP is running on the system (it is, at least on the Rocky Linux 9.7 box this service was running on): systemctl restart php-fpm.service And, Bob’s your uncle. (When I was a freshman, you just had to restart Apache ... 🤣)

An amp and a microphone One of the most frustrating parts about being a self-taught n00b when it comes to amp modeling (whether it be in a $100 NUX box or a bit of Fractal kit) is trying to decipher the different fake names the modelers have for the different pieces of kit, especially if you’re not already steeped in guitar tech. Like, the Jazz Clean NUX amp is (I understand) modeled after the Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus. The Class A30, the VOX AC30, “a legendary British tube amp known for its jangly cleans, warm overdrive, and chimey tone that’s been a staple in rock, pop, and indie music.” Etc. Sometimes, there’s no hint. Using Fractal’s DynaCabs , for instance, you get a choice of four microphones for the Cab Impulse Response (IR) block. They’re helpfully</sarcasm> identified as Dynamic 1, Dynamic 2, Condenser, and Ribbon.  If you read the Wiki , those map to the Shure SM57 and SM7B, the Soyuz 023, and the Royer 121 – but that knowledge seems to be tribal , not support...

coconutBattery report Early 2020 MacBook Air , I think the max spec vis-a-vis RAM ¹  (16GB) and CPU ²  , and a 512GB SSD ³  (it could have been upgraded to 2TB at the time of purchase). Apple claimed up to 11 hours of web browsing, but Google’s AI reports “many users find that active, mixed-use workloads (especially video calls) drain the battery within 4–6 hours.” I’m not getting 6 hours. With 81% battery health (after 280 cycles, but also 72 months), I should be getting about 3:14 from 100% to dead battery. I think I’m actually seeing ~2 hours, but I’ll measure eventually. Anyway. The question I’m pondering: Do I swap the battery ( $110 for the kit from iFixIt ), and it’s described as a “moderately difficult” replacement . Could probably also have Asurion do it; they did a good job with the MacBook Pro . I know Intel is a dead end, but this is probably the most capable Intel Mac I own, and there will likely be edge cases that I still need x86 support for, for a lo...