GM 🤙🏽

Man I am so impressed with Ubuntu so far, in my journey to ditch Microsoft. I ran it briefly on my miniPC back before I ran my first full node using Umbrel, but have since switched that miniPC to a dedicated Start9 box with a full time node and a Electrs instance for wallet connectivity to the node. Now that I have a standalone Ubuntu installation on a separate bootable external hard drive connected to my main Windows PC, I am so impressed with how smooth it is and how seamlessly it is working with files on all of my backup drives. I’m also impressed at how easy it has been so far to replicate the functionality, app availability and user experience I’ve grown accustomed to with Windows, going all the way back to the mid 90’s. I’ve got a VPN and Tor access figured out, SSL terminal access to my node that just works using the same certificate, and Sparrow in Ubuntu even recognizes my USB ports for air gapped signing, with no messing around. I will say a few things for those considering ditching Windows or doing a Linux install alongside your regular Windows OS. Image your whole system prior to starting, set a Windows restore point, and have a couple of external drives to save critical stuff on during the transition. The install process is easy on a standalone machine, but the current documentation on how to create and manage partitions on a parallel Ubuntu install on an external drive is not necessarily what you’ll see in real life. For some reason I ended up with the bootloader on a separate drive that had a lot of important stuff on it. And it rendered that drive unrecognizable by Windows and Ubuntu for a handful of heart stopping hours till I realized I had the most critical stuff saved elsewhere. The biggest panic was when I realized that 650GB my image files for my primary system were on that drive. Usually I have two full sets of those images, but the drive I was using for tertiary back has since been deployed as a backup to the Start9. So there was a time when I had to fall back to Windows Restore to rescue my ass. Not a good feeling. I pictured spending the next two weeks reinstalling Windows and everything on that box, including restoring SSL connection to my nodes. Once I got that drive talking to Windows again and had knocked 25 years and 650GB of stored files I had accumulated down to about 5GB, my last step was to re-image the whole primary system…..chkdsk error while creating image. All of the forced stops to get past stalled Ubuntu installation attempts had corrupted something on my main Windows drive. Three hours to run a chkdsk, biting my nails. Then everything imaged properly. TLDR: - Ubuntu is a capable replacement for Microsoft products with better options for privacy and security - storage is cheap. Back up your stuff before you attempt a parallel dual boot installation alongside Windows. The documentation sucks and skips a few key details. - if budget permits, just get a dedicated laptop for Linux and start your journey there. Then transition your main machine over time if you feel like it. #ubuntu #windowssucks #linuxmasterrace #linux

GM

Amazing rip on how Bitcoin is eating real estate as a traditional store of value:

Spotify

Bitcoin vs Real Estate with Leon Wankum

The Bitcoin Matrix · Episode

I’m installing Ubuntu 24.10 on an external hard drive and when I go to make my 100MB FAT32 partition for the bootloader to reside on, FAT32 isn’t one of the options that is selectable. Just Ext 2,3,4 among others. I’m trying to make a truly portable install but after several attempts I’m considering just flashing the drive with the iso and having a workable but not fully standalone installation. The guides online are just different enough from what I’m seeing during the installation process that I’m burning hours I don’t have on this. Can anyone provide any guidance? I’ve already nearly rendered the external drive I bought useless through various means of manipulating the partitions, and have spent much of the time reformatting that drive and getting it to be detectable by Windows again. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks. #ubuntu #linux

Has anyone messed around with using the @Start9 webtop version of Sparrow Wallet and have any input on how to get around the lack of USB device support for exporting, signing and importing PSBT’s and final signed TX files? On the file system browser in KasmVNC (Start9 webtop) I can’t even navigate to a sparrow directory. Conversely, I can’t find PSBT’s that I’ve saved through Sparrow on Start9 anywhere on the file system.

Being your own bank is a bit of work. Added a couple Cold Cards to the mix. Task list: - update firmware on new signing devices - clone signing devices - export watch only credentials to mobile app for new address set - import new wallet to desktop app for monitoring and transactions - backup new seed phrases on laminated paper copies and steel plates with a punch - vacuum seal seed backups and steel plates against the elements - remove seed backups to offsite locations - encrypt and save wallet recovery files - check Mempool - move UTXO’s from old wallets to new addresses to distribute evenly across all devices and ditch Ledger FOREVER - consolidate UTXO’s on all address sets in preparation for higher fees I can’t believe that we still have the luxury of doing on-chain consolidation so inexpensively. Our kids won’t believe we once did this in the future. Ten years from now, block space is going to be like Manhattan real estate. Act accordingly. Withdraw your sats to cold storage and consolidate your bitties. 🤙🏽

GM from the salt mine

I want to achieve a lifestyle where I no longer need to know the day of the week.

Today I assembled a list of titles for my writing exercise series. It’s mainly just aimed at sharing with my kids some of what I have learned in my life, through a collection of true stories. And doing what I love. Writing. Here is the list so far: Farm Life: The Best Childhood Ever Hunting, Trapping, and the Late Fur Trade in SW Ontario, Canada Turtle Bay, a Magical Place from my Childhood Bare Bum Beach, a Magical Place From my Childhood Snowmobile Adventures - The Thriller Killer Chiller Hill Snowmobile Adventures - A Sled Through the Thames River Ice Undefeated: Four Years of Competitive Archery Mexico City 1986 and the North American Field Archery Championships First Perfect Round at Pioneer Sportsman’s Weekend Archery Shoot Ljungby, Sweden 1984 at the International Field Archery Championships Moving West: The Best and Worst Thing My Family Ever Did Tree Man: Stories of a Technical Tree Climber Heartbreak: A Crazy Story of Infidelity A Search for Meaning: The Sport Climbing Years A Search for Meaning: The Skydive Years Living on a Boat: Living Cheap in the City Cable Guy: The Internet Explosion and “The Terminator” Stories From the Color Concepts Skydive Boogie, Abbotsford BC Stories From the Parachutists Over Phorty Skydive Boogie, Chilliwack BC Danger! First Parachute Malfunction on Student Gear Danger! First High Speed Parachute Malfunction and “Reserve Ride” Freedom!: My First Skydive Parachute Rig Pilot Training, My First Solo, and Breaking Transport Canada Regs Infiltrating the Other Side The Dangers of Parachute Dropping Illicit Cargo Charter Helicopter Jumps in Mission BC Kapowsin WA Skydive Trip, Bonfire Parachute Crash and DZ Owner’s Cabin Crash Down and Dirty: 4 Way Skydive Mishap from 1800 Feet The Day My Girlfriend Almost Tracked Out of Her Skydive Gear BASE Jumping Lions Gate Bridge, Vancouver BC BASE Jumping Dry Gulch Bridge, Coquihalla Highway BC Head Down Skydive Exits at POPS Skydive Boogie, Chilliwack BC “Mr Bill” Skydive Stunt, High as Fuck at POPS Skydive Boogie, Chilliwack BC “Mr. Bill” Skydive Stunt Gone Wrong, Abbotsford BC Finally Computing: From DOS to Windows 10 Gaming: The Rise of First Person Shooters, iD Software, The CyberReich Clan and The Old Farts Clan Finding “The One” and Having Kids: The End of My Search for Meaning Waking Up to “The Real” The Big Move and Returning to a Natural Life Bitcoin Changes Everything Reflections of an Old Fart I’m looking forward to dropping these stories and hopefully entertaining you with some of what I have learned, to be “forever”stored on relays.

GN Nostriches 🥶

I used the afternoon of my last day of holidays to get the tree up with the girls. A couple more stocking stuffers, wrapping, and wincing through a staff party or two, and we can embrace another year. And hopefully a new government, if we must have one at all. #fucktrudeau #merrychristmas #btcnewyear

We have just the right temperature and suspended humidity conditions tonight that every light source in the neighborhood has a light pillar above it. Millions of tiny hexagonal ice crystals acting like mirrors.

Best Christmas sweater ever tonight at our staff party.

While the vocals and lyrics are kind of ass, the guitar solo at 3:15 in this song stands as one of my favourites of all time. Yngwie Malsteen, on the Marching Out album. 1985.

Spotify

Soldier Without Faith

Yngwie Malmsteen · The Best Of / 20th Century Masters The Millennium Collection · Song · 2005

Hey if I get a couple of T-Echo’s or T-Decks for text and GPS linking to iPhones via Bluetooth, does anyone know what a good outlet/models might be for a premade node with the enclosure and onboard solar charging capability? I’m in Canada. I have a mast on my roof that is high enough to serve our whole town. I’d like to put a node up there. Thanks. #meshtastic

Is there anyone in my follow list that is on PlayStation Network? I’ve lost contact with many of my friends that I gamed with because I’ve been busy for quite a few months. With winter upon us, I may get the odd weekend evening to play. Feel free to check out my game library and send me a friend request:

PlayStation Profile | mccutch1

I wonder if this will live up to the original? Same director, Ridley Scott, is a good sign. And a major role played by Denzel Washington. Fingers crossed 🤞 #moviestr #ancientrome #gladiator

Here’s a map for a Bitcoin education curriculum that I wrote. Feel free to utilize parts of it if you’re seeking to educate people about acquiring and storing the corn 🌽. Just be smart and make sure your own security is figured out. Distribute your keys. Distribute your stack. Distribute your signing devices. Don’t keep them at home. Have duress codewords with key holders and decoy key holders. Square your family away about protecting your home. Module 1) Introductory Session 1-2 Hours: Get to know your mentee, answer any general questions, discuss their goals and where they are at in their Bitcoin studies. Module 2) Basic Computer/Phone Hardware Suitability and Skills Assessment (Multi-Session As Needed): Identify any shortcomings in their computer hardware or understanding of basic computing, and come up with a plan to address them. Subsequent sessions in this module can include improving the student’s phone and computer hardware setup, setting up reliable data backup capabilities, and getting software downloaded and installed on their PC and mobile device that will permit them to view and manage their assets, create transactions for sending and receiving Bitcoin, minimize fees, and back up any important data. Module 3) Interacting With Bitcoin Exchanges (Multi-Session As Needed): Establishing Bank Account Links for Funding Exchange Accounts, Making Bitcoin Purchases, Selling Bitcoin, Moving Funds Back to Your Bank, Moving Bitcoin Off the Exchange Into Self Custody. In these sessions you can point the student toward a couple of Bitcoin exchanges, and show you the basic mechanics for changing fiat dollars into Bitcoin, selling Bitcoin to change it back into fiat, and withdrawing Bitcoin to self custody so they alone control it. Module 4) Acquiring, Setting Up And Backing Up First Signing Devices (Hardware Wallets). Multi-Session As Needed: Here we cover the pros and cons of various signing devices that are on the market so the student can make their own decision about which of the many models is right for them. Then, once they have a hardware wallet, you can recommend ways for the student to back up their keys in ways that are not susceptible to loss, damage or theft. You can also cover ways to link phones and desktop software to view hardware wallet balances, create transactions, manage various sized chunks of Bitcoin, and sign transactions. Additional Modules: So as not to overwhelm the individual with everything all at once, suffice it to say that mastery of the concepts in first 4 modules, aimed at making the student a self sufficient Bitcoin holder, will open their eyes to enough new concepts and skills that by the time they are actively building their Bitcoin stack, the student will already be thinking about other topics that you can cover. Things like advanced security models, succession and estate planning for your Bitcoin stack, how to integrate Bitcoin payments into your business, second layer technologies, node running, tax and accounting strategies, and how to self direct their education in the Bitcoin space. You can show the student how to run their own copy of the Bitcoin Core software and confirm their own transactions on the network, and even how they can get their feet wet on Bitcoin mining and Layer 2’s. Even if you end up simply using this for a roadmap to assist family or genuinely interested and committed, relatively technical people you come across, it’s one path anyway. Plus an opportunity to recommend hundreds of hours of reading material and audio. I don’t orange pill people anymore. I’m going to let my life be the proof. But at least if I do meet the odd person who already “gets it”, I can help them along the path. GN all 🤙🏽 #btceducation #studybitcoin #bitcoinmentorship #grownostr #opensourceeverything

The strategic supply is growing. This is just mainly intended to have on hand as emergency rations until we start cycling the older goods out. So there is some conspicuous, packaged, “fiat food” on the upper shelves. But if the grocery stores ever close or we get debanked, or they try springing bullshit digital ID’s and CBDC’s on us, we won’t be picky. It has taken two and a half years, but between this and the contents of two freezers, the fridge, stored water, the contents of the water heater, another 5000 gallons of slow filtration capability, a generator, stored fuel, 200lb of propane bottles, boxes of ammo and three months’ worth of split firewood, I’ve basically achieved the goal of accumulating a three month reserve for our family if shit goes sideways. Now all we have to do is let Bitcoin rip for another 5 years and get it all recreated outside of the village onto a modest homestead. Or better yet, out of this country. I’m sure Trudeau is trying to figure out a way to take a third of this too. Capital gains on stored assets or some shit like that lol. Our government’s and the banks’ conduct over the last 4 years has just made us dig in harder. We will not fucking comply. #prepping #foodstr #grownostr #proofofwork