Just a quick post before bed:
I got pushed off the Oregon Health Plan several months ago. Lost affordable access to a once weekly medicine that controlled my blood glucose levels the bed. Just got migrated across to a once nightly insulin, which doesn’t really feel like it’s working all that well, but I need to give it some time to do its job, I guess.
I picked up a scrap laptop from the local e-cycler. $15 for its base hardware. $25 for a battery and AC Adapter. $10 for a hard drive. Still mucking about with Linux distros, trying to find one that doesn’t have systemd jacked all through it, but also has support for the wireless card in it without needing access to a router for a direct connection for 15 minutes to pull the necessary software bits.
Need to probably disassemble and reassemble the scraptop as well, to get this little bulge out of the palmrest. Whomever owned the unit prior to me had done a poor job with removing and replacing the palmrest, and it probably explains why the touchpad goes in and out. Not entirely looking forward to the minor surgical process on a Latitude E6500, but eh, whatever. Once it’s all done, I can go hang out at Starbucks and maybe write a little.
I also might want to crack open this laptop battery. Something’s not quite right in battery town there.
Speaking of batteries? I picked up a new bicycle.
One of these, to be specific. ANCHEER is trying to make themselves a known brand by offering electric pedal assist enabled bicycles at a fairer price than their competitors.
So far, my analysis is that it could use a little improvement, but does make for a passable commute option:
- A longer seat post would be great. I had to buy one within a couple of days of ownership, because it was murdering my legs and making me want to return it.
- Better mudguards. The ones in box are so short that they do not protect against mud and moisture being thrown up at your back and face.
- A higher capacity battery. 8 Ah handles my daily work commutes for three days or so before I need to charge the bike overnight.
- An off-bicycle charging kit. Want to make this bike work well for people who use it to commute to and from their workplace? Make it easy for us to charge the battery under our desks at work, since the battery pack isn’t difficult to detach from the bicycle.
Those points aside? I’ve been putting in many miles on the bike, and it rides fairly well.
More on this sometime when I’m not an hour overdue for bed, though. 🙂