So today I dealt with our TROM Memes. We have this website social.tromsite.com/ where we post the thousands of memes that we made over the years. They are quotes from our books and are still relevant. However the majority of them had a TVPMagazine watermark since they were made for the magazine at that time. Adding a TROM watermark and hiding the TVPMagazine one, is not easy for thousands of images. So we managed to do it for like 1.2 thousand of them, and had some 4 thousand left....for many years now....and no one willing to help out.

So I took the matter into my own hands. I have decided to cut the TVPMagazine watermark rather than replace it. That's so much faster. And where I can't, fuck it delete the meme. We have too many anyway...

And so I managed to fix 600 and add them to the mix. We still have 3.3 thousand left and I plan to do them all these days. And add them to the website.

I also added them back to our Friendica page as automated re-shares. So, for one, we have this system where our website takes a random meme and publishes it as new. Every day. Now I integrated activitypub into that website so you can grab a stream and auto-repost on Friendica. Thus out Friendica page is reposting again 1 meme a day. But this time in activitypub quality - much much better.

It is too fucking hot to be able to do any creative work I sweat (swear!). I can't focus it is so hot...but will try to get back to TROM II these days for sure. #tromlive

Here's another example of how this trade system makes people lie and deceive. I have a 1000w electric scooter since like 2014 or so. Quite old. The battery started to not work anymore, of course, so it was collecting dust in the garage. I decided to fix it, clean it, and order a new battery just in case I may sell it. Or just to use it because I feel bad seeing a thing with a motor, wires, and all that, not being used at all.

The battery is 36v and 16Ah. 36v means the power of it, and 16Ah how much energy it holds. The more Ah the more you can drive it. Mine was ok, I could go for like 20Km max. Old battery. Anyway.

So I go to AliExpress, which is a world-wide very known online shop. And I find a fuck ton of batteries. Really really cheap. I thought that these new batteries got smaller and a lot cheaper since last time I looked at them (years ago). So I chose one for 50 Euros that was 36v and 100Ah. One HUNDRED! I was like "wow, I can drive this for like 80Km or some shit like that".

This is it:

I found it hard to believe but AliExpress was full of such batteries. I thought that if they have it specified that is 36v and 100Ah then it must fuckin' be, right?

I contacted the seller and asked...I looked at their reviews....all looked good. They assured me it is indeed 100Ah. The battery was 5 times lighter and 3 times smaller than the old one I had, but naively I thought these new batteries can hold a lot more energy in a smaller form factor...

Anyway I ordered it - 50 bucks was ok.

Came after 3-4 months. In the meantime, since it delayed so much, I complained to AliExpress so I got my money back but the battery still arrived. Free battery! Great!

So these past days I have tested it. With my old battery that was 16Ah I could go for some 20Km. With this battery that they said was 100Ah (more than 5 times the capacity) I can ride for like 5-6Km max. hahaha. So this battery must be 6-7Ah, not 100. What a fucking difference! And yet they keep on selling them with the same specifications.

This is like ordering a 17inch laptop with a core i7 8cores cpu at 4ghz, and get one that's 11inch with a core i3 at 2ghz. Imagine if that would be the case...

So yeah. I got scammed, but at least I got my money back. It is unbelievable how gutsy these merchants have become....unbelievable, but not surprising.

#tromlive
#TradeRuinsEverything

Another day another good work for TROM II. I only have 1 section to glue to the rest, and then I am done with the backbone of it all for the first part. With these new additions I think the first part is better. I know I keep on posting updates about this thing that won't be available soon, but I do this mostly for myself :). Helps me, so...

But also to inform those that are interested in the documentary.

This documentary truly is a monster in terms of editing. To cut the 30-40 hours of interviews down to some 5-6 hours. To glue them together and make them have some sense....to add footage, music, sound and video effects...and still a lot more to go. I still aim to release by the end of this year but idk if this is possible. We shall see.

Also idk whats up with the hosting company but for my last 2 bills they sent me the money instead of charging me....hm....that's good but wtf...And these past days they gave me the money I have to pay (like they sent a payment to my bank account) and then they charged me the same amount today hahaha. That's hilarious. But if that works for them I do not have any objections :D. #tromlive

I used to use Nextcloud to organize TROM, then because their chat app wasn't that great at that time I moved to Matrix. That is because we used the chat more than anything else. Matrix is also great because it is a better chat like the fact that it supports markdown is crucial for us when we send bits of code over the chat. Also, you can connect to millions of others via Matrix...

But then I needed a Trello like thing. In Nextcloud I had Decks. Worked great. Now I am testing Vikunja via tasks.trom.tf/.

Our TROMjaro repo is in on our Nextcloud still and we use it for file sharing...

So now instead of just using Nextcloud I use 2 more services....maybe eventually I will move back to Nextcloud since it has so many apps that integrate with each other...and yes I know there are bridges between Matrix and Nextcloud but they sound better than they are functional.

Nextcloud is quite astonishing. Out of all alternatives to the big farts (companies) out there, @Nextcloud 📱☁️💻 beats them no questions asked.

Maybe in the future I will move the TROM project back to Nextcloud...