The EFF might have some useful info: https://www.eff.org/...

Cool. It's a shame the article doesn't actually explain what the device will actually do :(

Sounds good. Yes, I wouldn't want to use toilet water, but bath and shower water would be ok. Just remember when you're cleaning the bath with bleach or similar, send that water back to the normal drain!

Kitchen water from washing up should be fine, just watch that you don't put too many fats down the drain, as it could smell and attract rats etc, possibly (just guessing, but I would think it would be a bad idea).

Also, i guess you need to think about the temperature - you don't want hot water near your plants!

Next year I should think about doing the same thing with shower/bath water at least, that is probably the cleanest waste water.

If you just want to use an earth channel or similar, maybe have a look at "Field Drains", eg: https://store.jdpipes.co.uk/land-drainage/ ? although you might have to get access to them now and again to clear the holes.

Fair enough, and with underground tanks you need a way of getting the water out again, which usually means pumps, which adds expense and maintenance, and you have to make sure the water is really clean.

Using greywater is sensible. Switch your soaps to nature-safe ones to help - https://www.faithinnature.co.uk/ make some good hand, shampoo and dish-washing soaps. I really like the solid shampoo bars from here: https://www.soapnuts.co.uk/... too.

You can also get filters to help get rid of the impurities. One system is using a reed bed if you have space: https://www.reedbeds.co.uk/

https://www.hockertonhousingproject.org.uk/ has such a system as part of their pond system. We went on one of their open days a few years ago, which was really interesting.

Why are we supposed to help banks profit? They aren't exactly skint. https://www.statista.com/...

If they want to save money they could move out of Canary Wharf to somewhere a bit cheaper....

Banks have resisted immediate electronic transfers for years until recently when they relented due to pressure (or maybe regulations?).

At least they're more likely to do a better job than the fiasco with Christa Pike....

I think there's a fix for that....

Thank you for the update!

I don't see why we should restrict "regional" communities. Maybe when Lemmy gets bigger this can be done, but now, if creating more regional-specific communities bring more people to the Fediverse, I don't see a problem. Surely you can enforce moderation standards if required?

There may be factors about solarpunk that for some reason only apply to regions, and supporting other languages might not be a bad idea surely? Ideas and good articles will bleed through to other communities eventually, surely?

"This is awful, but what can we do?"

er, I can think of a simple thing to do about it....

Well that's shit. They used to keep loads of old documentation (even though they kept moving them and breaking links) for corporate stuff. It was great to be able to look up specs of old servers etc and get drivers.

Haha! I reported it to ebay. Man that was a faff, there's no category to report dangerous / lying listings. The chat system was crap too. I had to say "I want to speak to a human", and it put me through.

He may have a point, but as someone else pointed out, a lot of these self-hosted services are running on out of date equipment that wouldn't be used for anything else.

I run all my Fediverse stuff on an old Dell R620 that a friend gave me. Mine is totally specialised for hosting.... Yes, it is overkill for my ~10 users, but hopefully more friends will join. Also, it's not the most efficient way of doing it - the device is probably 10 years old and uses ~130w 24/7. A newer NUC or equivalent would probably only use 40-50w. However, who else is going to use this machine? No company would touch it, "everything" is going cloudy, so it would either be stripped for parts and the rest dumped either in landfill or sent to some 3rd world country.

You can claim it's a waste of electricity to use it, but a lot of energy and materials were used to create the server in the first place, and most of that will be lost, even with recycling.

People run Fediverse (and other services) on a Raspberry PI - fine for a couple of users, but too restrictive for my use. These things only use 5-20w, which is amazing.

My electricity supply is from a "green" supplier, and I have a local SolarPV system that powers the system when there is enough sun. Last summer I managed to run it for over a month using my local system only. There's no reason that we can't build more renewable sources of electricity. Here in the UK there's a proposed 140 DCs in in the planning phases, which is ridiculous, all for AI BS.

Self-hosting isn't for everyone of course - not every household should do this, but there's no reason why groups of friends, families or "activity" groups couldn't do this effectively.

It's absolutely optimized for the long term - how many Google services have been discontinued when there are still users, just not enough to be profitable? Self-hosted services can run as long people are interested. A mail server created 20 years ago is still compatible and useable today because it uses ratified, slow-moving standards.

Not sure how Porn = Terrorism. Sounds like mission creep to me.... Oh well, I guess it makes a change from using Anti-Terror laws to stop people putting the wrong things in wheelie bins: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/...

no kidding. Even 35A is enough to melt a 12v plug spring into the plastic surround.... don't ask me how i know....

yeah, welcome to the new order :(

Looking at nature in our garden, helping my other half grow vegetables and herbs (not enough to ever be self-sufficient, but it feels nice to eat the results). Trying generate as much solar power as possible (which again, isn't enough to be off-grid, but enough for an emergency). Watching our rabbits grow and interact with each other ❤️ Finding interesting people on the fediverse, and trying to get other people to try it (which isn't very effective at the moment!)

Edit: We are watching Clarksons' Farm, which is entertaining, but also raises important points about our food system.

Still, it would be nice to see. Nothing wrong with second hand hardware - most of my setup is second hand. Here is a rather rubbish diagram and short explanation of how it is set up: https://mammut.gogreenit.net/...

Sorry! Added 😊

I've never seen that connector in a car......

Sounds good to me! Luckily I have been able to WFH recently, and as the weather is nice, I can sit outside with my laptop, and listen and watch the birds in the garden ❤️

I also have a Birdnet PI set up which records and counts them, and you can listen to the audio stream from anywhere. A few people have their Birdnet systems accessible from the internet, so you can listen in to birds in other countries!