maltfield

joined 1 year ago
 

After almost 2 years, Privacy Guides has added a new Hardware Recommendations section to their website.

Thanks to Daniel Nathan Gray and others for implementing this new hardware guide

 

After almost 2 years, Privacy Guides has added a new Hardware Recommendations section to their website.

Thanks to Daniel Nathan Gray and others for implementing this new hardware guide

 

After almost 2 years, Privacy Guides has added a new Hardware Recommendations section to their website.

Thanks to Daniel Nathan Gray and others for implementing this new hardware guide

 

After almost 2 years, Privacy Guides has added a new Hardware Recommendations section to their website.

Thanks to Daniel Nathan Gray and others for implementing this new hardware guide

 

After almost 2 years, Privacy Guides has added a new Hardware Recommendations section to their website.

Thanks to Daniel Nathan Gray and others for implementing this new hardware guide

10
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

After almost 2 years, Privacy Guides has added a new Hardware Recommendations section to their website.

Thanks to Daniel Nathan Gray and others for implementing this new hardware guide

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Well, the title was mostly a take from this post:

But I guess I should have said a "PV system"? Or do you have a better name?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

We're not looking to be tied to a grid outside the community. Do you have any links to recommended resources to learn more about microgrids and/or community grids?

If it were me and I understand correctly I would probably not tie the systems together.

Well, the loads of the buildings are different, so tieing them together would be very beneficial. For example, one building is a workshop with lots of power tools and heavy machinery and some other buildings (with equal sq meter rooftops) are residential (with less energy requirements)

7
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

How do I design a large solar system that spans many buildings across a few km?

If I search the internet for guides on how to design a photovoltaic solar system, the results are saturated with how to build a small setup (eg for a car or caravan) or a "large" setup (eg just for 1 building).

But how do I get information on how to build an off-grid system that spans many buildings? What keywords can I even search-for that describe this type system to find such resources?

The general specifications are:

  1. A community of ~300 people,
  2. Spanning ~10 buildings,
  3. Each building is located 10-100 meters apart, and
  4. Each building's roof has up-to 20 kW of PV panels

The main questions that I'd like clarified revolve around how to tie the systems together. Should the batteries be stored in one building or distributed? Where should DC be converted to AC? If I end-up with >100 kW and want to power heavy machinery, how many volts should the system be? What are the trade-offs in all of these decisions?

Most importantly: what do you "call" these systems, and how can I find documentation and guides on how to build PV solar grids that span multiple buildings across a medium-sized community of tens of hectares.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Hi, Michael Altfield here. I was the sysadmin for OSE from 2017-2020.

Everything OSE does is transparent, so you can just check the OSE websites to see what everyone is currently working-on. OSE contributors log their hours in a worklog called "OSE Dev". There you can quickly see who is working on what.

The above graphs show 4 contributors in the past ~10 weeks (one is me; we had some issues with the apache config recently). There's no direct link, but you can then check the wiki to see people's work logs (just search for the person's name and Log):

I also like to look at the MediaWiki "Recent Changes" page to peak at what people are up-to as well:

I told Marcin about Lemmy back in June 2023. Another OSE contributor even created an OSE community on the slrpnk.net instance, but it appears to have been abandoned. I'll email him about this thread to see if he'll bite and publish updates in this community since there's clearly interest :)

Also, shameless plug: I started an org that's very similar in spirit to OSE called Eco-Libre, with a focus on projects to sustainably enfranchise human rights in smaller communities. We're currently accepting volunteers ;)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Can you mention this in your article?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Personally I wouldn't run a lemmy instance because of this (and also many other concerns)

I recommend [a] letting the lemmy devs know (eg on GitHub) that this issue is preventing you from running a lemmy instance and [b] donating to alternative projects that actually care about data privacy rights.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The fines usually are a percent of revenue or millions of Euros, whichever is higher.

So if your revenue is 0 EUR then they can fine you the millions of Euros instead. The point of the “percent of revenue” alternative was for larger corporations that can get fined tens or hundreds of millions of Euros (or, as it happened to Meta, in some cases -- billions of Euros for a single GDPR violation).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The fines usually are a percent of revenue or millions of Euros, whichever is higher.

So if your revenue is 0 EUR then they can fine you the millions of Euros instead. The point of the “percent of revenue” alternative was for larger corporations that can get fined tens or hundreds of millions of Euros (or, as it happened to Meta, in some cases -- billions of Euros for a single GDPR violation).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That would be true if their instance wasn't federating. If the instance is federating, then it's downloading content from other users, even if the user isn't registered on the instance. And that content is publicly available.

So if someone discovers their content on their instance and sends them a GDPR request (eg Erasure), then they are legally required to process it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

It's definitely not impossible to contact all instances; it's a finite list. But we should have a tool to make this easier. Something that can take a given username or post, do a search, find out all the instances that it federated-to, get the contact for all of those instances, and then send-out a formal "GDPR Erasure Request" to all of the relevant admins.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Did you read the article and the feedback that you've received from your other users?

Any FOSS platform has capacity issues. I run my own FOSS projects with zero grant funds and where I'm the only developer. I understand this issue.

What we're talking about here is prioritization. My point is that you should not prioritize "new features" when existing features are a legal, moral, and grave financial risk to your community. And this isn't just "my priority" -- it's clearly been shown that this is the desired priority of your community.

Please prioritize your GDPR issues.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Very nice. Unfortunately it doesn't look like Boost is available on F-Droid.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Fortunately, in my case, my image was "orphaned" and never actually attached to a post or comment, so it wouldn't have federated.

If the image has already federated then that's a whole next level problem :(

 

This article will describe how lemmy instance admins can purge images from pict-rs.

Nightmare on Lemmy St - A GDPR Horror Story
Nightmare on Lemmy Street (A Fediverse GDPR Horror Story)

This is (also) a horror story about accidentally uploading very sensitive data to Lemmy, and the (surprisingly) difficult task of deleting it.

 

This article will describe how lemmy instance admins can purge images from pict-rs.

Nightmare on Lemmy St - A GDPR Horror Story
Nightmare on Lemmy Street (A Fediverse GDPR Horror Story)

This is (also) a horror story about accidentally uploading very sensitive data to Lemmy, and the (surprisingly) difficult task of deleting it.

 

This article will describe how lemmy instance admins can purge images from pict-rs.

Nightmare on Lemmy St - A GDPR Horror Story
Nightmare on Lemmy Street (A Fediverse GDPR Horror Story)

This is (also) a horror story about accidentally uploading very sensitive data to Lemmy, and the (surprisingly) difficult task of deleting it.

 

Given a URL to an image on my lemmy instance, how can I (as an admin) permanently delete the image (and all cache/variants of the image)?

I operate a lemmy instance server. One of our users just submitted a GDPR Data Erasure request for an image. The image is orphaned, so it is not tied to any post or comment. We have a URL to the image only.

Images in lemmy are handled by the pict-rs service, which is itself distinct from lemmy. As stated in the lemmy documentation, there is a way to purge posts and comments, but there appears to be no way to purge a given image in lemmy through the WUI or lemmy API.

How can I entirely purge the image from my lemmy instance, given only the URL to the image?

 

Happy 2024! The Eco-Libre project published our 2023 Annual Report for last year.

Eco-Libre 2023 Annual Report

Eco-Libre is a volunteer-run project that designs libre hardware for sustainable communities.

Eco-Libre's mission is to research, develop, document, teach, build, and distribute open-source hardware and software that sustainably enfranchises communities' human rights.

  • Eco-Libre's mission statement

We aim to provide clear documentation to build low-cost machines, tools, and infrastructure for people all over the world who wish to live in sustainable communities with others.

Executive Summary

  • Eco-Libre was founded June 24, 2023
  • Begun searching for land in Ecuador
  • Four projects created on GitHub
  • Currently 2 active contributors
  • 2024 priority is finding land and R&D on Life-Line

Michael Altfield registered the domain-name eco-libre.org on June 24th, 2023, a few weeks after arriving to Ecuador.

Over the next 6 months, Eco-Libre committed research and designs to our GitHub org for four projects (licensed CC BY-SA) which address some of the essential requirements for a new community's basic human needs: clean water, shelter, electricity, and ecological processing of waste. By releasing these designs under a libre license, it allows for other communities to build their own infrastructure with minimal effort, and it encourages collaboration on standardized design concepts.

As Eco-Libre's projects mature, we will build experimental prototypes in our own community. To that end, Michael is currently traveling around Ecuador by bicycle in-search of land to found Eco-Libre's first physical site.

In December, Eco-Libre was joined by Jack Nugent, who has since committed contributions to the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.

The priority focus for Michael in 2024 is to determine the best region in Ecuador to buy land where Eco-Libre can physically iterate on projects.

The priority focus for Jack in 2024 is to finish the research, design, and documentation of the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.

Projects

Eco-Libre was founded this year (in 2023). In our first 6 months, we've begun work on four libre hardware projects. All of them are currently in the early research stages.

Eco-Libre Launch-Nest

The Eco-Libre Launch-Nest was our first project. The concept is to build a small-footprint, high-occupancy structure for sustainable living of 30-people.

CAD screenshot of a 6-story masonry structure with a large array of solar panels and three large parabolic solar dishes on the roof
Eco-Libre Launch-Nest 2023.09

The rooftop has sufficient space for 72 solar panels (2 meter x 1 meter) and 3 parabolic solar concentrators (16 square meter).

The structure is six-stories above-ground, which is the recommended maximum height of a confined masonry structure in an earthquake zone. It also has a basement.

The building is designed with external, enclosed, firewalled staircases on either end. These are symmetrical and designed such that the building design can be rotated around a center courtyard to have four Eco-Libre Launch-Nest structures that share the same stairwells.

Currently only basic, incomplete architectural design-work has been done in CAD. Before a structural analysis can be assessed (eg to determine the location of columns), further work needs to be done on finishing the placement of windows, doors, and dividing walls.

Eco-Libre Life-Line

The Eco-Libre Life-Line project is a series of components making up an infrastructure to deliver a clean water pipeline to a community. This includes:

Photo of a small weir funneling watter into a 200L barrel with an expanded metal grate covering its opening
Eco-Libre Life-Line 2023.12
  1. Collection of raw surface water (eg from a stream)
  2. Removal of large organic debris & sediments
  3. Removal of small particles
  4. Removal of harmful bacteria & parasites
  5. Clean water storage

Michael started the Life-Line project after visiting a number of communities who had constant issues with their water systems breaking or failing to provide clean water. The goal is to design a low-cost, self-cleaning pipeline of systems that require minimal human intervention (max routine maintenance twice per year).

This year we have half-finished the "intake" component in CAD, which consists of building a weir in a stream that funnels turbulent water onto a downward-sloped HDPE barrel with a fine-mesh screen atop it. This design exploits the energy in falling turbulent water to clean the intake screen, and it prevents the intake from being clogged by organic debris during heavy rainfall.

Special thanks to Jack Nugent, who joined Eco-Libre in 2023 and has contributed to research, design, and documentation of the Eco-Libre Life-Line project.

The goal in 2024 is to finish the "intake" component in CAD and also to design the "settling tank", "pre-filter", and "sand filter" components in CAD.

Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth

How do you sustainably begin to build a community on land without electricity and without any structures?

The Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth is a simple storage shed with >1 kW of PV solar panels on the roof. This is the first structure to be built when jumpstarting a new off-grid community. It provides the power, storage, and outdoor workshop space needed to build-out the community.

Photo of a small structure with 4 solar panels on its roof
Eco-Libre Genesis-Booth 2023.06

This year we've made a simple footprint for the Genesis-Booth in CAD that's 4 meters x 2 meters -- just large enough to fit 4 solar panels (2 meters x 1 meter each). Further work is needed in CAD, but this year we also delved into making a framework for our documentation.

The Eco-Libre documentation is written in reST, generated by Sphinx, and (currently) hosted by GitHub. This is an exceptionally flexible continuous documentation solution that allows for versioned documentation matching versioned releases, works well with git, can be exported to many different flexible formats, and can be extended with custom directives written in python.

The highest priority for the Genesis-Booth is to finish this documentation as a template for other projects. Ideally this should be designed in such a way that information about Eco-Libre in general is seamlessly added to all project's documentations in a reusable way.

Eco-LIbre Treasure Tower

The Eco-Libre Treasure-Tower project is a 7 meter x 6 meter structure for storing and processing a community's waste, most importantly their food & fecal compost.

Photo of a tall 6-story structure with a wrap-around ramp and several doors on each floor
Eco-Libre Treasure-Tower 2023.07

This structure is 6-stories high and barrier-free, with a wrap-around ramp. All but the top-floor have three doors:

  1. Access door for maintenance
  2. Deposit Closet
  3. Deposit Closet

Each deposit closet contains facilities for the collection of human urine and feces and is slightly staggered in elevation so the user's deposits fall by gravity into their designated collection areas for processing.

Separately from compost, this structure also serves as a storage area for recyclable waste materials, such as metal.

This year a first-draft design of the structure has been designed in CAD, but it's very premature.

Next, a second design prototype (where the two deposit closet entrances are on the same side) should be drafted in CAD and compared to the existing design.

Contribute to Eco-Libre

If you'd like to help Eco-Libre reach our mission to enfranchise sustainable communities' human rights with libre hardware, please contact us to get involved :)

Join Us
eco-libre.org/join

Cheers,
The Eco-Libre Team
https://www.eco-libre.org/

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