And call it Dang-ism

Yes, I'm aware there are "no stupid questions..." but... A quick search didn't bring much clarity.

For context: my wife and I are in our 30s, and as weather got colder in October, we started attending a "coffee and chat" meeting for people learning sign language. My wife is slowly going deaf, and we both would like to communicate normally when she loses hearing completely.

The asl chats were started by some people in an LGBT Pride group, and as such most of the people there are LGBT, and between 18-24. Since the weather is getting warmer, we have been inviting them to go places with us, mostly like IHOP or a local cafe. It is a little tricky to coordinate, since several lack vehicles and transit is basically nonexistent here, and some have mobility issues, but we make sure everyone who wants to come has a way to get here even if it requires several trips in our car.

Last week since it was especially nice out, we decided to have a cookout. We brought vegetarian options since a couple are vegetarian (while I'm sure I am quite competent at making vegetarian meals, I always get super dumb when trying to think of vegetarian dishes I know) and all in all it was pretty chill, with about 8 of them showing up. some had to leave soon after eating, but most stayed to hang out in the park and hammock with our extra ones we have collected over the years.

As we are making sure everyone is situated, has drinks and snacks, and making conversation with different people, a few are having their own conversation and then one looks in our direction, and goes "you two are giving off big crunchy aunt and uncle vibes, very granola" and I just looked a little confused and said "thanks? I think?"

Their tone was friendly, I'd say. Two people said things in agreement, one laughed, nobody seemed upset about anything.

We started setting up around noon, people showed up around 1, and we ended up staying until sunset after 8. Everyone said they had fun and it was super relaxing.

So to the question: in this context, I feel it's meant positively but I am not sure what "crunchy aunt and uncle vibes, very granola" means...

Apologies if this is considered something I should just look up since it really is a "simple question" but it feels like one of those things that has different meanings in different contexts.

I'm thinking about getting started using Docker and an older Raspberry Pi. I'm already hosting a grafana service on it, so It can't be fully dedicated to ha. So curious what everyone is using.

never apologise for who you are.

even you.

My wild guess: Is everyone now just using apps for every single little thing? So now using the mobile site is considered "fraud behavior" and using apps is "normal"? Like is this what their "fraud detection system" do now?

Like the same card works when you order it at the counter in store... why did the site reject it? it literally worked before on that same site...

Tries a bunch of different cards, also declines...

But those same cards do work on other sites...

Like...

I feel like when you

1. Use their app
   and
2. Create an account

you're less likely to face problems...

But using mobile website + guest checkout is very likely to get flagged for some stupid reason...

EAS (emergency alert system) alerts are issued for various local and/or national emergencies, and are frequently issued for severe weather events. As we enter tornado season in the US, I wanted to be able to receive and relay those over Meshtastic, specifically severe weather alerts, as an extra precaution since cell service often goes out after big storms.

I first setup a prototype setup on my laptop, but am planning to move the setup to a PiZeroW2 or a Banana Pi if the Raspi isn't up to the task. In addition to monitoring/relaying EAS alerts, I'm also going to pipe the audio to an Icecast source and then to an Icecast server so anyone on the local network can listen to it.

Got lucky in that today was the day they did the weekly EAS alert test and that I happened to have this running during the test. Everything surprisingly worked, which was nice. However, I wanted to tweak some things and needed a way to run my own tests. So I grabbed the audio sample from the Wikipedia page for SAME and piped that in which worked beautifully.

Requirements

• A Pi or other computer than can run rtl_fm
• A RTL-SDR dongle and antenna that can receive in the ~160-170 MHZ range (i.e. pretty much any FM radio antenna)
• A Meshtastic node connected over USB or TCP

Sending Test Alerts

If you want to test the setup without having to wait for a weekly test, you can download a sample SAME audio clip from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Same.wav). You'll need to convert the sample rate before you can use it, though.

$ ffmpeg -i Same.wav -ar 48000 same48.wav
$ cat same48.wav | Meshtastic-SAME-EAS-Alerter --test-channel 0
2026-04-02T15:32:31.172Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Successfully connected to the node.
2026-04-02T15:32:31.175Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Loaded locations CSV
2026-04-02T15:32:31.175Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Monitoring for alerts
2026-04-02T15:32:31.175Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Alerts will be sent to channel: 0
2026-04-02T15:32:31.175Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Test alerts will be sent to channel: 0
2026-04-02T15:32:31.201Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Begin SAME voice message: MessageHeader { message: "ZCZC-EAS-RWT-012057-012081-012101-012103-012115+0030-2780415-WTSP/TV-", offset_time: 47, parity_error_count: 0, voting_byte_count: 69 }
2026-04-02T15:32:31.201Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] No location filter applied (locations empty) or no locations in alert
2026-04-02T15:32:31.201Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Attempting to send message over the mesh: 📖Received Required Weekly Test from WTSP/TV, Issued By: Broadcast station or cable system, Locations: Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota
Connected to radio
Sending text message 📖Received Required Weekly Test from WTSP/TV, Issued By: Broadcast to ^all on channelIndex:0 
Waiting for an acknowledgment from remote node (this could take a while)
Received an implicit ACK. Packet will likely arrive, but cannot be guaranteed.
Connected to radio
Sending text message  station or cable system, Locations: Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, to ^all on channelIndex:0 
Waiting for an acknowledgment from remote node (this could take a while)
Received an implicit ACK. Packet will likely arrive, but cannot be guaranteed.
2026-04-02T15:33:11.227Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] End SAME voice message
2026-04-02T15:33:11.251Z WARN  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Program stopped, no longer monitoring

Working Prototype

This is the bash one-liner to start rtl_fm, tune it to the local NOAA frequency, and set the rate. That gets piped to tee which does 2 things currently:

1. The audio is piped to play so that I can listen to the broadcast on the laptop's speakers. This will eventually be piped to an Icecast source
2. Pipes the audio to the Meshtastic SAME EAS Alerter program (the project linked in this post) and configures its settings

When a SANE message is detected, the program decodes it and broadcasts it to the configured channel. Fun fact: the Screech. Screech. Screech you hear before a severe weather alert is actually the encoded version of the emergency alert and what this program decodes.

When I move this all to whatever flavor of Pi I end up using, that'll be wrapped in a systemd unit file so it can run headless and unattended.

$ rtl_fm -f 162.400M -s 48000 -r 48000 | tee >(play -q -r 48000 -t raw -e s -b 16 -c 1 -V1 -v 4 - sinc 125-3.2k) >(Meshtastic-SAME-EAS-Alerter --host 192.168.1.236 --test-channel 0) > /dev/null

Found 1 device(s):
  0:  Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Tuner gain set to automatic.
Tuned to 162652000 Hz.
Oversampling input by: 21x.
Oversampling output by: 1x.
Buffer size: 8.13ms
Exact sample rate is: 1008000.009613 Hz
Sampling at 1008000 S/s.
Output at 48000 Hz.
2026-04-02T14:20:49.702Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Successfully connected to the node.
2026-04-02T14:20:49.704Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Loaded locations CSV
2026-04-02T14:20:49.704Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Monitoring for alerts
2026-04-02T14:20:49.704Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Alerts will be sent to channel: 0
2026-04-02T14:20:49.704Z INFO  [Meshtastic_SAME_EAS_Alerter] Test alerts will be sent to channel: 0

I'm on Webtoons for some reason

What's everyone's server naming scheme?

Why would anyone name their kid or even associate their kid with Thatcher

For the last 3 years many children have been exposed to terrible scenes of destruction and suffering on TV and online and from the looks it isn't going to get better for some time. Talking with kids and answering their questions and making them feel safe is really helpful. There are quite a few sources of advice to choose from but this one is really clear imo.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.zip/c/cat/p/1332272/i-bet-this-is-how-it-actually-feels

Source

Alt Text: A cartoon illustration of a happy and dazed cat floating high up in the sky above a neighborhood. Caption reads "The catnip had been particularly exceptional that morning."