evjim

This is why we should not rely on encrypted apps running on top of some other platform.

disclosure: working on an open source alternative for messaging

I live in an intentional community. It is only 3 years old and not flourishing at all. The major problem is the benevolent dictator system and highly restricted rules.

I find reading these reports very interesting because I would like to find/join/build an actually successful village.

Current cities are highly regulated and high cost. All I want is my own plot of land(not a commune) with like minded neighbors who built their own houses, grow their own gardens, and work on technology. It seems like the only way to do that would be to cooperatively purchase land at split it up on ground leases, making it commune ish

Ill be doing a small run of prototypes in about a month. Could assemble one for you if you want to hack on it.

Thanks, it is really enjoyable. Hiking right outside my door and exceptionally low expenses. I am planning a v2 soon that can be built more easily(no excavator), be significantly larger(my current cabin doesn't have an indoor bathroom), and still be low cost.

Its amazing to learn about 500 yr old buildings in Germany and England using low cost, simple techniques. I hope more people might realize that this is a lifestyle option.

I feel like rent itself is a major problem in current society. It takes 30years for a person to pay off their little chunk of land and house. Some cannot even have that. Land is a natural resource, and as with air and water, it should be distributed. It is a good time for a modern homesteading act. Maybe a citizens dividend.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen's_dividend

Sharp memory LCD. It uses a simple SPI interface, can refresh at about 30fps, but has no greyscale unfortunately.

I was previously working on an epaper phone project. A minimalist/modern feature phone. Anyway, the company pivoted and has agreed I can open source the hardware.

I decided to ditch GSM and just use wifi. I have been thinking it could be a good platform for encrypted messaging using Matrix/Riot. Unfortunately I am not a software developer. If anyone is interested in helping out, let me know.

[1] https://github.com/junglejim8/epaper

I'm principally against using a credit card, so I've done a lot of research finding the best debit savings.

Although card companies make it hard for shops to offer cash or debit discounts, they exist. Aldi only takes debit cards and is way cheaper than any other grocery. A Thai restaurant I used to go to always brought us the bill offering 5% off if paid in cash(lots of neighborhood places like this). Any bar will throw on tax if you start a tab, but paying the cash price per drink is usually the exact advertised price.

Paypal debit card offers 1% cash back. Schwab debit card offers rental car insurance and free foreign transaction.

No. I have a waterproof nec terrain. The headphone jack only has a simple non watertight flap to keep dust out. While every other orifice has rubber seals. I think mfgrs have figure out waterproofing headphones long ago.

$500 per month sounds like the ultimate wage slavery. I prefer being exceptionally underemployed. Reducing almost all my expenses. Forced income tax seems immoral.

BayAreaCircuits is pretty cheap, in the USA and you can have boards in under a week.

I also like macrofab if you want something assembled.

A few times I have ordered from the board houses on Ebay. Like $20 for 10+ boards and they come in about 2 weeks.

I think youd be surprised at the number of people that bike year round in places with snow like Minneapolis and Chicago. I did a year of part time bike delivery in Chicago and had many days of 50 miles in the snow.

Potential solution: Out of religious freedom cellular carriers stop offering politicians mobile phone service. Say, it is against their morals/religion to promote the communication of bigots.

Permaculture is an option for notill, no chemical. Mix a variety of crops that benefit eachother. But it makes automation harder.

When I got my windows 8.1 convertible I was disappointment that Firefox's scrolling is terrible with touch. IE metro is actually pretty awesome but I hate being fullscreened in something and I don't like. And that you can't install adblock or disconnect or tree tabs. But Chrome keeps crashing, so I think I will have to use firefox and just suffer with a mouse.

The IRS $.56/mile takes into account estimated gas costs, wear&tear and insurance. You are double dipping.

Also income tax is deducted off of profits not driver revenue.

I believe low speed limits give police officers a legal means to stereotype drivers and pull them over. Since everyone is now speeding, they can pick and choose who to pull over and have a legal reason. Young? sketchy car? minority?

We are already partially taxed by inflation. I think about 1% per year. Minimum wage should be matched to inflation and living costs.

Obviously it could cycle out of control if the amount of money printed wasn't regulated. But it could be a decent method to cut no-value-add industries (IRS, accounting).

Job mobility could be higher if you didn't have to file with the government every time you got hired. So the worker would have more leverage over the employer if they did not keep wages sufficient.

Additionally, there are many untaxed workers right now that we would then be taxing if inflationary or single tax was used. Ex, waiters, other tipped jobs, sketchy corner store that only take cash, illegal immigrants who work under the table

Or why not inflationary tax? We already have it, but if it was made the sole tax, we could get rid of whole bureaucratic industries for processing tax. Inflation encourages spending which is good for the economy.

Thomas Paine makes a good point for citizen's dividend in his pamphlet "Agrarian Justice". http://www.ssa.gov/history/paine4.html

Now that we live in a civilized state and people own all the property, it makes it impossible for one to live in a natural state. So, he argues property owners owe a tax to everyone reaching maturity. That way everyone has a chance to acquire property, education, or what not to live successfully in a civilized state.