Early Retirement Extreme Forums

In the last couple weeks:

• Fixed/adjusted a garage door not closing completely, for family.
• Tore apart a 4-piece toaster where one half is not staying locked down to toast, for family. Found a quarter inside, presumably caused something to short. Put it back together and offered to further repair it (will compare voltages between the working right board and the non-working left board, replace the broken component) or take the toaster if a new one is bought in the mean time.
• Fixed a dryer I sold to someone more than a year ago: replaced a broken belt (they put shoes in the dryer and the dryer isn't very stable where they have it sitting/sliding/jumping).
• Replaced various auto light bulbs. Ordered a few maintenance parts and a replacement mirror for a broken one (could have cut my own mirror.. too late to bother now).

I replaced the battery in my Kindle 3G Keyboard. Funny thing is that when I initially looked around several years ago, the internet claimed that the battery couldn't be replaced. I kept it around to possibly use as a kneeboard for flightsims (powered by USB) but never got around to it. Having finally located a way to get rid of e-trash and putting the kindle in the to-go box, I figured I might just take one last look. Lo and behold. Battery replacements are now widely available!

This was also the easiest battery replacement I've ever performed. See https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Kindle+3+B ... ment/29844

Once the backcover was pried off, it was only two Philips screws to remove and replace it. Why can't iPhones be like that?!

jacob wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2025 10:10 am

Once the backcover was pried off, it was only two Philips screws to remove and replace it. Why can't iPhones be like that?!

My guess is because people could take the battery out and replace it with a bad one. It would still look like an iPhone, except it would have all kinds of issues, not just short battery life. So people would see and own phones that are indistinguishable from iPhones, but with a crappy user experience. This would dilute the association between iPhones and pleasant operation. And that "walled garden" is worth a great deal for Apple to defend.

jacob wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2025 10:10 am

Once the backcover was pried off, it was only two Philips screws to remove and replace it. Why can't iPhones be like that?!

Not as easy as unscrewing, but changes are coming.

I need to fix the unsafety of my mails, laptop and smartphone.

This month I read „Nexus” by Yuval Harari, he describes the enormous influence of AI and the www on society.
He writes about what AI already can (it can teach its own algorithms to become better at arguing and better knowledge). Harari mentions examples of mis-information which already have triggered serious anti social happenings. So a dangerous medium AI can be. It can also be used positive.
Harari discusses further what global and local governments can do to avoid/erase deep fake people and deep fake stories. Bots have no rights, bots are no persons so they can be blocked. And that is no restriction of free speech. Algorithms have no rights!

Interesting read for me as a stranger in the land of AI, bots and algorithms.

And yes I have also received fake emails to mislead me, as have many (all ?) of us already. So the lesson of the book is: Take Care, be aware of many possibilities to mislead, distrust the internet, make "safety walls"

I still have not understood how to use my internet accounts more safely. Now I use safari, which informs me how it saved me sometimes. Help from forumites would be thankfully accepted.

J_ wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 28, 2025 11:52 am

I need to fix the unsafety of my mails, laptop and smartphone.

I haven't actually done much of this and I'm not in a good position to evaluate the advice given but I got some value out of this site https://www.optoutproject.net/the-cyber ... footprint/.

Maybe take this topic to its own thread though.

jacob wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2025 10:10 am

Battery replacements are now widely available!

One snag! Before replacing the battery I performed a factory reset. When I tried to reregister my amazon account, it kept refusing my password. Turns out that in the mean time (13 years since I bought it), 2F-verification became a thing, so amazon actually sent out an email to that effect while I was pulling my hair out. The kindle itself just kept asking for the password but once I typed in the 6 digit code from the email instead, it all worked.

Without the internet I would have been sunk though.

The biggest "danger" with old hardware generally doesn't seem to be the hardware but the fact that any device since about 2010 relies very heavily on its ability to interact online and few vendors keep supporting their old hardware for the long haul. In this case it worked though!

jacob wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 28, 2025 5:34 pm

few vendors keep supporting their old hardware for the long haul.

One of many good reasons to go with free software.

I never connected my dozen kindle 3s to Amazon. I deregistered them. Or i kept the old user creds.

I’d check out library books and I would load them via usb with Calibre. No reason to connect to Amazon.

I havent done this in a couple of years. Maybe it no longer works with Overdrive and Adobe Digital Editions. Anyone doing this now?

Sclass wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 01, 2025 1:30 am

I’d check out library books and I would load them via usb with Calibre. No reason to connect to Amazon.

I havent done this in a couple of years. Maybe it no longer works with Overdrive and Adobe Digital Editions. Anyone doing this now?

This still works with Adobe DE. You can use the calibre DeDRM plugin to strip the DRM from the epub and then have it automatically convert it to mobi while sending it to the Kindle. I'm still rocking a kindle 2 this way and loving it!

Gilberto de Piento wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 28, 2025 4:27 pm

I haven't actually done much of this and I'm not in a good position to evaluate the advice given but I got some value out of this site https://www.optoutproject.net/the-cyber ... footprint/.

Maybe take this topic to its own thread though.

Thank you! I do not know how to transfer this to a topic of its own. Can the adminstrator do this please?

loutfard wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 28, 2025 6:44 pm

One of many good reasons to go with free software.

Most modern hardware is based on free software (Linux or Android) but then locked away behind a service. It's really the service part that is the problem.

As an aside this is one of the reasons I'm no longer a fan of open source. The tech giants are all making huge profits on the back of this free labor.

J_ wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 01, 2025 4:54 am

Thank you! I do not know how to transfer this to a topic of its own. Can the adminstrator do this please?

I think you just start your own new thread. I'm just saying to do a new thread because I think you will get more responses. I could be wrong.

I'd encourage you to look at this from a slightly different perspective. There's never been a richer free software (and open hardware!) ecosystem than today, and it will be even richer tomorrow. That means more power to keep in control and objectively do more with free software than before.

Of course avoiding walled gardens and black box products or services becomes more difficult when using more digital products or services. Of course free software gets used to build these walled gardens and black box products and services. But...

Is that a problem to me? Not as long as I can opt out. A critical part of my ERE web of goals is I don't do walled gardens or black box products/services. I only do maintainable, repairable, cost effective, modular, appropriate technology.

In practice, that approach means things like:
- My laptop is second hand and runs free software only.
- Our solar inverter is not internet connected.
- If I ever get a smartphone, it will run grapheneos.
- If we ever get a new heater, one of the requirements will be opentherm compatibility.
- If we ever get a wood stove, we'll build a batch rocket or roquetinho.
- We'll probably not replace our electric dryer should it die.
- ...

I find it difficult to imagine tech choices for myself more homeotelic with ERE.

P.S. More problematic use of free software exists. In war crimes for example, as committed using Rusbitech's Astra Linux. But I digress.

loutfard wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 01, 2025 8:57 am

I'd encourage you to look at this from a slightly different perspective. There's never been a richer free software (and open hardware!) ecosystem than today, and it will be even richer tomorrow. That means more power to keep in control and objectively do more with free software than before.

I must admit that I was considering it from the creator's perspective rather than consumer. From that perspective the problems I have are:

1. You are giving away your labor for free, often to large corporations that could easily afford to pay. Mostly because they can't be bothered to raise the paperwork for a commercial offering.

2. By offering your labor for free you are devaluing yourself in the consumers eyes.

3. In general the more customers pay for your work the better they treat you, the less they pay the worse they are. Try giving away some stuff on Freecycle to see how flakey those who pay nothing can be.

4. We are now in a world where AI companies will vacuum up your work and regurgitate it for $20/month, no attribution provided.

Of course I am hypocritical here as I do use some open source software and still have a few packages posted on GitHub. Generally though I am happy to pay for my tools, I don't expect free labor from others.

So... if you don't want to volunteer, don't. What is the problem?

loutfard wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 02, 2025 9:01 am

So... if you don't want to volunteer, don't. What is the problem?

Undesirable systemic effects, because the individual contributions are not operating in a vacuum. The optimal individual strategy is not necessarily the optimal collective strategy and vice versa. There's a constant tension and the balance either oscillates or slides to one side and stays there. I have many opinions on this when it comes to writing prose which is structurally similar to writing software, but we're getting off topic here.

Replaced my water heater.

I was kind of stunned how much it costs to replace a water heater in my area. It’s a complex process involving city code inspection and a licensed installer. Total cost $2500. I just went down to the local home improvement store and bought one for $800 and installed it myself in less than an hour. I cannot believe people settle for this kind of robbery by “skilled labor” and city hall. People just take this like it’s normal.

Nextdoor neighbor saw me wheeling the old unit to the curb and asked “sclass did you do that yourself?” Like I’d just committed some kind of crime or that I was cheating in some way.

Not mine but it looks just like this. Two water connections, one gas connection, two seismic straps.

I hope your landlord knows how much they should love you.

Aren't water heaters really heavy? I don't know how I'd get to it home or into the basement.