Leo

When you’re syncing a Bitcoin node and the progress bar goes down…

It may be very tempting to “vibe” a menu, but this looks just so much more appetizing. When the menu is slop, the food likely is, too. Not here at Aureliana!

Should phones come with warning labels, like cigarettes, peanut butter or high-voltage appliances?

This is the 動感號 Vibrant Express, an 8-car train for up to 581 people serving short distance routes from Kowloon Station in Hong Kong to Futian, Shenzhen North, and occasionally Guangzhou. They’re the only high-speed trains not run by China Railway operating in China, instead they’re run by the semi-private Hong Kong MTR. Traveling from Hong Kong to the first station in China (and the final stop for a lot of these trains) takes just 14 minutes, plus another four to Shenzhen. They’re essentially high-speed subways and should probably not require advanced reservations.

I’m running Taproot Assets! This is a live demo of me buying a coke with USDTL on Lightning. You can see my channel’s balance and capacity in the TUI, my channel peer Amboss is acting as the edge node, the asset itself is issued by Speed Wallet, backed by USDT.

High-speed sleeper D941 from Shanghai to Shenzhen. There are rooms with four and two beds, but booking them, at least through cTrip, feels a bit chaotic. The beds are very slim and hard, but generally comfortable. The couch seems to be primarily used by staff. You get basic toiletries and water for the 10h, 1623km ride. There are two toilets and a water boiler in every car, but no showers.

Just noticed Organic Maps now takes Lightning donations. Amazing product, especially if you care about privacy or move around a lot in areas without cell reception

https://organicmaps.app/donate/#crypto

Complimentary snacks served on train G11 from Beijing to Shanghai, somewhat edible, unlike what you can get at the onboard bistro. You’re expected to order and pay through Wechat, but walking to the counter and paying with cash is also an option. Through the app you can also order from any restaurant at the next station, and the food will be brought to your seat, something that seems to be mainly done by first class passengers, who somehow don’t mind stale cold dishes. Additionally, all cars have a hot water dispenser for any cup noodles you might have with you. Conclusion: Don’t eat on trains in China. #trainstr

Show up and do stuff! At DCTRL Vancouver

I’m now two weeks clean (no card transactions). My skin is much smoother, and my stomach feels great. I’m thinking more clearly, I fall asleep easily and wake up well rested without an alarm. Hoping I can keep it up!

Would you pay extra to ride the subway “first class”?

The art and the artist. #foodstr

Spanish train travel is probably not the worst in Europe, but the heavily gated train stations and older equipment disappoint. There’s some competition between operators, but Renfe’s AVE has even worse food options than SNCF. I do hear Trenitalia’s Iryo has a decent first class, will have to confirm that on another trip… #trainstr

Ahoy, I see we’re just renaming the deck chairs on the Titanic now

Lunch served on TGV 9713 between Paris and Barcelona. As a rule of thumb, the better the food in a country, the worse the food on its trains. #trainstr

I’ve been informed at a restaurant that the seafood selection is very limited as it’s been “a bad week for fish.” What do you mean, sir, sounds like it’s been a great week for the fish!

Crowds gather outside an office of the Spanish National Police for a pro-independence rally on the National Day of Catalonia. Paint and smoke bombs are thrown at the building, with plenty of riot police on standby around the corner.

This almost 60 year old vending machine only takes sats! After all that time, without a single Freon refill, it still dispenses ice cold Coca Cola glass bottles. It was surprisingly simple to retrofit, using a Raspberry Pi, a relay and LNbits. You can visit it at DCTRL at 330 West Hastings, Vancouver, BC.

https://stacker.news/items/1556613

First the Gulf, now the Lake, next the mountains. Total Italian cultural victory!

The Skeena is a very short train traveling a long distance. It travels for 1.160km from Prince Rupert on the BC coast to Jasper in the Rocky Mountains. These days, it only has three cars: A baggage car, a passenger car and the Park Car with its dome, accommodation for staff, cafe and club lounge. The train stops overnight in Prince George and rolls for about 12h on the first leg, and 8h on the second. #trainstr

The worst train food I had outside of China and Russia. Turkey ham sandwich, CA$8, served on The Skeena between Prince Rupert and Prince George #trainstr

Find me in the bullet lounge #trainstr

Find me in the bullet lounge #trainstr

This is the ultimate Lightning Node.

The Bitcoin Block Party, together with the Learning Bitcoin Conference, is THE Bitcoin event of the year in Western Canada. Don’t forget to RSVP, and more importantly, show up! August 22-23, downtown Vancouver, BC

https://luma.com/ed63hjqz

Last week I went to Chicago to ride trains and spend sats. The trains are here on Nostr, the Lightning Trip Report is on Stacker News:

https://stacker.news/items/1535931

Nobody ever built a highway rest stop and gas station like this. Absolutely stunning. Chicago Union Station, built 1925

What a beautifully maintained commuter car, taking me to the Chicago Bitcoin Collective this morning. As a tourist I’m in awe of the historic railroads of Chicago, as a commuter I’d probably expect some upgrades, especially to trains, stations and tracks. This stuff must fail a lot, and it’s slow

My camera is somewhat broken, so now everything looks gloomy and dated. It’s called the Chicago filter. #trainstr

This was once the busiest railroad intersection in the world. It was built in 1897 and I think it’s pretty insane that it’s still in use. On the left outside the frame is the old observation tower ‘18,’ although records of why it is called that have been lost. 224 trains could pass through here per hour during rush hour, a train every fifteen seconds. Lake/Wells Street, The Loop, Chicago

Breakfast on Via train 71 from Toronto to Windsor. The meal is included in the business class ticket (~US$54) ticket and served at your seat. Drinks are served repeatedly. #trainstr

Hot meal on Via train 45 from Ottawa to Toronto. #trainstr

99% suggested tip? Lmao I’m not even in the U.S. right now

Seeing the potential in every person, project and place is such a curse.

Exploring Canadian railway history. And look, a marmot!

How are your local Nostr and Bitcoin IRL communities doing? As active as two years ago? Less active? Entirely inactive? What about adjacent communities? Very curious to hear some stories

How can an ice cream shop afford to have so many different varieties of chocolate?

Too many stories about people losing their Bitcoin read like this: “So I went to meet this guy at the gas station. We know each other from Facebook Marketplace where he brags about being former Iranian intelligence. He has some investment tips for me, and gave me a USB stick to plug into my computer. Somehow the program wasn’t running properly (I’m still on Windows 7, sorry). Somebody on Reddit suggested this could be a hacking attempt? Anyway, I went to sexure.seedcheckrx.biz and uploaded my wallet, but the site says everything’s alright. Now my wife is really mad at me. What did I do wrong?”

The abandoned Granville Island railway station, overgrown, but still shining. I hope one day streetcars can once again stop here. #trainstr

This week I converted one NUC and three of these Dell MiniPCs into Linux machines. 2027 will almost certainly be the year of Linux on the desktop (and Lightning in your wallet).

Got to ride this beautifully restored streetcar today. Built 1912 in St. Louis, it was in service until 1954 for B.C. Electric Railway. Today it needs to pull a little diesel generator, as the line is no longer electrified.

What do these mean, and who has been putting them up around Vancouver?

Extremely lucky shot of train #2 heading to Toronto this afternoon as it approaches the bridge across the Fraser River in New Westminster. An absolute #trainstr hightlight

Veal chop for dinner. Absolute heaven

No Captain Canuck! You can’t just tell people to “Let’s Move Back” and that “The Bus is Filling Up!”

The greatest restaurants are just holes in the wall. No reservations, no table service, no cutlery.

I walked into convenience store today and was asked by the clerk if it’s a good idea to buy Bitcoin now (he noticed my t-shirt). We are so back.

Having fun living without a bank account? The real challenge is living without a phone number!

Who is working on Nostr over Meshtastic?

My agent hit me with the old “let me google that for you.” We can’t win, huh

Suddenly all my Raspberry Pi Zero retailers are sold out, some after doubling prices. What’s going on here, that thing has half a GB of RAM

This bear market, make it your goal to be the last person to pay with Bitcoin at any of the merchants around you.

Canadian food can be pretty great, even in the West

Tram cafés in Istanbul, Vienna, Linz and Munich. North America has some really good ones too, but they tend to be much harder to spot.

Pretty remarkable, my 10 year old iPhone SE got a software upgrade today. It’s still running iOS 15 smoothly, albeit a bit slow

The new, unsolvable captcha. Who will be the first to offer a browser extension that lets you pay sats to an actual bot farm to solve that problem for you?

When will Square enable Lightning payments on their terminals in Canada? The folks in Vancouver are absolutely desperate at this point and will literally do anything to make this happen this year

Forget about work from home. The train is where it’s at! There’s even space for a Bitdevs!

Lightning is so much better than what was promised to us in ~2015-‘17. Incredible project that keeps overdelivering on decentralization, performance, security and scalability. Hat off

If you’re around Munich this Thursday, don’t miss out on Bitdevs! Starts 7pm at the Adesso offices by Leuchtenbergring!

https://luma.com/b2a4fq9f