Westport Connecticut's year old Tesla Model 3 cost analysis predicts tens of thousands in savings vs 10 mpg gas car

Photo by Westport Police. Click/tap twice to really zoom in. Police Chief Foto Koskinas at left, Officer Sampson at right, and the first-of-its-kind 2020 Tesla Model 3 Performance at the Westport Connecticut Police Station. I don't want to detract from the power of this article with a lot of words.…

Jun 9 2021

Finally, first mass market EV pickup truck deliveries by Rivian in 2021, Ford in 2022, Tesla and Chevy in 2023, Dodge in 2024

I'm not a pickup truck person, but a whole lot of North Americans are. The Ford F-Series has been the best-selling pickup truck in the US and Canada since 1977, and they've been selling about 900,000 per year in the past 3 years. The potential for some serious carbon emission and cost-per-mile…

Jun 8 2021

TinkerTry's Tenth Birthday is June 2 2021 - Paul's reflections on past, present, and future tech

Today marks my 10th year anniversary since launching TinkerTry. Many good things in life and career came to me as a direct result of me sharing my experiences and thoughts with my readers, and I'm so glad to have this outlet for my excess energy. It's fair to say a lot has happened in my life and…

Jun 2 2021

I saw the future: all-electric Rivian R1T pickup truck at all-electric Hotel Marcel in New Haven Connecticut

It's no coincidence that this particular Rivian R1T was apparently in Albany NY and Hartford CT earlier this week, yes, both are state capitols. See also Governor Lamont and SB 127 co-sponsor Will Haskell checking out the R1T on May 13th here and here. Last week, I was invited to this private…

May 15 2021

I got to see the Tesla Cybertruck in New York City with my own eyes and it still seems unreal

If you just want to skip to the video or photos below, that's ok, I understand, just be sure to enjoy them in full screen. Late on Friday May 7th, pics like this lit up Twitter. How in the heck will I explain to my wife that a road trip to see a pickup truck is necessary? I spotted this tweet late…

May 11 2021

VMware ESXi 7.0 Update 2a not available yet via ESXCLI (Update - available on Apr 29 2021)

This is just a quick, fleeting article about my tinkering in my home lab tonight, featuring a video of me trying to lab test the ESXCLI method of updating my ESXi 7.0 Update 2 (VMware ESXi 7.0.2 Build 17630552) to ESXi 7.0 Update 2a (VMware ESXi 7.0.2 Build 17920168). See also the VMware vSphere…

Apr 27 2021

Many EV brands at the Drive Electric Earth Day 2021 in Fairfield Connecticut

On Saturday Apr 24 2021, a special 3-in-1 Earth Day event was held in Fairfield, Connecticut: The next generation gets it. Drive Electric Earth Day Sustainable Fairfield Earth Day Celebration Healthy Kids Day April 24th YMCA Fairfield Given I've been helping out with the EV Club of Connecticut…

Apr 26 2021

Intel has started sampling next-gen Intel Xeon D processors for space and power-constrained environments, promising for home labs?

You may remember me recently writing about how I'm less than-thrilled that no worthy successor to the announced-in-2015 Xeon D-1500 has arrived yet, it's been a 6 year wait. The misses for me include 2018's Xeon D-2100 that was just too power hungry even at idle, 2019's Xeon D-1600 that was just a…

Apr 7 2021

Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 Review

It's already been 5 years since my article about the first generation Ring Video Doorbell Pro: My Ring Video Doorbell story starts a new chapter with Ring Video Doorbell Pro Apr 29 2016 and it's been in daily use on my home ever since. After moving from a 16V to 24V transformer when first…

Apr 4 2021

Tesla Full Self Driving beta-tester Kim Paquette's candid discussion with EV Club of CT about navigating the narrow roads of Newport RI

Recently, the EV Club of Connecticut had an amazing guest speaker, and I'm so glad I'm able to share it with my readers. I find it pretty amazing what a 72 watt computer can do with 8 video feeds. There are limitations of the system in its current beta state, and there is a spirited debate in the…

Mar 29 2021

Big turn-out at Connecticut press conference including Lucid Motors, Rivian, Tesla, and EV owners advocating for SB 127 in-state direct-sales and deliveries

May 07 2021 Update - No word on SB 127 lately, follow @EVClubCT to stay updated. See also CT Coalition Letter_SB 127_210402v1.pdf, Direct Sales Nationwide Organizations Open Letter 4.13.pdf, and Direct Sales Nationwide Academics Letter 4.14.pdf that have all been added to EV Club of CT's new EV…

Mar 22 2021

VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 2b is now GA, here's how to download it any which way!

Text: Table of Contents To get started with your lab testing, jump to the appropriate download section: If you have a free My VMware account If you're currently a vExpert If you're currently a VMUG Advantage EVALExperience subscriber If you're seeking the Free Hypervisor Download and License The…

Mar 10 2021

Tesla Full Self-Driving beta-tester Kim Paquette speaking to EV Club of CT at 7pm eastern Mar 11 2021, preregister now to join our Zoom!

I'd encourage #FSDBeta drivers to listen to this Autonocast podcast's words of extreme caution, watch this thoughtful video about self-driving being more about safety and not just convenience, and this one filled with alternative perspectives. Now you're ready for Kim Paquette's YouTube Channel! In…

Mar 10 2021

New 1-year-duration VMware vSphere 7 license keys are now available to 2021's vExperts

Like many home lab enthusiasts, I was getting a little nervous about the impending expiration of my vExpert license keys, it's been nagging me for weeks now. Today I happened to spot that a bunch of license keys have been apparently just been added, notice the dates below the new "Date…

Mar 3 2021

Architect Bruce Becker discusses urban EV charging, heat pumps, fuel cells & sustainable development in Connecticut

Bruce Becker of Becker & Becker in Westport Connecticut is a prominent architect whose emphasis is on sustainability for both residential and commercial development. Bruce has also served as the President of the EV Club of Connecticut, which is how I got a chance to meet him. Clearly an…

Feb 28 2021

Lucid Motors, Rivian, Tesla, EV Club of CT, and franchised car dealerships discuss bill SB 127 to permit direct sales of EVs in Connecticut

Come join us on Monday March 22nd! Article as it originally appeared below, with the very kind shout-out from CleanTechnica appended, and many other exciting updates too! Connecticut State Capitol picture from my speaker confirmation email. Summary - see and hear for yourself how this Feb 19 2021…

Feb 20 2021

When selecting a big hard drive for your homelab's VMware ESXi VMFS datastore, consider the 512e over the 4Kn version

Image adapted from "Microsoft support policy for 4K sector hard drives in Windows" In my day job in IT, the move to all flash has been pretty much complete for all near big business and enterprise sales for a good 2-3 years now. The picture is different in the home lab. NASs are commonly…

Feb 17 2021

SSD Benchmarking Expert Allyn Malventano is back online, with recent appearances on Intel Memory Storage Moment and on PC Perspective Podcast chatting about Tesla eMMC!

Roughly two years ago, Ryan Shrout, Allyn Malventano, and Ken Addison headed from their massive accomplishments at PC Perspective to join Intel. I had the honor of meeting these guys in the PC Perspective studio, and Allyn was kind enough to even record an NVMe story swap with me in that very same…

Feb 10 2021

Sense electricity monitoring gets new superpowers, exclusive Co-founder interview and Product Manager live demonstration

How Does Sense Detect My Devices? Christopher Micali, Co-founder, VP Product Emory Griffith, Senior Product Manager With some persistence, forum participation, and a bit of luck, TinkerTry somehow landed a scoop on some new features and capabilities that Sense is planning to introduce in 2021,…

Feb 10 2021

SpaceX launches Starship SN9 prototype to test belly flop re-entry on earth, intended to be a reusable way to land 100 humans on Moon or Mars

Today was the second high-altitude test flight of the rather unique looking SpaceX Starship prototype rocket. Its stainless-steel construction is rather unique too, and so is the rapid iteration, all part of SpaceX's determination to lower the cost of spaceflight, in hopes of making humans an…

Feb 2 2021

William Lam's "Supermicro VMware Homelab 2020 Options" and an update on TinkerTry's next Intel or AMD based home lab Bundle on the VMware Compatibility Guide

virtuallyGhetto.com Click/tap the image above to read William's article. William Lam does yet another fantastic job summing up the current line-up of small-form factor Supermicro gear including some Xeon D-1500 and Xeon D-2100 based systems. While I don't know William, and I'm not at all sure why…

Jan 25 2021

How to split a 4K Dolby Vision source such as Tivo EDGE to a 4K TV and to secondary rooms' 1080P TVs including Netflix & Amazon Prime and RF remote control

Why? This article sets out to show which exact combination of components and settings I used to successfully allow my wife and I to watch the same thing on TV simultaneously, even when we're not in the same room. My home already had a 100' HDMI cable and a 75' CAT5e cable strung to two upstairs…

Jan 25 2021

Featured on Tech Breakfast Podcast on Jan 15 2021 "Paul Braren: Eyes - Tesla Recall - Tedlexa - Mushrooms - Intel - EVs - Boeing"

I had a chance to enjoy my third appearance on this fun and informative podcast, you can play it back above in the embedded player, or at right with speed controls, or using your favorite podcast app, you'll see me using Overcast in my tweet below. Hopefully this article's show notes will be…

Jan 17 2021

My 2020 tech happenings

I took this photo above while parked at the top of Mount Washington in New Hamsphire. Beautiful clear skies ahead is the vibe I'm going for by choosing this pic. Yes, 2020 was memorable for some pretty terrible things. In this technical article, I'm focusing on the positive tech that impacted my…

Dec 31 2020