Housekeeping - This forum - performance, etc

[SpaceNut]

newmars is back up just need to fix the image server path

[tahanson43206]

This post is about the ToDo list coming out of the weekly Google Meeting...

I'm considering creating a formal topic for Todo items.

In the mean time, we have:

1) Back data base
2) Copy backup of database to external storage (local or Dropbox or both)
3) Copy backup of entire VM to external storage or verify that was already done
4) Investigate procedure to upgrade forum
4a) Install upgrade on local machine
4b) Restore database from Step 2 to local instance
5) Perform upgrade of forum (after success with test on local machine)

Other items .... install email send from forum
Other items .... investigate like feature for phpBB3 (it may exist as an extension?)

(th)

[tahanson43206]

For FOQ1 re split experiment....

First, thanks for your support of SpaceNut's efforts to provide useful information in the mirrors topic.

I am looking forward to seeing how that topic evolves! SpaceNut has been experimenting with CoPilot, and he and CoPilot often produce very interesting results.

Regarding your experiment with split ...

First, please continue learning about this environment, and just let us (SpaceNut and me, and possibly RobertDyck) know what you learned.

I'm pretty sure there is documentation on phpBB3 systems but I've not spent much time there because (until now) I was just trying to set up the phpBB3 system so forum members could evaluate it. It seems to me as though SpaceNut has done more experimenting with the Admin functions than I have.

Reminder ... we have the opportunity to think about the structure we inherited... that structure goes back to 2001 and it has a decidedly British flavor, because the founding Admin was (perhaps still is?) from the UK.

Please tell SpaceNut and me what to look at to see the split. It may be obvious, but I haven't seen it yet. I'll return here to report if I see it.

FYI ... I'm spending time on a robot arm project these days, in the middle of the forum support. The work shows up in the robot Category. I've been using the forum to move files back and forth between the forum development system and the robot development system. The two are not connected in the local area network. I'm making progress on the robot arm project. I have a robot from a company called LynxMotion, and a controller from a company called Cokoino, and I'm using a Raspberry Pi 2 system to interface the two. The robot arm is starting to move in useful ways, but I still have a lot of work to do to achieve the goal. I'd like to develop something that would be useful, but right now these are still early days. To give you a sense of the near term goal, think of being able to use a Dremel drill to poke a hole in the wall inside a tank. You can see the place where you want the hole by looking at the output from a webcam mounted on the robot, and you have a game controller (with all the buttons and joysticks you've probably used in games) so you want the Dremel to poke a hole at the precise location where it is needed. At the moment I have created command sequences that take the robot arm from "Home" position to "Ready" position, and I am working on a command to "Drill" by pushing the bit into the wall. It has been fun getting the robot to actually move in a meaningful way after long intervals trying to arrange the hardware and software to work together.

(th)

[FOQ1]

Regarding "Splitting topics",

I attempted to split the topic Shiny Parabolic Mirrors into a new one in Terraforming about turning Dust into Bricks. I chose the 'all posts after selected'. This took just two posts instead of 2 pages worth. I do not see an Undo button.

I wanted to explore what the tool did and it seemed that topic was no longer about what was in the topic title. Seemed lie a good place to split. Shall we continue exploring the split feature or abandon it at this point?

[tahanson43206]

FOQ1 asked about the software version. We are running with the test version from ca 2024.

There is a new version and this is a good time to update, while we are still (relatively) early in the rebuilding process.

I am hoping this link to the image will work:
OK ... that failed: Invalid file extension: 20260405Version.pdf
Interesting! FOQ1 saved image files that have the PDF extension.
OK FOQ1 ... how did you do that? I'll have to try again with a jpg or PNG extension.
Update: Apparently phpBB3 creates a PDF of images when it saves them for display.
The image created by FOQ1 is #112, and this one is #113 (using copy link).

Screenshot 2026-04-05 8.30.16 AM.png (208.83 KiB) Viewed 54 times

[SpaceNut]

the forum is a temporary backup to allow members to still communicate

user name is specific question and communications that could take a topic off the yellow brick road

I am happy to see quark here

[FOQ1]

What is the purpose of the Member Communications forum?

I find it a little disjointing that I am getting responses to my threads but not within the actual thread. Perhaps useful to me, but why would anyone else go to my 'other' location to read responses so a group conversation can take place? I mean, if you need to respond privately PM would certainly be cleaner and actually private instead of just tucked out of the way but still in view of the web-scraping bots.

Confused.

[FOQ1]

This post will show the Categories as of Friday 2026/04/03

A Category is the top level of the structure for phpBB3.

Subforum New Mars
Top level Category from NewMars forum

Subforum Mars Society
General discussion of Mars Society activities and events

Subforum Acheron Labs
Duplicate of NewMars Category

Subforum Dorsa Brevia
Duplicate of NewMars forum

Subforum The First Hundred
Duplicate of NewMars Category

Subforum Underhill
Duplicate of NewMars category

Subforum Archive
Duplicate of NewMars category

Subforum Apophis 2029 Mission - Characterize - Harvest -Radio
Develop plans, Prepare for Missions, Launch Missions, Report and Evaluate

Subforum Agriculture
Agriculture on Mars, Earth or anywhere in the Solar system

Subforum Industry
Many industries will be needed to support an independent civilization on Mars

Subforum Education
Education of Mars Citizens will be key to survival of the enterprise

Subforum Projects
This category is for projects such as Large Ship

Subforum Home energy projects
These are solar panels, Powerwall or batteries, wind, water and CPS thermal heat energy creation and storage for later use..

(th)

thanks!

One more tweak? Can we add more individual industries under industry? We have WATER, OXYGEN AND HYDROGEN, HYDROCARBONS

I think of these as Industrial Inputs (the individual categories). Surely we need more for:

• Nitrogen
• Phosphorus
• Potassium
• Trace Minerals
• Silicone
• Lithium
• Uranium
• Iron
• Copper

The first 3 (NPK) should maybe be a single category as they are essential elements of agriculture and life that are going to be harder to accumulate than water (already has a home) and Carbon (ubiquitous).

Also, does the existing category home energy projects (solar concentration) belong in industry?

[tahanson43206]

This post will show the Categories as of Friday 2026/04/03

A Category is the top level of the structure for phpBB3.

Subforum New Mars
Top level Category from NewMars forum

Subforum Mars Society
General discussion of Mars Society activities and events

Subforum Acheron Labs
Duplicate of NewMars Category

Subforum Dorsa Brevia
Duplicate of NewMars forum

Subforum The First Hundred
Duplicate of NewMars Category

Subforum Underhill
Duplicate of NewMars category

Subforum Archive
Duplicate of NewMars category

Subforum Apophis 2029 Mission - Characterize - Harvest -Radio
Develop plans, Prepare for Missions, Launch Missions, Report and Evaluate

Subforum Agriculture
Agriculture on Mars, Earth or anywhere in the Solar system

Subforum Industry
Many industries will be needed to support an independent civilization on Mars

Subforum Education
Education of Mars Citizens will be key to survival of the enterprise

Subforum Projects
This category is for projects such as Large Ship

Subforum Home energy projects
These are solar panels, Powerwall or batteries, wind, water and CPS thermal heat energy creation and storage for later use..

(th)

[FOQ1]

Requesting new category under Industry - Agriculture

A sub forums of - 1) Inputs
might be useful to discuss the process of acquiring water, NPK, trace minerals, media, and humus.
2) Outputs
food, fiber, (grain) alcohol, animals and said by products, mycology, dyes, and more.