I haven't really been on the FediVerse much of late.
Life has been busy, and expensive.
I did see some concerts!
Modeselektor on March 14th was great! DJ QBert, Sphire et al at a Night at the Octagon before that show, were also excellent! To be honest? I probably should have kicked it at the Octagon for a while longer as it was way* groovier and the openers for Modeselektor were pretty mid, and Modeselektor didn't go on until midnight (but at least they performed until 2am!).
Saw Pixel Grip open for Peaches on Thursday. Managed to get everyone in Pixel Grip to sign the vinyl I bought! Their synth player encouraged me to visit Chicago (my dad was born there, but the only time I remember going to Illinois was to see my sister in college, and it was so far East in IL, I flew in and out of St. Louis, Missouri). The vocalist to Pixel Grip is even hotter in person (though the outfit she's wearing on the cover of Percepticide is wilder than what she was wearing at the show in SF).
Turns out an old friend from The Box (where I used to deejay in Santa Cruz) is a guitarist in a band called Dark Ride (vocalist was previously in the psychobilly band the Stellar Corpses) and they've got a new album coming out next week I think? I'm not really familiar with limitedrun, but it looks as if they have one fewer trackers than Bandcamp: https://darkride.limitedrun.com/ Rob was telling me they performed at WGT (Wave-Gotik-Treffen) last year I guess? I've still never attended! Someday, hopefully.
Priceline/Dollar lumped me with some oversized RAM pick up truck that was getting anywhere from 10 to 14MPG. Meanwhile, with the US Israeli invasion or Iran? And Iran apparently responding with: "Oh, so you want oil to be $200 a barrel? We gotchu!" I was facing gas station sticker shock more than usual. Such awful engineering.
I did finally test drive a Toyota Sienna (gets worse MPG than my Chevy Equinox TD [Turbo Diesel] did) and felt very dated in many ways. Also, not in the spec I want (it was a Platinum, which has leather seats my vegan self despises, and not an AWD variant). But, the Toyota dealership in Berkeley ghosted me, and the dealership in Oakland, just has an A"I" bot responding and spamming me. So I went to a dealership which at least had some, albeit, used, and not the right trim, just to get a feel for the car. It didn't feel great, and used prices were still basically MSRP if not higher. The guy at the Toyota dealership in Dublin was claiming they're selling new models for $5000 over MSRP. ;(
Having seen Doug Demuro show off a pre-release Rivian R2 and Rivian apparently partnering with Hest to make mattresses (and since I was sleeping in my last car, in lieu of being able to own a home)? And Rivian R2 pricing being announced? I thought I would check them out a bit more. Went to the location in Walnut Creek, spartan, minimalist, positioned directly across the street from a Tesla dealership.
Ended up doing a test drive with a Rivian R1S (gen 2) and wow. It is probably the first vehicle that felt better than the Porsche Cayenne's I've test driven! But, costing around $120,000 USD? It better! Apparently the guy was telling me they only made around 40 of those in the Borealis color that I thought was cool from the SXSW R2 previews and he was sifting through internal documents to find me one that had been ordered, but not picked up by someone (hence the higher price I guess due to some "Black Out" options?).
The driving experience was flawless though. If anything, it reminded me more of driving in a video game with the way the regenerative braking seems to kick in when I would lift my foot off the accelerator pedal. Utilizing a brake pedal, seems as if it is something that probably happens extremely infrequently? I guess that is true of a lot of EVs? Though I guess a Nissan Leaf has a mode to disable that pedal style to make it "coast" more like a traditional Internal Combustion Engine vehicle? I couldn't figure out how to "dim" the panoramic roof. It also, lacks a 3.5mm auxiliary audio jack, which for a deejay audio music nerd such as myself? Is a friggin offensive omission. But, y'know? The Toyota Sienna I test drove? Also had no such thing. ;(
The screens and UI and whatnot seemed OK. No Apple CarPlay or Android Auto (though there are 3rd party kits such as EVPlay for at least the gen1 which I guess turn the main screen into an Android tablet essentially and have some CarPlay support supposedly?), but frankly, I kind of hate all that shit anyway. I have less than any confidence that Rivian isn't selling their drivers' data to databrokers and being bought up by the FBI and such, but GM did the same shit.
Candidly: who is selling a new car without egregious telemetry and privacy violations in 2026? Anyone? I doubt it!
Meanwhile, you wanna go be an O.G. with a lowrider? Great! Stylin out fo sho, but even more expensive not just to buy such a classic car, but to run (they are more or less the opposite of fuel efficient) and maintain. Great for a second car to show off, and not drive.
Anyway, the way Rivian staggers their pricing is like, predictably evil, because: cars.
So, the "launch edition" Performance R2 (sounds as if they might start shipping to customers in June 2026?) starts at around $58,000.
You can find 2022 Quad R1S pre-owned Rivians on their site for: around $57,000.
So as others mentioned on the Rivian forums: you can buy a used R1S and a new R2, for about the same price as a new R1S.
Must be nice to be rich!
I, am not rich.
Thinking back to the house my parents sold in Atherton, California? That they apparently paid around $40,000 USD for in the 1970s? I think they sold it for $200,000? Quite the return on investment! Probably would go for millions (plural) now. Completely unaffordable.
Now? I am looking at paying $60,000+ (don't forget taxes) on a car that has seats I can fold down in back just to put some mattresses in to sleep. No shower, no toilet. Certainly not a swimming pool and acres of land like that home in Atherton.
Just an overpriced car.
Sure, maybe its operating costs are slightly lower than a fossil fuel powered vehicle? Maybe, its maintenance costs aren't awful (these things presumably chew through tires, and they're on BIG wheels, so expensive tires at that), brake fluid flushes and whatnot. Maybe not so much in the way of needing oil changes or transmission fluid changes I guess?
sigh Still a far cry from having a home.
So depressing.
It's 2026, we're 18 years after California voters passed Prop1a for highspeed maglev rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Nearly two DECADES and not a single mile of track has been laid.
Roads are congested. Doesn't matter if you are in a dino oil burner or an EV, it's an awful way to get around.
Reading the Rivian forums is pretty sickening. It's very clearly full of tech gear heads (as if techies and gear heads weren't bad enough on their own) who look at "upgrading" their cars like they were disposable items, because that is what consumer culture has habituated them to.
One weird upshot/silver lining to the invasion of Iran? Some hippie woo woo person mentioned how it was the equivalent so far of 5 Dakota pipeline protests in inhibiting oil production!
Which, is kind of hilarious.
Meanwhile, Trump is apparently trying to force California coastal oil rig production back online? California (more specifically, the Monterey Bay) is sort of where protecting coastlines began! It was thought that the sea otter, had been driven to extinction, until years after remediation efforts saw them return to the Monterey Area.
sigh two steps forward, 20 steps backwards is how most things feel.
I'm vaguely optimistic at @[email protected] announcement of the Dabao Baochip-1x (campaign closes in 4 days: https://www.crowdsupply.com/baochip/dabao) as yet another low cost (just under $10 USD a chip before taxes and shipping and handling) RISC-V effort, about as open as can currently be hoped!
I saw mention that Deepcomputing apparently has a new (IIIrd?) revision of their RISC-V SBC drop in replacement board for the Framework 13 on pre-order due to start shipping sooner than later too? https://deepcomputing.io/product/dc-roma-risc-v-mainboard-iii/ ($99 pre-order reserve price, I dunno what it will actually cost, I think the II revision was around $550 USD?). Claims to have some 30 TOPS NPU, but if it's like other GPU sorts of things paired with RISC-V SBCs, there aren't open source drivers for any of that, so who knows who can take advantage of it, or how?
Such a strange ordeal some hardware vendors seem to be foisting on end users/developers/whatever. Feels as if there's a continued class divide.
Still, it could be worse I guess? Gosh knows, many things are.
Life has been busy, and expensive.
I did see some concerts!
Modeselektor on March 14th was great! DJ QBert, Sphire et al at a Night at the Octagon before that show, were also excellent! To be honest? I probably should have kicked it at the Octagon for a while longer as it was way* groovier and the openers for Modeselektor were pretty mid, and Modeselektor didn't go on until midnight (but at least they performed until 2am!).
Saw Pixel Grip open for Peaches on Thursday. Managed to get everyone in Pixel Grip to sign the vinyl I bought! Their synth player encouraged me to visit Chicago (my dad was born there, but the only time I remember going to Illinois was to see my sister in college, and it was so far East in IL, I flew in and out of St. Louis, Missouri). The vocalist to Pixel Grip is even hotter in person (though the outfit she's wearing on the cover of Percepticide is wilder than what she was wearing at the show in SF).
Turns out an old friend from The Box (where I used to deejay in Santa Cruz) is a guitarist in a band called Dark Ride (vocalist was previously in the psychobilly band the Stellar Corpses) and they've got a new album coming out next week I think? I'm not really familiar with limitedrun, but it looks as if they have one fewer trackers than Bandcamp: https://darkride.limitedrun.com/ Rob was telling me they performed at WGT (Wave-Gotik-Treffen) last year I guess? I've still never attended! Someday, hopefully.
Priceline/Dollar lumped me with some oversized RAM pick up truck that was getting anywhere from 10 to 14MPG. Meanwhile, with the US Israeli invasion or Iran? And Iran apparently responding with: "Oh, so you want oil to be $200 a barrel? We gotchu!" I was facing gas station sticker shock more than usual. Such awful engineering.
I did finally test drive a Toyota Sienna (gets worse MPG than my Chevy Equinox TD [Turbo Diesel] did) and felt very dated in many ways. Also, not in the spec I want (it was a Platinum, which has leather seats my vegan self despises, and not an AWD variant). But, the Toyota dealership in Berkeley ghosted me, and the dealership in Oakland, just has an A"I" bot responding and spamming me. So I went to a dealership which at least had some, albeit, used, and not the right trim, just to get a feel for the car. It didn't feel great, and used prices were still basically MSRP if not higher. The guy at the Toyota dealership in Dublin was claiming they're selling new models for $5000 over MSRP. ;(
Having seen Doug Demuro show off a pre-release Rivian R2 and Rivian apparently partnering with Hest to make mattresses (and since I was sleeping in my last car, in lieu of being able to own a home)? And Rivian R2 pricing being announced? I thought I would check them out a bit more. Went to the location in Walnut Creek, spartan, minimalist, positioned directly across the street from a Tesla dealership.
Ended up doing a test drive with a Rivian R1S (gen 2) and wow. It is probably the first vehicle that felt better than the Porsche Cayenne's I've test driven! But, costing around $120,000 USD? It better! Apparently the guy was telling me they only made around 40 of those in the Borealis color that I thought was cool from the SXSW R2 previews and he was sifting through internal documents to find me one that had been ordered, but not picked up by someone (hence the higher price I guess due to some "Black Out" options?).
The driving experience was flawless though. If anything, it reminded me more of driving in a video game with the way the regenerative braking seems to kick in when I would lift my foot off the accelerator pedal. Utilizing a brake pedal, seems as if it is something that probably happens extremely infrequently? I guess that is true of a lot of EVs? Though I guess a Nissan Leaf has a mode to disable that pedal style to make it "coast" more like a traditional Internal Combustion Engine vehicle? I couldn't figure out how to "dim" the panoramic roof. It also, lacks a 3.5mm auxiliary audio jack, which for a deejay audio music nerd such as myself? Is a friggin offensive omission. But, y'know? The Toyota Sienna I test drove? Also had no such thing. ;(
The screens and UI and whatnot seemed OK. No Apple CarPlay or Android Auto (though there are 3rd party kits such as EVPlay for at least the gen1 which I guess turn the main screen into an Android tablet essentially and have some CarPlay support supposedly?), but frankly, I kind of hate all that shit anyway. I have less than any confidence that Rivian isn't selling their drivers' data to databrokers and being bought up by the FBI and such, but GM did the same shit.
Candidly: who is selling a new car without egregious telemetry and privacy violations in 2026? Anyone? I doubt it!
Meanwhile, you wanna go be an O.G. with a lowrider? Great! Stylin out fo sho, but even more expensive not just to buy such a classic car, but to run (they are more or less the opposite of fuel efficient) and maintain. Great for a second car to show off, and not drive.
Anyway, the way Rivian staggers their pricing is like, predictably evil, because: cars.
So, the "launch edition" Performance R2 (sounds as if they might start shipping to customers in June 2026?) starts at around $58,000.
You can find 2022 Quad R1S pre-owned Rivians on their site for: around $57,000.
So as others mentioned on the Rivian forums: you can buy a used R1S and a new R2, for about the same price as a new R1S.
Must be nice to be rich!
I, am not rich.
Thinking back to the house my parents sold in Atherton, California? That they apparently paid around $40,000 USD for in the 1970s? I think they sold it for $200,000? Quite the return on investment! Probably would go for millions (plural) now. Completely unaffordable.
Now? I am looking at paying $60,000+ (don't forget taxes) on a car that has seats I can fold down in back just to put some mattresses in to sleep. No shower, no toilet. Certainly not a swimming pool and acres of land like that home in Atherton.
Just an overpriced car.
Sure, maybe its operating costs are slightly lower than a fossil fuel powered vehicle? Maybe, its maintenance costs aren't awful (these things presumably chew through tires, and they're on BIG wheels, so expensive tires at that), brake fluid flushes and whatnot. Maybe not so much in the way of needing oil changes or transmission fluid changes I guess?
sigh Still a far cry from having a home.
So depressing.
It's 2026, we're 18 years after California voters passed Prop1a for highspeed maglev rail between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Nearly two DECADES and not a single mile of track has been laid.
Roads are congested. Doesn't matter if you are in a dino oil burner or an EV, it's an awful way to get around.
Reading the Rivian forums is pretty sickening. It's very clearly full of tech gear heads (as if techies and gear heads weren't bad enough on their own) who look at "upgrading" their cars like they were disposable items, because that is what consumer culture has habituated them to.
One weird upshot/silver lining to the invasion of Iran? Some hippie woo woo person mentioned how it was the equivalent so far of 5 Dakota pipeline protests in inhibiting oil production!
Which, is kind of hilarious.
Meanwhile, Trump is apparently trying to force California coastal oil rig production back online? California (more specifically, the Monterey Bay) is sort of where protecting coastlines began! It was thought that the sea otter, had been driven to extinction, until years after remediation efforts saw them return to the Monterey Area.
sigh two steps forward, 20 steps backwards is how most things feel.
I'm vaguely optimistic at @[email protected] announcement of the Dabao Baochip-1x (campaign closes in 4 days: https://www.crowdsupply.com/baochip/dabao) as yet another low cost (just under $10 USD a chip before taxes and shipping and handling) RISC-V effort, about as open as can currently be hoped!
I saw mention that Deepcomputing apparently has a new (IIIrd?) revision of their RISC-V SBC drop in replacement board for the Framework 13 on pre-order due to start shipping sooner than later too? https://deepcomputing.io/product/dc-roma-risc-v-mainboard-iii/ ($99 pre-order reserve price, I dunno what it will actually cost, I think the II revision was around $550 USD?). Claims to have some 30 TOPS NPU, but if it's like other GPU sorts of things paired with RISC-V SBCs, there aren't open source drivers for any of that, so who knows who can take advantage of it, or how?
Such a strange ordeal some hardware vendors seem to be foisting on end users/developers/whatever. Feels as if there's a continued class divide.
Still, it could be worse I guess? Gosh knows, many things are.
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