I’m beautiful and tough like a diamond…or beef jerky in a ball gown.

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  • 208 Comments
Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: July 15th, 2025

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  • True, but I’ve had two grid-tie inverters, and both have had anti islanding protection and would not function when there is no utility power. Pretty much all grie-tie inverters have that protection.

    I’m specifically referring to the interconnect agreement, though, which is where you have to jump through a bunch of hoops, fill out a bunch of forms, pay a fee, wait for the power company to come and inspect it, and get the utility provider’s blessing before you can hook in a grie-tie inverter and export even a fraction of a watt.

    And you have to go through that process every time there’s a change to your system. e.g. If I start out with a 400 watt balcony solar kit, get that approved, and want to add another 400w kit, I would have to file new paperwork, pay another fee, wait for inspection, etc.

    I’m all for reasonable safety measures, but the power company in my area is clearly doing all it can to pay lip service to “yes, we support balcony solar” while also making it as painful as possible for homeowners to actually implement it.



















  • Audio transcribing should be the little “waveform” icon at the right of the text input:

    Image generation, I’m not sure as that’s not a use-case I have and don’t think the small-ish models I run are even capable of that.

    I’m not sure how audio transcribing works in OpenWebUI (I think it has built-in models for that?) but image generation is a “capability” that needs to be both part of the model and enabled in the models settings (Admin => Settings => Models)




  • Nice. I’ve got the Anker version but it’s half the capacity at 1 KWh. It charges exclusively from 800W of PV input (though it can only handle 600W input) and can push out 2,000 W continuous and 3000 peak.

    I’ve got a splitter from the PV that goes to both the Anker and a DC-DC converter which then goes to a few 12v -> USB power delivery adapters. Those can use the excess from the PV to charge power banks, phones, laptops, etc while the rest goes to the Anker (doesn’t seem to affect the MPPT unless there’s basically just no sunlight at all). Without the splitter, anything above 600W is wasted until I expand my setup later this spring.

    All I can say for it is that it absolutely rocks! On sunny days, I run my entire homelab from it, my work-from-home office, charge all my devices, and run my refrigerator from it if I feel like running an extension cord). It’s setup downstairs, so I also plug my washing machine into it and can get a few loads of laundry done as well.

    All from its solar input.


  • Solutions that work for a corporate application where all the staff know each other are unlikely to be feasible for a publicly available application with thousands of users all over the world

    This is something of a hybrid. There will be both general public users as well as staff. So for staff, we could just call them or walk down the hall and verify them but the public accounts are what I’m trying to cover (and, ideally, the staff would just use the same method as the public).

    Figure if an attacker attempts the ‘forgot password’ method, it’s assumed they have access to the users email.

    Yep, that’s part of the current posture. If MFA is enabled on the account, then a valid TOTP code is required to complete the password reset after they use the one-time email token. The only threat vector there is if the attacker has full access to the user’s phone (and thus their email and auth app) but I’m not sure if there’s a sane way to account for that. It may also be overkill to try to account for that scenario in this project. So we’re assuming the user’s device is properly secured (PIN, biometrics, password, etc).

    If you are offering TOTP only,

    Presently, yes, but we’re looking to eventually support WebAuthn

    or otherwise an OTP sent via SMS with a short expiration time

    We’re trying to avoid 3rd party services, so something like Twilio isn’t really an option (nor Duo, etc). We’re also trying to store the minimum amount of personal info, and currently there is no reason for us to require the user’s phone number (though staff can add it if they want it to show up as a method of contact). OTP via SMS is also considered insecure, so that’s another reason I’m looking at other methods.

    “backup codes” of valid OTPs that the user needs to keep safe and is obtained when first enrolling in MFA

    I did consider adding that to the onboarding but I have my doubts if people will actually keep them safe or even keep them at all. It’s definitely an option, though I’d prefer to not rely on it.

    So for technical, human, and logistical reasons, I’m down to the following options to reset the MFA:

    1. User must contact a staff member during business hours to verify themselves. Most secure, least convenient.
    2. Setup security questions/answers and require those after the user receives an email token (separate from the password reset token). Moderately secure, less convenient, and requires us to store more personal information than I’d prefer.
    3. Similar to #2 except provide their current password and a short-term temporary token that was emailed to them when they click “Lost my MFA Device”. Most convenient, doesn’t require unnecessary personal info, possibly least secure of the 3. Note that password resets require both email token and valid TOTP token, so passwords cannot be reset without MFA.

    I’m leaning toward #3 unless there’s a compelling reason not to.