Mesh Networks and Blu-Rays                                     Posted 2026-07-01
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Well it's been a hot minute since I posted anything here in gopherspace. I hope
you are all well. I recently started full-time work so time for tinkering has 
dwindled. Nonetheless there are a few things that have been going on around
here.

I recently purchased a Heltec v4 LoRA radio and have been fiddling with mesh
networks. In my region the most active protocol is Meshcore so that is primarily
where I have been hanging out. There's a pretty tight-knit community there
and its nice to be able to talk to people who are geographically close. Not to
mention, mesh networks are cheap, legal and effectively decentralised.

I also poked my head around the Reticulum network recently by setting up a
router on my desktop. I really love this as an idea and I hope it is adopted by
more people. I'm hoping to buy another LoRa radio and start my own NomadNet
site on Reticulum over LoRA.

I also recently picked up a Japanese Pioneer branded Blu-Ray drive from an
op-shop for an irresistable price. I thought it might be broken but I've got it
set up with my desktop now working flawlessly. It is capable of reading and
writing basically every variety of CD, DVD and Blu-Ray including 4K Ultra HD and
M-Disc.

I'm mostly going to use it to watch some movies for the moment and later I'll
probably start backing up photos to some archival M-Discs. I've been pretty
bummed to find out that I've taken the loose encryption of DVDs for granted as
even with the most up-to-date AACS keydb, some of my most recent movies cannot
be watched without ripping them. This is mostly an issue of convenience but it's
still pretty annoying that buying a copy of a movie on a physical disc doesn't
necessarily mean you are free to use that copy however you please without
jumping through hoops.

EOT

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