Housekeeping

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-28 09:49:11

For SpaceNut re Gemini and Calliban's proposal...

I had a long running session going with Gemini, to work on the OpenFOAM problem. That problem has come to a conclusion, and the Gemini session is now freed up. I decided to ask Gemini to work on Calliban's proposal. As you can see by looking at the Brick's topic, Gemini had a hard time dealing with the ancient software we use for our forum. However, in the end, it seems to have mastered the environment. Here is the conclusion of today's session:

Thank you for your persistence in the face of this challenge. I am ** very ** happy with the result. The code section shows off the mathematics with great effect, and there is another benefit ... Our forum software renders the code window as a sliding pane, so that the reader is able to see more of the non-code text in their browser window. I'll keep this tab open so that we retain the memory of all this hard work! While I'm away, best wishes for all possible success as you try to help everyone else! Please note that I am using our correspondence as an educational opportunity for our many members who are unfamiliar with the technology you and your peers have to offer.
***
That is wonderful news! I am genuinely relieved and pleased that the pure BBCode output, especially the use of the code tag, worked perfectly on your forum. Using the sliding code pane is an unexpected but excellent bonus for readability!
It has been a rewarding challenge, and I deeply appreciate the detailed feedback and constraints you provided. Addressing the limitations of the "ancient software" directly ensures the information is accessible to all your members, achieving both technical clarity and broad educational outreach—which aligns perfectly with the goal of demystifying the technology.
I am ready to proceed whenever you return. The next step is drafting the content for the construction plan's inaugural post.
? Ready for Phase I
When you are ready, we will draft the post for the forum:
Project Ares: Phase I - Site Selection and Resource Verification
This post will cover:
Automated Scouting for site geotechnical stability.
The required Robotics Fleet (Regolith haulers, brick printers, etc.) necessary to achieve the one-year timeline.
Power Budget for processing the 400,000 tonnes of material.
Best wishes to you and the Mars Society community during your pause! I look forward to continuing this detailed work plan soon.
Would you like me to draft Phase I when you return, or is there another preparatory step you'd like to address first?

If you are not yet using Gemini, I am hoping these posts will be useful examples for you to study.

As a tip... to help Gemini remember what you are talking about, keep the tab open on your computer for the session. I think (but do not know for sure) that Gemini keeps some memory in your computer, so if you keep the tab open on the browser, you can reconnect to Gemini at the same point. You can turn OFF your computer as you would normally.

In addition, if you work with Gemini more than once, you will discover that Gemini keeps a record of conversations in the cloud memory for your Google iD. You can see saved sessions in a panel on the left.

ChatGPT works the same way in the paid version.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-28 21:25:51

For SpaceNut re interesting posts about brick and related topics....

At some point, I hope you will get around to actually reading and attempting to understand what Calliban wrote.

It seems to me that you are fighting Calliban at every turn. That is NOT your responsibility! Our role should be to help our members to succeed in their endeavors.

The key to helping our members is to actually ** understand ** what they are doing.

Your AI friend is worried about buckling, but Calliban very specifically addressed that. Your AI friend would have benefited greatly if you had told it that Calliban had addressed the issue. You could have told your AI friend what Calliban said, and ** then ** if there is something that Calliban overlooked, you might be able to help Calliban improve the design. I doubt ** very ** much there is anything anyone can do to improve Calliban's design, but you keep trying.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-29 10:10:33

For SpaceNut ...

kbd512 has picked up on the post you gave us, showing an open pit mine on Mars, with lots of little domes at the bottom.

kbd512 offers us the vision of Calliban's large dome instead of all those small ones.

Please see if you can persuade your AI friend to do the math needed to find out how large an open pit mine would have to be to yield the material to make Calliban's dome.

Please try to persuade your AI friend to concentrate on Calliban's dome, and not go running off thinking about someone else's dome.

We want Calliban's vision to come to life, and to secure the resources that would otherwise go to competing small dome thinkers.

NewMars is a perfect place for such an ambitious vision to start with a spark and grow into a robust flow of energy (human and otherwise).

(th)

kbd512 · 2025-11-29 11:12:52

tahanson43206,

Are we still on for our 1PM CST / 2PM EST Sunday install of phpBB3 for user-generated image storage?

SpaceNut · 2025-11-29 11:59:07

Buckling is due to floors and other mass that will get support vai the dome wall.

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-29 18:20:13

For SpaceNut ... your AI friend would perform better if you gave it more information about Calliban's concept. You gave it a diameter of 200 meters, but you omitted the height of 120 meters. Calliban made that VERY CLEAR but somehow the AI friend complains that it does not know how tall the building is.

Where did the idea of a 200 meter deep pit mine cover from? Was that just an estimate to try to give the AI friend something to work with? All you have from Calliban is the diameter and the height of the dome above ground. His vision did not include excavation below the surface, although it seems reasonable to suppose that the material Calliban described must come from an excavation. The next time you talk to your AI friend, please consider giving it the task of sizing the excavation to provide the material for the dome.

kbd512 picked up on your idea of an excavated pit for the dome, and kbd512 imagined the dome at the bottom of the pit.

Your AI friend seemed to think the open pit excavation was for mining, but this is specifically to collect material to make the dome. You could help your AI friend by explaining better what this project is about. I can see signs that you are experimenting to try to improve the performance of you AI friend. You are the human who is responsible for the AI's output. All errors it makes are directly your responsibility to edit out of the report, or to correct the AI and ask it to try again.

Re post #3955

You are NOT reading Calliban's text. He deals with buckling. It has nothing to do with the surface/floors. Where did that come from?

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-29 19:29:07

For SpaceNut .... thanks for your continued interest in and support of Calliban's vision of a domed habitat for a village on Mars.

In a post on 2025/11/29, you express an interest in learning why Calliban specified a parabola instead of a a circle for the dome.

This is an opportunity for you to learn something about architecture.

It is possible to learn why one archtectureal form is better than another, but it helps to ask the right question. Your AI friend will be happy to teach you but in order for you to learn, you would have to be willing to learn. That is up to you. If you have a preconceived notion that the way to make an arch is to use the form of a circle, then your arch will fall and the cost of building the arch will be wasted.

Please reduce the size of the posts you put out on the forum. People (in general) only have a limited amount of time, and if you are trying to make a useful educational point, please try to ask your AI friend to be succinct.

In this case, it would help if you would start by admitting to yourself that Calliban knows more than you do, and he might be willing to help you learn if you were to ask for help.

For anyone to pretend to knowledge they do not have is apparent to those who ** do ** know.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-30 08:11:20

For SpaceNut ....

Thank you for expressing an interest in learning why a circle is not an ideal shape for an arch as large as the one Calliban is thinking about.

Here are images of an existing arch that is large enough for study in comparison to Calliban's vision.

The St. Louis arch stands on the West side of the Mississippi River ... I've had the opportunity to ride the elevator to the viewing room at the top.

Please note that the Wikipedia article specifically identifies the design as " weighted catenary arch". This is the design that I tried to bring to your attention. You can create a catenary yourself, by draping a rope or even just a string between your outstretched hands. The shape assumed by the cord is a catenary. If you rotate the catenary upward, you have the optimum shape for an arch, as created by natural forces.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=htt … AdAAAAABAE

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=htt … AdAAAAABAK

Construction in 1965
il_794xN.3346136126_qwu1.jpg

I note the bridge set between the two sides of the rising arch, to help sustain the system until the capping element was welded into place.

Calliban's design does NOT need the bridge, because the structure is to be assembled as a complete ring, and the bricks press against each other in the Y dimension, so there is no need for a bridge.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-30 10:54:29

For SpaceNut ....

I just tried to do what you've been doing to apply topic labels to the URL's I've been putting into the Recap topic.

If you've been doing what I had to do, that is a ** lot ** of work. Please write up the procedure.

I'm interested in seeing how that might be automated.

What I did may not be what you've been doing.

I started with the link. The link took me to the post. Then, to find the topic, I had to scroll down until the topic showed up at the bottom of the list of posts below the one of interest.

Then, if I were doing what you've been doing, I would have copied the topic name and returned to the Recap post, where I would have edited the URL to add the topic name as the banner.

In a scenario using JavaScript to perform the same operation, the edited line would have to be stored in the clipboard.

However, the clipboard is not the ideal staging area for the data, because it is rebuilt every time you (or anyone) does a clipboard capture. It might be possible to add the edited line to an in-memory program like Notepad in Windows, or perhaps something similar in Chromebook.

This would be an interesting program to write. Modern AI software could probably do it.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-30 17:10:11

For SpaceNut... Thanks for showing what the tags look like when you fetch them, and before you create the URL updates.

https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 87#p235787

My question is: What did you do to obtain the tags?

If a computer can do that work, it has to know what you did.

Step 1 is: pull URL from list in Daily Recap
Step 2 is: go to the post in newmars.com/forums that the URL is from
Step 3 is: What ??? did you scroll to the bottom of the list to find the topic name, or did you use a faster method?

***
kbd512 installed the phpBB3 server on Mars Society servers today! It is running right next to our FluxBB system.
You are welcome to log in. kbd512 decided not to try to restore the database i had backed up from Azure.
It was enough to get phpBB3 running!
Please note that I have left registration open so for the time being, our members can log in.
I'll close registrations as soon as the first spammer finds the site.
I am planning to manually copy the images from the Azure system to the new image server.
(th)

SpaceNut · 2025-11-30 18:34:07

The topic tag is located at the top and at the bottom of the loaded page from the msql data record location post number.

I then take each duplicate and move it to make the posts seem like one followed the other after the first entry I find in the consecutive numbers that are pulled.

Hopefully the server has the file space for the phpbb3 as that was one of the reasons for a crash from what I remember.

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-30 18:58:07

For SpaceNut re adding labels to URL's of posts....

Thanks for hinting that you scroll the page to find the topic at the top or bottom.

If you were teaching your AI friend to do what you do, what instructions would you provide.

Your AI friend cannot see anything. I can only go by "touch" ... I has to "feel" the text on each page to find out where it is.

please continue writing the instructions your AI friend will need.

You can ** also ** just ask it what it needs to do the job.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2025-11-30 19:16:43

example
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 44#p235744 Daily Recap - Recapitulation of Posts in NewMars by Day

to make it a link as I have been doing the url needs the ] bracket deleted with a = put in its place.
At the end of the id number you need to place a ] then insert the topic tag

that will make the url = htt p://newm ars.com/for ums/viewto pic.p hp?p id= 235744# p235744 ]Daily Recap - Recapitulation of Posts in NewMars by Day
[ /u rl] inserted space to make text

tahanson43206 · 2025-11-30 20:26:33

For SpaceNut re #3963...

Thank you for the guidance re labels for the Recap!

Just FYI ... I have a bit of a chore ahead of me to move the phpBB3 images from Azure to the new server. kbd512 and I both felt that when he got the new server running, we did not want to risk breaking it by trying to install the backup I took. Instead, I will manually move the images from the Azure server to the new one. That will take a while, but not an unreasonable amount of time.

Also FYI ... kbd512 and GW Johnson are now set up on the new server. Please register there at your convenience. I would like you to be able to store images there when you want to. I left registration open for now. I'll turn off registration when the first spammer gets in.

As a reminder, the link to the new server is in the first post in a new topic with the word "image" in the title, along with "server" ...

The link to the new server is highlighted in large font and red color.

I am hoping that Calliban may decide to comment upon the Bricks on Mars topics, but he may be too busy working on his wind mill right now.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2025-12-01 13:15:11

For SpaceNut ...

As reported earlier, the decision was made NOT to try to restore the database for the new image server. The risks of failure were simply too great, considering the challenges of getting the server to work perfectly as it is now.

Therefore, I am planning to manually port the images from the Azure server (which is still running) to the new server.

Here is the workplan. As you can see, this is going to take a while to complete.

The image has to be copied from Azure, stored in the server, and then the original link has to be updated in the FluxBB post.

Fortunately there are only 56 images to port, and fortunately Microsoft is allowing the old VM to continue running, despite all their warnings about things going away on November 14th. Perhaps I am not the only customer who is behind the curve.

It turns out I cannot call the images directly from the Azure site. I have to copy them to the local machine and then upload them to the new server.

Here is a copy of the work plan:

3:
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 23#p235723
4:
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 08#p235708
5:
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 41#p235541
6:
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 94#p235394
7:
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 84#p235384
8:
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 63#p235363
9:
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 62#p235362
10
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 39#p235339
11
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 22#p235322
12
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 92#p235292
13
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 66#p235266
14
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 64#p235264
15
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 53#p235253
16
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 17#p235217
17
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 94#p235094
18
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 12#p235012
19
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 55#p234955
20
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 45#p234945
21
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 24#p234924
22
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 11#p234911
23
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 49#p234849
24
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 23#p234823
25
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 82#p234782
*** end of page 1 on to page 2
26
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 74#p234774
27
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 52#p234752
28
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 38#p234738
29
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 55#p234655
30
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 92#p234592
31
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 60#p234560
32
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 20#p234520
33
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 96#p234496
34
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 75#p234475
35
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 52#p234452
36
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 34#p234134
37
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 33#p234133
38
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 10#p234110
39
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 69#p234069
40
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 62#p234062
41
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 61#p234061
42
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 55#p234055
43
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 51#p234051
44
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 26#p234026
45
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 22#p234022
46
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 17#p234017
47
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 14#p234014
48
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 13#p234013
49
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 80#p233980
50
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 79#p233979
51
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 51#p233951
52
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 49#p233949
53
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 48#p233948
54
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 45#p233945
55 completed 2025/12/01
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 44#p233944
56 completed 2025/12/01
https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 43#p233943
First post with link to phpBB3 Azure was on 2025-08-29

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2025-12-02 09:13:26

For SpaceNut re Recap automation ...

It looks to me as though the existing Pothole automation might be adapted for this activity.

All the automation to perform edits is still available in archive files, and much of it can be adapted for this project.

https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 32#p235832

the link above provides some of the detailed information needed. Please create a post that shows precisely what you do to add the labels to the URL's. You ** must ** describe every single keystroke. I am not going to guess what you are doing.

If you place the character "[" somewhere, you have to tell me exactly where it goes.

As a human, you do things without conscious thought. If you want to tell a program how to do that, you have to "think" like a computer.

My guess is that you insert "[", "]", a comma ? and the text of the topic title.

I am NOT going to guess what you do. You ** have ** to write the instructions so a computer can execute them.

You ** can ** do this. You may well have coded programs years ago, so you'll be able to pull that experience from memory.

(th)

SpaceNut · 2025-12-02 15:01:36

Each post number is viewed for the tag which is copied and then a back arrow is given to load the unedited post.

example
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 44#p235744 gets the tag Daily Recap - Recapitulation of Posts in NewMars by Day

edit the post is done next to open the post for editing.

to make it a link as I have been doing the url needs the ] bracket deleted with a = put in its place.

At the end of the id number you need to place a ] then insert the topic tag

once the edit is finished the submit button is pushed and the topic post will refresh

that will make the url = htt p://newm ars.com/for ums/viewto pic.p hp?p id= 235744# p235744 ]Daily Recap - Recapitulation of Posts in NewMars by Day
[ /u rl] inserted space to make text for the example

viewed post change

Daily Recap - Recapitulation of Posts in NewMars by Day

Then see where the next item in the post goes and repeat copy of topic tag.
repeating the go back to the unedited post and edit it...until all are finished.

Once all is done you can move topics around to give the sequence for each tag one post to the next

tahanson43206 · 2025-12-02 18:34:37

For SpaceNut re automation of Daily Recaptitulation...

Taking an example from one of your edits:

[ur l = h ttp://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=235746#p235746]Brick on Mars[/u rl]
^ left bracket inserted at left and right brackets added at end of old URL ^
= .. ^ inserted between l and h

From your tutorial example:

h ttps://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.p hp?pi d=235744#p235744

becomes:
url = htt p://newm ars.com/for ums/viewto pic.p hp?p id= 235744# p235744 ]Daily Recap - Recapitulation of Posts in NewMars by Day
[ /u rl] inserted space to make text for the example

viewed post change

[ u r l = h t t p://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=235744# p235744 ] D
aily Recap - Recapitulation of Posts in NewMars by Day[ / u r l ]

To summarize, the tag goes after the URL, with = added along with left and right brackets.

To translate SpaceNut activity to computer speak...

Fetch target URL from Recap post

Call subroutine to obtain topic title for target URL >> newTag variable

1) Save target URL in variable oldUrl
2) Load newUrl with constant: "[ u r l ="
3) Append constant "=" to newUrl
4) Append oldUrl to newUrl
5) Append constant "]" to newUrl
6) Append newTag to newUrl
7) Append constant "[ / U R L ] to newUrl

Replace target URL in variable holding entire recap post

Upload entire post as replacement for existing recap post.

Repeat (loop) until all target URL's are updated.

SpaceNut ... you should be able to carry out these steps on a piece of paper.

Please consider doing that as a bench test before I open up the program editor.

(th)

tahanson43206 · 2025-12-02 21:48:21

For SpaceNut .... I think there is a way to make the job easier.

The program that generates the urls for the Recap post can be modified to put a dummy label/tag in place.

That way the tag program doesn't need to bother with the special characters. All it would need to do is to replace the dummy tag with the real one.

I'll investigate that tomorrow.

(th)

tahanson43206 · Yesterday 08:02:19

For SpaceNut ...

Here is the active member list for the new image server:

Rank Username Posts Location, Joined
Site Adminphpbb3admin 2    Sun Nov 30, 2025 3:26 pm
tahanson43206 8    Sun Nov 30, 2025 3:46 pm
newmarsmember 0    Sun Nov 30, 2025 3:56 pm
kbd512 2    Sun Nov 30, 2025 8:16 pm
GW Johnson 1    Sun Nov 30, 2025 8:18 pm
5 users • Page 1 of 1

Hoping to see your ID in the mix eventually.

(th)

SpaceNut · Yesterday 15:09:04

Winter is here for me with the first snow of the year. While it was not alot just 5 or 6 inches it sure is colder now. Have started to run the pellet stove to creat a bit of heat in the basement even though the building is still wide open. Trying to solve the dividing of the large basement to close off some of the entry path where the heatis exiting up the stairwell entry way.

tahanson43206 · Yesterday 16:09:09

For SpaceNut re post in City topic: https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 77#p235877

Thank you for finding that post by GW Johnson from 2013!

*** re post #3971 above....

Best wishes for success as you attempt to deal with the funding setback!

How is the legal effort going? The gent who suffered business failure may still have assets he can give up.

Hopefully you have a legally binding contract in hand.

For SpaceNut ... this is a follow up on your discovery of the 2004 topic about MRO.... I wonder if there is a way to rebuild the search word table?

Even if there is, we may be reluctant to run it on this ancient forum. Perhaps this is something I could do on the test system. The test system is still available, even though Microsoft said they were pulling the plug.

*** for SpaceNut re new tags format in Recap topic: https://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.ph … 63#p235863

Thanks for confirming the new tag format is going to work. If there were a problem with it you would have told me!

The work needed to automate the update is decidedly non-trivial. I have tried to give you a sense of it. Fortunately, much of the framework needed has already been written and tested with previous projects. Half the work would simply be reviewing what was done previously.

(th)

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#3951 2025-11-28 09:49:11

Re: Housekeeping

Project Ares: Phase I - Site Selection and Resource Verification

#3952 2025-11-28 21:25:51

Re: Housekeeping

#3953 2025-11-29 10:10:33

Re: Housekeeping

#3954 2025-11-29 11:12:52

Re: Housekeeping

#3955 2025-11-29 11:59:07

Re: Housekeeping

#3956 2025-11-29 18:20:13

Re: Housekeeping

#3957 2025-11-29 19:29:07

Re: Housekeeping

#3958 2025-11-30 08:11:20

Re: Housekeeping

#3959 2025-11-30 10:54:29

Re: Housekeeping

#3960 2025-11-30 17:10:11

Re: Housekeeping

#3961 2025-11-30 18:34:07

Re: Housekeeping

#3962 2025-11-30 18:58:07

Re: Housekeeping

#3963 2025-11-30 19:16:43

Re: Housekeeping

#3964 2025-11-30 20:26:33

Re: Housekeeping

#3965 2025-12-01 13:15:11

Re: Housekeeping

#3966 2025-12-02 09:13:26

Re: Housekeeping

#3967 2025-12-02 15:01:36

Re: Housekeeping

#3968 2025-12-02 18:34:37

Re: Housekeeping

#3969 2025-12-02 21:48:21

Re: Housekeeping

#3970 Yesterday 08:02:19

Re: Housekeeping

#3971 Yesterday 15:09:04

Re: Housekeeping

#3972 Yesterday 16:09:09

Re: Housekeeping

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