Honestly, I prefer A11 and agree it’s gotten worse sense. Thinking mostly along the lines of security patches and the like.

The GSI ROM I’m running on my secondary one is LineageOS on top of the stock system (basically how GSI images work). There’s no official LineageOS support, but I’m honestly not sure what the limitation is; may just be no one willing to maintain it.

Unfortunately they don’t make them anymore, and they’re stuck on Android 11. I have two, and one of them is running a GSI ROM for Android 13 but it’s got issues with VoLTE so it’s not my daily driver.

Link works fine for me, but it was also covered on Hack-A-Day: https://hackaday.com/2025/12/05/off-grid-small-scale-payment-system/

From my understanding, this project is setup like a store gift card / transit fare system with a central “bank” for the accounts and deposits. As for Taler, I haven’t looked into that as de-fi is not really one of my interests (and is usually all about cryptocurrency which I have even less interest in). Will take a look though.

I don’t say this lightly, but completely on par with a classic Nokia with the exception of the touch screen. Not that I’ve damaged it, but touch screens are the weak point in all modern phones.

Yeah, I dunno how accurate this is.

From: https://github.com/zenfyrdev/bootloader-unlock-wall-of-shame/blob/main/brands/cat/README.md

Cat’s phones have the OEM Unlock option in the settings app, but the typical fastboot flashing unlock/fastboot oem unlock just returns an unknown command error.

They didn’t bother to list what model they tested before deeming the entire brand “Terrible”. I have two CAT S22 Flips (still daily driving one of them), and both of them unlocked immediately with the fastboot command and without requiring an unlock key.

Mostly moot, though. You can still get CAT phones on the secondhand market but Bullit Group (the manufacturer of their branded phones) went out of business in April 2024.

I’m honestly not sure why you’d buy a phone from a tractor company anyways.

Because their phones are rugged AF and nearly indestructible.

TL;DW: It’s solid advice. Insulate the crap out of the space around the unit since the default spacers don’t seal/insulate well and let a lot of outside air mix in. He just goes above and beyond how most people would do that.

I thought it was going to be something wacky like stick a magnet on it or something, but he shows how to use a plastic sheet, spray foam, and a foam insulation panel to make a good seal (without the spray foam getting stuck to everything) that also looks good. I’ve used pool noodles in the past, but this seems like it would insulate even better.

Mom, can we stop and get some Python?

No, we have Python at home.

Python at home…

There’s always a relevant xkcd. Lol