Panq

The sad thing is we don’t even drive the Kuga that much, only for long trips. I think it would be a reasonable bet that we’ve spent less on fuel than we have on maintenance.

Last road trip from Auckland to Wellington, we just hired a big car (a mid-size SUV, I guess). 100% recommend anyone shopping for a car (or whatever) does a quick check to see if it’s actually worth owning it vs hiring. In my case (one kid and no boat), it’s way cheaper to just hire something big and flash for the occasional road trips.

Oof. I’m pretty confident that I’ve spent less than that servicing every car I’ve ever owned, which is… 15 years or so?

Japanese subcompacts are so cheap that it’s more or less impossible for me to justify buying anything else.

You’re right in that running HA just for a WoL timer would be silly, but (presumably) it’s already running for other, less silly purposes.

I’d say the main benefit is when the machine requires regular (as in daily) reboots, or if it’s something you don’t trust is fully private and want to be powered off outside work hours. Not useful for me, but I can see why it would be handy.

I remember seeing someone combine the two and had Home Assistant pull the photograph from USPS and attaches it to the notification when the mailbox sensor is triggered.

I figure it’s just entitled people using them to stop someone else parking there when they leave.

At least federation is doing something with each action. Would be nice if they could be batched, though.

Dumb question: What happens whenever someone spins up a new instance?

I’m in the same boat - zero ads in Sync for Lemmy until this last update. I just assumed the purchase from Sync for Reddit had carried over, but I guess either LJ changed his mind or it wasn’t intentional.

Well done! I like to think of myself as an excellent solderer, but every time I try to solder the stupid enamel wires they use in (cheap) headphones it ends up some kind of hideous mess. Next time, I’ll have to make new cables from scratch just so I don’t have to deal with it.

I sell them for a living, and there’s almost no consensus on what they’re called. There are a few terms that are popular overseas that we seem to avoid for some reason (I don’t think I’ve heard whipper snipper or string trimmer for example), but everything else is fair game.

I’m mildly surprised OP’s laptop keeps the bluetooth radio powered up while asleep, but I would be a lot more surprised to find one that doesn’t work with USB HID.

Not my cup of tea, but a few rellies swear by banana and Pic’s crunchy on toast.

Node Red by far gave me the best automation for numerous lights. X minutes after sunrise, it iterates every light that is on and calls turn off with a fairly long (2 min?) transition time, so the lights all gradually fade off.

It’s been running for years without me needing to touch anything, it doesn’t care if you replace/rename any lights, and the slow fade when it’s still getting brighter outside makes the change invisible.

I’ll bet you could do the same thing without Node Red, but nowhere near as easily.

That isn’t even a terrible idea - with that many conductors, you should be able to carry tens of amps. Use two for “Data” (detecting charger) and you’ve got… 21 positive and 21 negative. I’d not be surprised to see that hit 100W without catching fire.

I use a dumb 433MHz wireless doorbell (apparently this one on Ali Express, but the exact one doesn’t matter) with a Sonoff RF Bridge running Tasmota. It’s far faster and more reliable than anything with the smarts built into the button, and the battery lasts at least a few years.

I’ve got it set up to take a snapshot on the front door and driveway cameras, send a push notification with the front door camera, announce on the speakers that someone’s at the door, and turn on the outdoor lights at night.

The doorbell was $8 shipped, the RF Bridge was somewhere in the mid $20s but I already had it for some door sensors, and if you don’t already have a camera, a decent Reolink is under $150 shipped directly (or under $250 from a physical shop in NZ like PB Tech).

I’ve had a Chromecast and not apple tv and its quite decent.

The main thing that bugs me about my Chromecast is the gradual loss of functionality over time, presumably as a part of planned obsolescence or deliberately crippling features to make you pay for premium options.

Next time I need to replace/upgrade something, I think I’m just going to skip streaming at all and just hide a full desktop somewhere and pirate everything.

I’m thinking I might go without PoE and just meet my current need, then add a PoE switch to support cameras if or when I get them.

That’s more or less what I did when the dirt cheap AliExpress cameras died - just got a PoE switch from PB Tech and a small pile of Reolink cameras (RLC810A). Definitely the best value-for-money, and works well with Home Assistant. Way better than those stupid splitters or having a pile of individual POE injectors.

The kind without pedals? “Balance bike” for the modern version kids use, or “Hobby horse” (I think) for the historical version that pre-dates pedal bikes.

Does the insurance cover a rental while waiting on repairs?

How many people actually want curved walls though?

People who hire fancy architects. Not people who have to work for a living.

It depends on what you’re building. If you want a normal rectangular house, 3D printing will be incredibly inefficient and pointless compared to traditional framing techniques.

On the other hand, if you want curved walls, traditional framing becomes incredibly complex and expensive, whereas 3D printing takes exactly the same materials and labour regardless.

I think 3D printing an entire house is just a gimmick, but it will still be an incredibly useful tool, even if only used for simple things like making rounded foundation pads or retaining walls that follow the landscape or curved hallways connecting modular buildings.