TVA

My AmazFit Bip could do a month when it was new (it’s down to ~10 days now after a few years), so I would think a month from Pebble would be feasible.

I don’t understand using a watch that you can’t use for AT LEAST a weekend without power … as it is, I’m pissed off that I’m down to 10 days (it’s stayed steady here for 6 months or so, so, I’m hoping it won’t degrade too much more before the new Pebble comes out).

No, the Steam Link couldn’t actually play games natively and could only stream them from another system, this would be able to play independently of another PC but still requires an external screen and controller.

Thank You! I found it absolutely hilarious that their ‘complaints’ were that you dared to enforce site-wide rules on their magazine/community. Thank you for all that you do.

@AbraNidoran@beehaw.org already took care of what SMART means and is good for, so, I’ll address what the spirit of your message instead.

For me, _almost _nothing in my house phones back anywhere with telemetry. Sure, anything that uses WiFi needs the network to run, but almost nothing has access to the actual internet because it’s on a VLAN that specifically blocks internet access.

If you plan out the equipment you buy, you can ensure it’s safe (the absolute easiest way to do that would be to only buy z-wave or zigbee equipment since by design that’s a completely offline ecosystem, unless you buy a controller for it that requires the internet). With WiFi, I basically only buy stuff that can be flashed to ESPHOME, which removes its online requirements and puts a completely different firmware on the devices … this is more work than most people would want to do though, but you can always buy devices that were already flashed by someone else. IIRC, there are even some devices that come that way from the factory and use ESPHOME as an option. Or, they’re devices where I bought the sensors and microcontrollers and wired them up myself and put ESPHOME on the microcontroller.

For me, I love walking into a room and the lights turning on. If it’s night, the lights are red to not jolt me awake. Later in the night, they’re dim and a bit more orangey rather than bright white. These are QOL improvements that I would not want to go back to not having.

My garage doesn’t have any of the standard RF “clickers”/4-digit-code-panels connected because they’re garbage, but I have a relay sitting on it that I can remotely trigger and open the garage. I have motion sensors so that if no one has been in the garage for the last 5 minutes and the door is open, it’ll close the garage door (this was because people kept forgetting it was open.) I have sensors to let me know when the windows are open at the same time as the heating/air conditioning to try and prevent burning money. None of this is internet enabled, but it is controllable over my network and my network is accessible over my VPN.

If the humidity is high in the bathrooms, it assumes someone is taking a shower and turns on the exhaust fans if they’re not already on. This can help prevent mold from growing. There are some real benefits to things being smart and I do 100% agree with you that apps that send data to companies on when we’re home/away and all that are BAD, but, if you plan ahead you can have your cake and eat it too, but the number of choices for equipment you’ll have will be lower, but at least your stuff will keep working regardless of internet access and regardless of whether the company that made the equipment is still around or not.

I have my bathroom fan turn on if the lid has been open more than 45 seconds … some things you just don’t (yet) know you need to be smart :-D

For me, all of our lights are smart (some bulbs with smart switches that talk to the smart bulbs and some just smart switches), but, everything needs to be able to function like it’s dumb … nothing needs an app to function. The wall switches will function as expected … home assistant adds additional functionality, voice commands add extra functionality, but, it all works as you’d reasonably expect it to if you just go and hit the wall switch.

At least this one doesn’t stop the system from booting and can be resolved with your software deployment tool or rmm.

Still shouldn’t have happened if the update was actually tested though.

Meh, there are always people who think their opinion is the only valid one. FWIW, I’m enjoying the hell out of S2 and liked S1 and the books. If you’re enjoying what you’re seeing so far, keep it going and hopefully you’ll keep liking it and if you don’t, you can always quit.

But, the Biden crime family!!!111!!!

One of the mods said (in the article) that to their knowledge it’s mostly the paid admins removing it not the unpaid moderators.

Yeah, I’m expecting the FBI to go back to the good ole days of killing “communists” and anyone who dares to say workers and minorities should have rights.

I’m a lot less trusting of people. I thought I distrusted people before, but JFC, I had no idea how much lower that bar could go!

haha, I love that I could help!

I’m typically listening to podcasts all day, myself to keep my sanity. I might add audiobooks to the rotation now though.

For the Bobiverse, I didn’t know it was originally a trilogy and book 4 was already out when I started, so I went in with a completely different lens. Overall I liked the 4th. For me though, once I get invested in a series, I’m generally happy to keep getting more unless it goes off the rails (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter being an example of one I really liked that went sideways). Overall though, I liked book 4 myself, it felt like a decent continuation of the story and felt like a bridge that was needed to continue the universe into the future.

Starter Villain wasn’t my favorite Scalzi, but I definitely liked it and it felt like a fresh concept and like most Scalzi, it’s enjoyable from start to finish. IIRC I read it in no more than 2 settings.

If you haven’t Read Kaiju Preservation Society, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s not amazing literature, but, god damn was it a fun ride! It felt a bit like Redshirts, if you liked that one.

I’m currently listening to For We Are Many, the 2nd book in the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. I’d previously read them all, but the newest is currently only an audible exclusive, so I downloaded a copy and listened to it and loved it and am now listening to the rest of the series. Basic plot: a modern guy gets a service to freeze his brain upon death. He then does and is awoken and turned into a self replicating space probe and Earth goes into nuclear war and the probe tries to help where it can and explores. It’s a really good and fun read.

I’m also re-working my way through the Anne Rice Vampire series. Haven’t read them in a couple decades and wanted to get re-acquainted. currently on book 4. it’s crazy what you retain and what gets dropped after many years.

I’ve found some of the random $1 for a 9 e-book set books that Amazon offers haven’t been bad.

You mentioned Animorphs and thats one that I’ve got to give a re-read at some point. I get partway through another read through every couple of years. I’d love it if Katherine Applegate could re-work the series as an adult series. It’s so good.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi was also a great read earlier this year. Absolutely love Scalzi. Basic Plot: Poor guy inherits his Uncles evil villain organization and tries to navigate his way through the shenanigans that ensue.

How is it? I preordered but haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

I love their book club and wanted to support them and picked up a few of their books

My grandma quit using a program that basically attempted to break your habits.

She did things like:

-if you normally have a smoke break at noon, wait til 12:30. Tomorrow do it at 11:30 instead

-If you normally use a lighter, switch to matches, tomorrow use a lighter.

-On Monday, Wednesday,Friday switch to a different brand of cigarettes … next week go the opposite days.

-Smoke, but every other drag put a pen in your mouth instead.

-Only allow yourself to smoke half a cigarette and then chew a stick of gum for the rest of the time you would normally smoke

-Alternate smoke breaks between smoking and chewing nicotine gum or using the patch (I don’t think she used the patch so I’m guessing on that one).

And just a lot of things like that that didn’t specifically stop you from smoking, but attempted to stop it being a mindless thing that you just do on reflex without much thought and made it so before lighting up she’d have to think about what the current rules are … at a certain point, the habit has been broken and you don’t seek it… it worked great for her. Was a 6 month or so process and then she never went back once she finished her last pack.

There was a whole program around it with those types of rules and things you’d do and time restrictions on certain days and stuff … sorry, she passed a few years back and I can’t ask her the name of the program.

Good luck! Just remember that even if you lapse, any length of time that you’re able to smoke less or stop smoking all improve your overall health! Even if you have a setback, any time that you stop is still a win!

Absolutely loved that one!

A lot of these folks that rave about “owning their home” and about how “bad the younger generation is with money” have re-mortgaged their home to fund their insane lifestyles and owe enough that it’s just gonna be a headache for whoever “inherits” the poorly maintained asbestos farm.

Not sure on your first one, but the second was Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue

From their webpage … sounds pretty cool:

Sway is a tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3’s features, plus a few extras.

Sway allows you to arrange your application windows logically, rather than spatially. Windows are arranged into a grid by default which maximizes the efficiency of your screen and can be quickly manipulated using only the keyboard.

12ft.io is one I see a lot, but whenever I try to use it, it says I’m a bot.

On FireFox (desktop or mobile [Android for sure, don’t know about iPhone]), you can click the reading mode button in the address bar and it’ll let you read it.