TVA

It’ll still be the fault of Democrats and the Trans/DEI agenda for burning all the money.

If their supporters were capable of logical thought they wouldn’t be their supporters (not saying they’d be Dems, but they definitely wouldn’t be supporting these fucks).

A child dying is going to make them double down, honestly. At this point they will REALLY refuse to acknowledge that the kids death was 100% their fault since taking accountability is not something these people are willing to do

+1, definitely recommend VaultWarden and a VPN

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).

Prabhakar Raghavan. This is a really good listen if you want to learn more.

I wasn’t a TikTok user, but, from what people tell me, by their third swipe the algorithm already knew enough about them that almost everything they get recommended was stuff they were interested in.

How is it that Google with raw access to SO MUCH MORE information than just a few swipes can’t manage to zero in on what I’m actually interested in and instead I see so much garbage that I don’t bother looking at.

@[email protected] 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.

Am American, agree 100%. JFC we’ve destabilized countries around the world and are now getting hurt fee-fees because people are rightfully pissed off about it‽ We’ve made the world significantly less safe and now want to play the victim.

I had nothing to do with that. I’m not happy it happened. I’m pissed off that it ever happened. People in other countries aren’t pissed at ME and I understand that, but they are definitely rightfully, pissed at my country and so am I.

What next? A toaster with butter spreader built-in?

I mean, that’s at least a feature that you can look at and say “Huh, I’m not lazy enough to use it myself, but I’m glad it’s there for Granny who has arthritis and can’t hold the knife very well anymore” UNLIKE the AI which is basically just there for Samsung/LG to get money from Microsoft and for Microsoft … ??? … Profit???

Thank You! They intentionally served the coffee hotter than their cups were even rated for all to minimize people getting refills and it was well documented by their own employees that people were getting hurt as a result.

The person filing the lawsuit only wanted their medical bills covered. The JURY decided to go punitive and instead gave like 2 days of coffee profits instead (NOTE: The judge then said ‘fuck that’ and reduced the punitive amount down to ~25% of the amount the jury decided on … or 3x what they medical bills came out to because actually _punishing _ a company isn’t allowed).

McDonalds’ smear campaign against this poor woman has been so disgustingly successful.

Yeah, from what I understand, .world is hosted in a country where suggesting that someone should die is really not allowed, so, it makes sense (if the person that said that was accurate). At least its not virtue signaling or adhering to the whims of the rich like over at R.

This is mine too. If you haven’t, look up the drama on set! The crew wore shirts stating they hate the directors, the actors were drunk, Haskins broke his leg and was in a cast most of the time (rumored to have been run over on set by another drunk actor, lol).

It’s insane and crazy that we got a movie so fun (seriously, it’s just so fun even if it doesn’t adhere to the source material).

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.

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

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!