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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • Recently shrinkflation hit juices. What used to be 1/2 gal, is now 1.5 L (at least in my grocery). It’s easier to just stop buying it: too much sugar anyway

    I used to buy soda in 2L bottles as the best price, so it was sufficient for a family or a single person several days to a week. The reality is if it’s there I’ll drink it: the sugar rush is addicting. I think a lot of people still do this.

    Now I buy soda in a can, despite the much higher price and packaging, because I’m more successful at moderating myself to a can a day (and it’s usually sugar free so the calories are no longer the problem)


  • 33cl is the standard for beer

    Same here historically. US beer cans and bottles used to be 12 oz and I still occasionally see them. I even have one in my fridge.

    But most new beers (as in new brands, new styles, actual good beer) are sold in pint cans, which in theory should match a bar draft (but don’t always and there are no regulations to protect consumers)

    I never go into the “swill” aisle of my package store so my perspective may be biased


  • the US continues to artificially prop up its EV market ex-China.

    It’s not even that: a little protectionism is normal trade policy globally. This would be fine, if it were temporary and if there was a goal to develop the domestic industry.

    The real problem is the combination of protectionism, while also rejecting the technology change and shrinking down to the home market. The protectionism will stop at some point. Realistically it has to. But when it does, American legacy manufacturers will find themselves struggling to sell buggy whips to a world that sees them as museum displays. We’re trying to milk a few more years out of the legacy technology at the cost of totally ignoring the future


  • Yeah, I have to say, I still see Tesla as the leader by far here in the us. And given how price of cars has skyrocketed, teslas are now also “affordable”. It’s a shame they seem to be abandoning the car market. There’s finally some EV choice but not much, half of the choice was just cancelled, and most are not good.

    Rivian is our best choice for the next compelling EV, but R2 cost significantly more than Tesla.

    • A lot of people online like the Equinox and it’s inexpensive, but poor efficiency, horrible software and no CarPlay. Also I’ve never seen one. GM cars in general don’t do well in my part of the US so it would be challenge to get people to see they exist
    • Lucid looks great on paper and I’m excited to see their mass market vehicles in a year or two, but they e really been struggling. I hope the saudis continue to see it through
    • Hyundai/Kia have been kicking ass on choice but low efficiency and still haven’t kicked their historical reputations for poor quality and easy to steal






  • That video is well done and good at laying it all out. I wish I could get my brothers to watch it.

    The thing is, I came here as devils advocate, thinking he was going too strong on level one. But he did well.

    • I had a similar discussion with my older brother, where I tried to convince him level one was possible, especially short term, but that he’d be happier with more. He installed 50a level 2, after I explained it’s the same as an electric range circuit (that’s what I have. Almost always more than I need but nice to have)
    • no luck at all with my younger brother. He works for a legacy car manufacturer and is convinced EVs are not practical. They found it impossible to install chargers at a plant since it would need the power of a city …… since they assumed every spot needed a fast charger and that all would be in use all day

  • My experience with a Pi4B has been rock solid and plenty fast for what I’ve tried so far, at low power consumption.

    While I had problems in the beginning, it was all from the micro-SD card. People here will recommend staying away but I’ve had no problems since buying an “extreme” card. Well, starting to hit the size limit now - I can no longer kick off multiple concurrent updates because limited free space available on, I think, 16G card. Get bigger


  • If you’re starting with ha, don’t feel confined to only one.

    IMPORTANT: a local area mesh is not just a low powered way of connecting devices but is inherently local-only. Highly recommended

    The more common local area meshes include

    • Zigbee - open standard, lots of inexpensive sensors
    • Z-Wave - devices need to pay for certification but are more standard. I found more smart switches using this in my area
    • Thread - the new standard. Same frequency as Zigbee but IPv6 based. Slowly rolling out.

    The new Matter/Thread standard has support of the major players (Apple, Google, Amazon) so seems like the way to go for the future, but products are slow to roll out so you can’t count on it yet

    Personally I found the strengths of each compelling so quickly added all three of the above to my ha setup. Ha is fine with it so why limit yourself

    I follow the principle that devices must work “as expected” for my users, automation adds capabilities but does not replace them. This comes together with a focus on smart switches

    • can be used interactively just like any switch
    • continue to work as expected even if ha is down
    • typically act as routers to strengthen your local area mesh. I have switches acting as routers for Zigbee, zwave, and Thread, so all my local area meshes are solid everywhere
    • then I can automate

  • Yes and no. The problem pattern of ammunition production follows defense contracts: buy enough for stock, then don’t buy anymore. The industry is not configured for steady production.

    Now we’re using a steady number but don’t have steady production to replenish stocks, but it seems like more of a production or industry configuration issue than a usage issue.

    It’s also part of the reason weapons are so expensive: there’s no steady market to support steady production



  • People think the current us administration is doing a lot of awful things to a lot of people buts it’s worse that they hold themselves above the law to do it, above the limits of their power, above the checks and balances that usually prevent authoritarianism

    Among the many bad stereotypes of royalty is the blatant nepotism, self-enrichment, and total disregard for their constituents. Somehow they have no shame in accepting bribes, do not even try to hide it, and no shame using their authority to establish business “deals@ for family and friends