HN user

fyfy18

2,224 karma
Posts12
Comments901
View on HN

Does anyone here have any experience with KNX? It seems like the best wired system (without being locked into a single manufacturer), but from what I understand it's expensive and not aimed at DIYers.

For context I'm in the process of building a house and like OP am considering Shelly modules, but it seems a bit silly to go wireless when I am doing everything from scratch.

This reminds me of the VMU on Dreamcast. It was a memory unit with a built in monochrome screen. When 'docked' in the controller it would show extra information about the game you are playing. As well as saving games, you could also download minigames that could be played solely on the VMU. Some of them let you play with friends by connecting two VMUs together (no cables needed, the connector is half male half female so two connect together) - although supposedly I was the only person in the world with a Dreamcast, as all my friends at school had PS1.

https://venturebeat.com/2009/09/12/the-best-dreamcast-vmu-ga...

could have worked better if there wasn't, say, the coal minister standing in the way of moving resources away from coal to a better use of capital

That sounds like it could be applied to any Western society today as well. Throughout history, have there been any alternative democratic systems where politicians are less 'powerful'?

This is for non-mandatory updates - things like navigation and updates to a slightly less crappy UI.

For safety recalls the dealer bills the manufacturer for their time, so as the customer you don't need to pay anything (other than your time to take the car to the dealer).

I have a 3rd hand Toyota, and after I bought it I noticed none of the recalls had been done. I called up my local dealer, they ordered the parts, then two weeks later they replaced airbags, fuel tank lid and updated the ECU without me having to pay anything.

I switched back (after a Mac stint for 12 years) to Linux a couple of years ago, and although hardware support is much better there are still some very sharp edges you could easily bleed out on if you briefly touch.

I have a ThinkPad T470s running Arch Linux (I also tried Fedora and Ubuntu and saw these there too):

- Desktop performance is too poor to run at 4K, even though it works fine in Windows. I'm not talking playing games (they actually work well), just having a desktop with a browser and editor running at 4K. Ive tried Gnome, XFCE and Plasma on Wayland and X11 and they are all the same. The desktop feels slower, but strangely running tests (backend TypeScript and Scala) is noticeably much slower.

- Multiple monitors mostly works, but it's not always plug and play. Sometimes when I plug in an external monitor it doesn't always switch to it, so I have to set it up manually. Other times it just doesn't detect the monitor so I need to reboot. See note above about testing different DEs.

- Bluetooth audio mostly works (including LDAC) but the sound system often gets confused about which output device should be used. Sometimes Bluetooth audio connects, but it still defaults to the speakers. Sometimes the volume control turns down the Bluetooth audio, but turns up the speakers. See note above about testing different DEs.

- Suspend/resume mostly works, but sometimes it has the same issues as when connecting monitors. Sometimes when I resume I get a black screen, but if I go to a virtual terminal I can restart X11 and everything works. Other times it doesn't without a reboot.

Now of course these aren't the end of the world. I've been using this system and dealing with these issues for a couple of years now. The tradeoffs vs Apple privacy and better developer tooling (native Docker is so much nicer) on Linux make it worth it for me. I also have a desktop system which works perfectly, so it seems to mainly be issues with laptops (or this laptop?). But yeah compared to macOS or Windows, Linux really lacks a lot of polish.

I live in an Eastern European country, and I see more BMWs here than my home country (UK). It's not that they are more reliable than other cars (I'd say the opposite infact), but having a BMW (even a 15 year old one that's starting to rust...) gives you status.

The reason why they are stored are because hotels need a way to 'guarantee' the booking. This means if you don't turn up they can still charge you for (e.g.) the first night of your trip. A pre-authorization wouldn't work as these typically only last for 30 days, and as I understand can still be declined in some cases. I assume hotels would prefer to use their own credit card terminal, vs Booking.com et al as they get better rates, so even charging for the first night wouldn't be great. I'm not saying this is right, but there are good reasons behind it.

100 amps at what voltage? At 220v that's only 22kW which is nothing. This year my city has installed 350kW EV chargers in the old town without digging up the street (other than under where they install it), so the infrastructure must have already been there. I assume in an industrial area it would not at all be an issue.

Yes this exactly. My friend has a professional printer like you'd find in printing shops, and when he is on holiday I go to his house every few days to run a test print to make sure the head doesn't dry up. If it does, the only real option is to pay a few hundred Euro for a new one.

As a US citizen it's somewhat tricky as you are taxed on your worldwide income, but the easiest way is probably to become a tax resident in a country with a low tax rate. Even in the UK, as a contractor/freelancer it's fairly simple to pay single digit percent effective taxes on incomes of £100k+. And that's without even delving into what could be considered a 'tax avoidance' scheme.

eBay has a lot of different use cases. Although it was originally for selling your second hand junk, now I expect a lot of their sales come from new items.

In my country eBay doesn't exist (i.e. they don't have a localised site, you can sell on other country sites though). The main 'second hand junk' services are:

- a local version of Craisglist

- Facebook Groups (for hyper local listings, mainly for very cheap or free stuff, e.g. "I'm moving tomorrow, come get my half destroyed IKEA furniture")

- Vinted [0] - although it's intended for second hand clothes, a lot of people sell new items they bought in sales from other countries, so it's more like eBay in this retrospect

For new items Etsy (crafts and furniture) is quite popular.

For electronics Tindie (although it's custom / DIY, rather than 'random adapter that only 5 other people worldwide have bought this month'). Most of the time when I want some sort of electronics that I can't find elsewhere I will buy from eBay in another country (using a shipping service) or AliExpress (then wait 2 months).

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/27/vinted-the-second-hand-clo...

I'm not sure how things used to be, but having lived in a Muslim country a decade ago, my experience was during Ramadan daily life carried on as usual with people going to work and school. Instances of car accidents (often fatal) during this time were much higher than other times of the year.

Make it part of the Premium subscription then (which is ad-free). If people or companies have a legitimate use for downloading videos, paying $10/mo (or however much it is) isn't going to break the bank.

I've use the Surface Ergonomic keyboard as my daily driver, and agree it is great. My only complaint is the indicator lights on Caps and Fn are not bright enough.

If you really want a dongle the previous Sculpt Ergonomic has a dongle but the Num Pad is separate :-/ It doesn't have the delay you talk about, and has much better battery life than the Surface version (had it for three years and have't changed them yet).

https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/keyboar...

Commercial vehicles are not as powerful as you think... The Scania P-series which is often used for garbage trucks in Europe has engines ranging from 200hp to 500hp [0]. Cargo vans like the Fiat Ducato are typically not much more than 100hp.

Cars on the other hand... The Mercedes GLE mid-range SUV starts at 245hp, and has options all the way up to 612hp. Why on earth do you need so much power in a family car?

[0] https://www.scania.com/uk/en/home/products-and-services/truc...