This is the sort of nerdery I’m here for! Pray tell, how would you go about using those temperature glyphs with a phone keyboard?

This right here. In the UK we have a little box (ONT) where the fibre comes into the home that essentially acts as a modem and converts the fibre to ethernet and back again and then they provide a separate wireless router that plugs into it. Other than for my current ISP where I had to specifically request that they enable bridge mode (which they did for free), I’ve never had any issues plugging my own router into the ethernet side of this box.

If your ISP’s wireless router plugs directly into the fibre then you should be able to request that it’s set to bridge mode so that it becomes just a dumb ONT box like we have here. Albeit a large and clunky one.

Contacting the registrar is worth a shot and could be your best bet. I recently did a similar thing except the expiring domain was on a pretty obscure country-TLD with only one registrar. They told me how long the grace period was and then I setup a script to check the availability every minute and alert me when it came up.

Probably not feasible with a .com or similar but they might be able to help in some regard. Edit: though having read about drop catching, that’s definitely your best bet if it’s likely to be sniped!

My fancy toaster came with dire warnings to not leave it plugged in when it’s unsupervised, presumably because the cut-off on the mechanical timer can fail. Instead I plugged it into a smart socket with an automation to kill the power if there’s a continuous draw for more than 4 minutes.

Not for fun but probably my most pointless. Other than when I was testing it I don’t expect this automation to ever fire.

This is very impressive and I’m highly likely to give it a whirl. My question is, though: would it be something that my very non-tech savvy wife could use?

Eg. I’m thinking setup the app on her phone with a default location and when she asks me for a file I can just tell her that I’ve “put it in the app”, and she’ll be able to easily retrieve it. Also same thing but vice versa, though the video seems to cover that via the Android share menu…

Again, super impressive. Good job!

So many Google products are either crippled or completely unavailable outside the US, it’s honestly quite ridiculous. I’m still waiting for call recording to be made available in the UK.

There’s the Mazda MX-30 if that’s what you mean? But it’s yet another SUV.

There are some options now that I think about it, but whether any of them are available in your country is another matter.

Renault Zoe - probably what I’d choose if I wanted something Mazda 2-esque.

Homda E - Really expensive for the limited range. Maybe good deals to be had second hand?

VW ID3 - Golf sized. Possibly your best bet in terms of availability.

Fiat 500e - Or the nutty Abarth 500e with its fake (and very loud) engine noise.

Mini electric - Anything but mini.

MG4 - Very popular in the UK. Cheap, decent range, albeit a little ugly.

In the UK there’s also the Vauxhall Corsa E. Might be available elsewhere under the Opel brand?

I think that’s about it. It’s such a shame that the EV market is still very much dominated by SUVs.

The thing with a manual is that they’re great when the road is twisting away in front of you and you can really engage with the experience, but let’s face it, most of the time you’re stuck in traffic with an aching left foot. I’ve also driven many different kinds of autos, some great and some truly terrible. Even the best automatics are in no way comparable to driving an EV.

Sure, sometimes I do miss the feel and engagement of a manual when the conditions are but I stick the EV into sports mode, which gives a decent approximation of engine braking, and use the instant torque that you only get with electric to make my own fun through the corners.

The rest of the time, when I am stuck in traffic or just going from A to B, it’s so relaxing and smooth and so much less stressful than anything else. I wouldn’t go back.

The only issue I can foresee is that unless you want an SUV your choice of EVs is very limited. I certainly can’t think of anything Mazda 2 sized.

I have something like this setup for my porch lights. Light goes on when it detects motion, then it uses wait_for_trigger to wait until the motion stops before starting a 20 second and turning off the lights.

All simple enough so far but, crucially, the “mode” for the automation is set to restart. That way if the sensor detects motion during the 20 second countdown it cancels the whole run and starts again from the top.

Srsly though, crocodiles have pointy snouts, sort of like an A, and alligators have rounded snouts, sort of like a C.

No, I don’t know why they were named the wrong way around.

Not in Utica, no.

I do something very similar with my connected dishwasher and Home Assistant. It’s way over-engineered due various limitations/odd design choices with the API and the machine itself), but I’ve got it setup to store the selected program when I press a button on a Hue Tap switch, and then it turns on and runs that program when our off-peak energy rate kicks in - which is better than working out how much to set on the delay timer each evening to start it in the right ballpark.

Of course I’ve also got it setup to announce the selected program, and that the machine is “armed” via Google Home when the button is pressed, and again each time the door is opened/closed to add new dishes. And it sends notifications to my phone when the program starts (mostly for debugging purposes) and ends.

Like I said, massively over-engineered but it was a fun little project.

I don’t have a smart washing machine (yet) but I do have it plugged into a smart plug with an energy monitor. When the power usage drops to near zero for more than 2 minutes it sends a notification to tell me that the cycle is done.

It was two minutes five minutes ago!

I didn’t say you’re wrong, I said you’re not wrong. My point was that it’s easy for us who are already used to home charging to preach about how cheap and easy it is, but it flies over the heads of the average joe who seem to only think about it in terms of the public infrastructure - like petrol stations.

Hence, ignoring or downplaying the price of public charging because, in reality, it’s a rare occurrence to actually need them does nothing to convince non-EV drivers to switch.

That was what I was getting at, but ultimately we’re in agreement. If you’re able to charge at home it’s super cheap and super convenient, but the cost of public charging needs to come down drastically if we’re going to convince ICE drivers to make the switch.

I mean you’re not wrong but at the same time it’s foolish to write off the cost of public charging as a non-issue. People who are used to having to drive somewhere to fill up with fossil fuels are already wary of charging times and charger availability, so the fact that it currently costs more than petrol is another reason for them to just buy another new combustion car while they’re still available.

We went electric a smidge under 5 years ago and in that time the cost of a rapid charge has more than doubled. If that had happened to petrol or diesel there would’ve been riots in the streets!

It’s a ridiculous state of affairs but nothing’s likely to change while the government is beholden to the oil industry. This is exactly what they want.

Found the original: https://youtu.be/gzlmQLbr1Y4

Yeah I thought it would be easy to find after my last comment but there’s so many remixes.

The guitar riff is from Money For Nothing.

Edit: The remix is called Acid for Nothing.

Haha I literally setup this exact thing yesterday, and then spent ages making Telegram notifications that delete themselves after a set time, so as not to clog up the feed. Because what’s the point of knowing that someone was at the door after they’ve left?

Those Aqara buttons are so tiny and cute!

Are you my brain? This exactly the sort of thing I think about when I say I’m paranoid about self-hosting! Alas, as much as I’d like to be able to add an extra box just for that level of isolation it’d probably take more of a time commitment than I have available to get it properly setup.

The attraction of docker containers, of course, is that they’re largely ready to go with sensible default settings out of the box, and maintenance is taken care of by somebody else.