Room temperature IQ is a far bigger insult in Europe than America.
Room temperature IQ is a far bigger insult in Europe than America.
Robot Lawnmowers
Does anyone have much experience with robot lawnmowers? I’ve been considering one, but trying to find info now involves digging through a lot of AI slop. Id prefer one that plays nicely with HA, as well as not internet dependant. It’s also for a small garden (50m²). The best bet I’ve seen so far is to modify a yardforce mower with open mower. What other (good) options are there?
Damage resistant shoes
My daughter (6) is aggressive abusive to her shoes. Trainers seem to last about 6 weeks before the toe is destroyed and the sole delaminating. Sketchers, or boots seem to last a bit longer, maybe 2-3 months before being annihilated. Has anyone found a brand or range that actually holds up to the abuses a small child can throw at them? I’ve reach the point where I’m eyeing up composite toed builders trainers. That seems overkill however, and she doesn’t like the designs available in her size (UK size 2/3). Has anyone else ran into this problem and found a viable solution? It’s getting both expensive and embarrassing. Oh, and before it’s suggested, my wife has vetoed the boots from a suit of armour.
A rarely seen view
What are you best jokes for younger children?
My daughter is 5 now. She’s discovered the joy of telling jokes. Unfortunately, her repertoire is painfully small. I’ve also realised most of my jokes are either not age appropriate or too situational. What are best/worst kids jokes? Extra points for any that would make her teacher groan. Apparently she LOVES jokes. 😁
Kids Tablet recommendations.
I need some advice, and the amount of marketing spam had made sorting the wheat from the chaff annoyingly difficult. Hopefully you can help. I’ve a young daughter, who uses an old tablet of mine to watch netflix etc. unfortunately, it was old in the tooth when she was born, and it’s now become extremely annoying to use. She currently has a Samsung Galaxy Tab A (2016). The size (10") works well, but it’s gotten slow as sin, and only has 16Gb of internal memory. Preferences wise: * 10" screen (±2") * 64Gb+ storage. * Long expected lifespan (inc security updates). * Headphone socket (adapters are asking to get broken, Bluetooth go flat) * Decent WiFi (more than just 2.4Ghz). * USB C charging preferred. * Wireless charging would be very helpful but not required. * Lower budget preferred (£200 range). What would people recommend?
Low cost Zigbee GU10s via Ikea (UK)
For those of you in the UK, IKEA currently has a steep discount on their GU10 bulbs. I’ve just picked up several dimmable, colour temperature controlled bulbs for £5 each. They play nicely with HA via a sonoff dongle and ZigBee2MQTT, even down to firmware updates.
Recommended linux variant for gaming.
I’ve been using Ubuntu as my daily driver for a good few years now. Unfortunately I don’t like the direction they seem to be heading. I’ve also just ordered a new computer, so it seems like the best time to change over. While I’m sure it will start a heated debate, what variant would people recommend? I’m not after a bleeding edge, do it all yourself OS it will be my daily driver, so don’t want to have to get elbow deep in configs every 5 minutes. My default would be to go back to Debian. However, I know the steam deck is arch based. With steam developing proton so hard, is it worth the additional learning curve to change to arch, or something else?
Custom Spec Laptop
I’m upgrading to a new laptop (unfortunately, a desktop is not viable for me right now). It’s a VR gaming machine, with some potential work with machine learning (me learning about it). I’ve got a system option, but it’s into price flinching territory, and wanted a once over, from those more in the know. Are there any obvious flaws in it, and is it reasonable for the price? * Display: 1 x 16.0" IPS | 2560×1600 px (16:10) | 240 Hz | G-SYNC | 95 % sRGB * Graphic Card: 1 x NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop | 12 GB GDDR6 * Processor: 1 x Intel Core i9-13900HX * Ram: 2 x 16 GB (32 GB) DDR5-5600 Samsung * SSD (M.2): 1 x 1 TB M.2 Samsung 990 PRO | PCIe 4.0 x4 | NVMe * Keyboard: 1 x Mechanical keyboard with CHERRY MX ULP Tactile switches * WLAN: 1 x Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 | Bluetooth 5.3 It prices up at €2,809.31 (£2,484.57 or $3,130.80) including shipping and taxes. It’s worth noting the system comes with an optional external water cooling system, so the CPU and GFX are less thermally limit, when it’s plugged in. It also has a proper keyboard, not the normal membrane ones. What are people’s opinions? It is a reasonable price, or am I way too far up the diminishing returns slope? https://bestware.com/en/xmg-neo-16-e23.html [https://bestware.com/en/xmg-neo-16-e23.html]
Fixed address WS2811/WS2812b clones.
My Google-fu has completely failed me. I’ve got an RGB addressable led curtain. It has 20 strings of 20 LEDs in a square arrangement. I initially assumed it had a wire feeding led data back up, to go to the next drop. On checking however, they are T jointed. Apparently the address is hard coded into the RGB controller in the LED. I’ve found a few places where others have talked about them. I’ve also found that adafruit had some available, unfortunately they lacked any info on how they are programmed, or where to source them from. https://www.adafruit.com/product/4917 [https://www.adafruit.com/product/4917] Anyone got any info on what the chip name of these is? Even better if you have any info on how they are programmed etc!