My work usually means I can’t listen to anything while I’m working (lots of meetings and video calls), but when I need to just head down get something done I listen to this lo fi beats playlist my wife made. It’s also great for reading while in a plane.

100% this, my wife makes a menu for the week on Monday then creates a list from that in Apple Reminders that I use to shop from. She knows if it isn’t on the list it isn’t going to be in the bag I bring home. Even hand writing a list is better than trying to memorize one, anything to take that mental load off in a place designed to make you over buy on stuff you don’t need will help.

Yeah, we have an eGMP car (an Ioniq 6) and at real fast chargers (like 300kW) it gets from 20-80 faster than we can pee and eat a quick fast food lunch. I find the Rivan network is good where you can find them, and EA and EVgo are solid second place (those are much more common but more often in Walmart parking lots). I avoid Tesla chargers if I can because the cords are too short, Tesla owners tend to be dicks around here (not all, but many), and I don’t want to park at a nazi bar.

It’s for sure similar in the US, though it feels like it’s getting better. Almost all the fast chargers I’ve stopped at have card readers now (though whether they work is a different issue). Chargers in my area also seem to be more reliable than in the past, and I have always been able to find one close to my preferred routes (I always route plan for trips to be sure, but only once have I needed to go some route I wouldn’t have normally taken).

My big complaint is that fast chargers get installed in the dumbest places. I don’t want to sit in a grocery store parking lot for 20 minutes, I’d much rather have a bathroom I can actually use. Again this seems to be getting better, but it’s still not great.

They will claim “small cars don’t sell well in the US based on current sales numbers” but will not note that they don’t currently sell any small cars so of course they don’t sell well. It’s the same ‘logic’ used to only offer black, white, and silver cars, especially in better trim options.

It’s worth remembering the full elimination dieting doesn’t work for almost anyone because of exactly this. Sure ADHD makes it harder/different, but everyone has a dopamine dependency and food is a huge part of that.

Dieting is mostly mental, and about all of your habits around eating. Look at things like overall portion sizes, and trucking your brain into realizing you’ve had enough. It’s okay to have some chips, but put them in a small bowl and then put the bag away. Eat dinner on smaller snack plates and not full dinner plates so it looks like you have way more food available. Eat slower, and don’t eat while doing other things like watching TV or reading as that distracts you from the signals your stomach gives that your full. And give yourself a reward sometimes, it’s important to enjoy life and food is part of that. Finally, is your dieting strategy sustainable long term (like “the rest of your life” long term)? If you cut out chocolate you may lose the weight you want, but if you go back to eating it again in a year, or two, or three you’ll likely gain much of it back.

You 100% can do it, but be sure to set yourself up for long term success! You’re not just trying to lose weight/be healthier, you’re working on lifelong habits to be happier as well.

Just just got a 25 Ioniq 6 Limited about a month ago. I will echo most of the points here. It’s wider than the Kona we had previously, enough that the parking sensors are very unhappy while pulling in or out of the garage. The driver assist features are fantastic, used them both ways for a recent 3.5 hour trip and it was a game changer. They aren’t true autopilot (in the way Tesla advertises it), they are fully driver assistance features that take 80% of the load from you but REQUIRE you to pay attention since they will disengage without warning, and don’t handle some situations well (like lanes splitting apart). We find the fast charger is fantastic, IDK why more manufacturers aren’t putting 800v architectures into their cars. Charged 20-80 in literally 20 minutes last week at a 150kV EVgo station. Everyone else was taking easily twice that long. The V2L feature turned out to be a game changer. We just had a very bad storm in the Pittsburgh area last week and were without power for almost three days. Used the interior plug to keep the chest freezer running to drastically reduce our food losses. Running it for 8 hour overnight used about 4% battery. We are picking up a true V2L adapter to use the J1772 port and not have to leave the car on overnight for future needs. I think the auto parking seems pretty gimmicky, I can’t think of a case where I would not want to pull into a spot on my own, but it’s not so busy that I’m comfortable gaffing about with the auto parking. Maybe for parallel parking since we don’t do much of that. We liked the surrounding view the first couple weeks but I end up mostly just using my mirrors and the normal backup camera since I find it more natural still. We mostly turn off the parking sensor alerts, I wish I could disable them without disabling other alerts (or even just the side ones, they are super sensitive and not helpful IMO).

When I was doing admin work my rule was I would help immediate family and my grandparents for free, but quoted a price to everyone else. I figure my parents deserve it since I wouldn’t be “good at computers” without them and my grandmother always made dinner for me when I stopped by to help. Most of my friends we exchange favors (I’ll help fix their pc they help move appliances into my kitchen) and co workers get a straight bill (usually the eff you price to boot). It’s amazing how fast folks stop asking.

Related, I’m always oddly busy when folks need my pickup “to just move a thing, it’ll only take like 30 mins”.

Another plus one for Proton with your own domain.

Self hosting sounds good, but it’s fraught with mines that if you don’t know what you’re doing can take from “can’t send email because my domains been back listed” to “everything in my network is now sending spam to the entire world”. Sure, many folks self hosting sounds with no issues, but the price for configuring something wrong can be steep and IMO is just not worth the trouble and risks when there are good options for encrypted, privacy protecting email services for a reasonable price.

This guy s 100% accurate. When I was a contractor for the NWS in the mid 2010s they were working aggressively to get their HQ staff setup to telework at least some of the time to save on office leases. They built out a large fix work space in their silver spring building and when it went live they were able to vacate an entire floor, saving something like a million dollars in month in lease, utilities, etc costs.

This mindset of return to office to force attrition also seems less likely to work for federal employees that often need to work in the office at least part time anyways, and often have very strong union protections that will cost a ton for the government to fight through.

On top of that, the costs to return employees to offices will be astronomical both in fitting out those office spaces again and in terms of supporting infrastructure like transit costs. A lot of those additional costs get borne by state governments and often passed on to the federal government through grants and chargebacks for various services.

Our local police are really good, we call them a couple times a year for accidents in our front yard (we live in a fairly busy road where a 35 mph speed limit means read your phone while doing 50…). They are always really professional and helpful to both the drivers and us. It helps that our borough has I think 8 officers total.

I have also called when a driver got mad at me for turning towards our old apartment while he tried to pass us which caused him to spin in the middle of an intersection somehow. He then followed us to our building, and started beating on my window and cussing me out while I was on the phone with 911. Drove off before the cop showed up but I got a blurry picture of his plate as he drove away. Showed the cop who read it no problem, found out it was the guys wife’s car. Asked if we wanted to press assault charges (we didn’t, just asked him to go talk with the guys wife, figure that would be punishment enough when he got home from the bar he was at). Cop called me later that evening to check on us and let us know the guys wife was livid when the cop stopped by to chat with her.

Overall, our local police in the various boroughs around Pittsburgh have been pretty great, can’t say the same for the ones downtown though.

In this case it seems to be abandoned mine subsidence which at least in SWPA (where this happened, outside of Latrobe in Westmoreland county) is a huge issue. We had to do a search when we bought our house to see if there were known abandoned mines on our property which would have required we bought subsidence Insurance from DEP.

I’ll second most of the recommendations here:

Socket set in SAE and Metric Wrenches in the same A set of screw drivers (Phillips and Flathead, you want at least a standard length, long, and stubby in probably three tip sizes) An Allen key set

Honestly, Home Depot has a 120pc husky mechanics set on sale for $100 for the holidays I recommend if you have nothing. It covers all of the basics, the quality is decent enough, and it’s cheaper than putting it together piecemeal even at harbor freight.

You’ll want a jack and stands as well, and if you plan to do oil changes probably ramps too (plus an oil drain pain and a storage container to store the used oil to take it back to the store for recycling).

For cars that will get you 95% of the way through most jobs. From there I recommend filling out additional tools as jobs require them.

For home improvement, add a hammer, some pliers (I’d get one of the triple sets that go on sale various places all the time).

For power tools I suggest you pick an ecosystem and stay in it. Milwaukee, Rigid, and Ryobi are all made by TTS and perform pretty similar for home users. I invested in Milwaukee but would easily recommend rigid as a solid middle brand with decent price to performance. Dewalt has a great reputation as well, with a large selection and sometimes the price to match. I also know plenty of folks that are happy with the Hercules battery tools from HF. I would stay away from craftsman/black & decker, and other budget brands from big box stores, if that’s your price range then just go with the similar priced HF tool. I suggest a drill and driver to start, then fill out tools as you need them for projects. I use my oscillating multi tools a tons as a good fit most great at none tool for cutting. A lot will depend on what work you need to do around your house (which you won’t really know until you buy a house).

I subscribe to Adam Savages methodology of buying cheap hand tools and replacing them with quality ones when they break (since that’s the sign you need a good version of it). I’ve found I still have a ton of cheap tools that work just fine.

Lastly, shop around. Don’t assume the Harbor Freight will be the best deal (they have the reputation of cheap stuff, but as their quality has started going up so have their prices). Look for sales and deals, and for sure shop the clearance aisles at the orange and blue stores. I also shop estate sales and moving sales where folks are looking to offload an entire garage worth of tools quick.

Edit to add: safety equipment is the one area I never compromise. Good eye and hearing protection is invaluable (you only have one set of eyes and ears, and both are fragile). I keep safety glasses in the basement and garage near all my power tools and mechanics toolbox so they are always close by. I also keep n95 masks for working in dusty areas like the attic. I hate gloves but keep a couple pairs for mechanic and outdoor work mostly. Glasses and ear plugs/muffs/active buds (isotunes, AirPods Pro, etc.) should be the first two things you get.

Maybe it’s just a thing around here but almost every tire shop will pull and correctly patch a tire for free if you drive up and they aren’t super busy. The patch kits like you show are iffy IMO. They can last a while but I’d still err on getting it done right at a shop (from the inside of the tire, and ensuring the puncture didn’t expose any steel bands that will then rust and break).

I’d also say you don’t really need the thread depth gauge, modern tires all have tread wear markers molded into them, and in a pinch you can use a penny (the top of Lincoln’s head when inserted upside down is about the limit for tread wear on most tires).

Add in the congress critters from both houses need to run their own campaigns at some point, in many cases they can’t afford to just kiss the ring. This is especially true in the house where seats are up for grabs “soon” and the voter base is relatively small. If you’re a Representative and won your seat on a small margin, you clearly don’t have a mandate and need to act more moderate. Some senate seats are in the same boat (McCormick in PA, assuming the recount still favors him, is in this boat; he’s run three times now and barely beat out Casey this time, it’s a fair bet he doesn’t have solid footing for his first term and can only toe the party line so far). The only thing we should all bet on is at the end of the day everyone in politics is going to lookout for themselves first. It’s going to be a shitshow for at least the next two years, probably the full four and maybe beyond.

Kagi doesn’t hide that they use API calls to multiple sources for each search, they are fairly upfront about honestly. The benefits of use Jagi IME are the results are great, the site is fast and gets out of the way, it’s fairly affordable for what it provides, and the goals of the company is in line with mine (namely to find a thing I’m searching for). They are well funded enough to give me confidence that I’m not going to have to configure yet another search engine, and the integrate into pretty much all my access points easily as a default search engine.

I have seen no reason to think they abuse their position to impact my privacy, and bring closed source does not automatically make them evil. You included no alternatives that are open source, and the ones I explored were either difficult to get setup, required me to run something on my own infrastructure, or didn’t provide the integrations or results I expect. Kagi does.

Kagi isn’t perfect, and there are a ton of suggestions on their feature tracker that users rightly want implemented (including open sourcing more of their code-base). But as a paid search engine that makes me not the product, it does that job well.

The Enbrighten Zigbee switches I installed in some rooms work exactly as you note, if the zigbee network collapses for some reason, they still control the outlet or light they are hard wired to like any other dumb switch. I think for hardwired switches this is the normal behavior. For anything like Hue or Ikea Tradfri switches that are battery powered I think it highly depends on what they are connected to.

So we did exactly this when we dropped our Prime membership a few years ago as part of working against Amazon building a massive warehouse in our fully residential borough (we won if anyone was wondering, they chose not to continue fighting it in court). We shop mostly in store at Target and other brick and mortar stores. We will also shop online still, but almost always directly from the manufacturer. This usually means paying shipping, but I figure our UPS driver and mail person need a paycheck too so we are fine with that. We will occasionally use Amazon for things that are just hard to find elsewhere but only order once our cart is in the free shipping price range. It turns out, Amazon is not only a shit company the uses dark patterns to push a mostly superfluous subscription, most things we buy are cheaper elsewhere. Combined with not buying nearly as much random crap, we have saved a butt load since quitting Amazon.

In theory at least it’s because you pay for a specific bandwidth for home internet (the size of the pipe) but a specific amount of data for cellular (how much stuff you can get through a fixed sized pipe).

Home internet is a little unique in that way, almost all other utilities are consumption based with no real tiers in terms of how it’s delivered (you pay for the volume of water or gas you use, electricity is the same, just different units).

Networking equipment gets more expensive based on the bandwidth it supports, but it doesn’t much care how many bits you push through it. So ISPs charge based on their capacity to deliver those bits, and provide tiers at different price points. Cellular though is much more bandwidth constrained due to the technologies (and it used to be much more so before LTE and 5G), so it didn’t makes sense to charge you for slow or slower tiers. Instead the limiting factor is the capacity of a tower so by limiting data to small amounts it naturally discourages use. That model carried forward even now that the technologies support broadband speeds in some cases. As such and ISP could provide the biggest pipe (highest speed) to all homes and just charge based on consumption (they used to in the days of dial up, and satellite before starlink always has). Many ISPs instead are now double dipping though and charging for both.

Looks from the article like it was stolen by infecting the PC of a third party analytics firm user who had privileged access to Hot Topics snowflake data warehouses and didn’t have MFA enabled. That is just inexcusable in this day and age and $100k is a small price for Hot Topics snowflake to pay for that fuck up (assuming the bad actor actually follows through and doesn’t sell the data if HT pays the price set). Pro tip (or really amateur tip), MFA all the things. Even SMS based MFA is better than no MFA even though it’s not ideal.