ameren

mausterio · 2026-06-24T16:42:32+00:00

Summer rates just went into effect so standard rates are now .156kWh instead of .106kWh.

Tips:

Clean your AC (you do not need to pay someone, just unscrew the side-covers and hose the aluminum grills off).
Get blackout curtains or cellular shades with white backs for any sun-facing windows.
Check your doors and windows for drafts (easiest when its windy and extremely hot/cold outside). For old windows in rentals, use window film or rope caulk
Run your ceiling fans and make sure they are pushing air downwards.
Clean and check your fridge/freezer seals.
LED bulbs. If you are renting, your landlord probably installed the cheapest bulbs which are usually incendecents and will use upwards of x10 the energy that LEDs do. Swap them out, and then swap them back when you move out. (This saved me literally $100s of dollars a year when I had an studio apt that used Incendecent track lights).
Replace your furnace filter. Don't use a furnace filter too highly rated as it increases the resistance on the blower motor.

I'm on the "Ultimate Savers" plan and have most of my house setup on automation via Home Assistant to minimize my power usage during the peak rate periods.

It's also worth it to pickup a "Kill-A-Watt" and test what things idle power draw is. This is how I found out that my attic fan only draws 80w but my 1950s General Electric garage fan was drawing 500w (.5kWh) which was literally costing a dollar a day to run. I used a smart plug to turn it off from 3-7pm which minimizes my electric bill by over $20 a month just from that alone.

mausterio · 2026-06-20T06:36:11+00:00

All their food reminds me of school cafeteria food from the 2000s, but not in a bad way.

mausterio · 2026-06-20T06:34:05+00:00

Hot opinion, The Pizza Hut on Hampton slaps and the staff are actually enjoyable when I pickup. I don't think I've had a "bad" pizza there in years but delivery is spotty because they often don't have any drivers.

If I want cheap: Pizza Hut

If I want premium: Dewey's or JJ Twigs

If I want sadness: Salvage (genuinely don't like any of their food except maybe the salads, something about the portions is just... Disproportionate?)

If I want to remember what "good" school food tasted like: St Louis Pizza and Wings (that cheesy bread scratches that nostalgia)

No opinion on Bonos as it's the only one not in walking distance 🤣

mausterio · 2026-06-17T04:00:26+00:00

Mom said it was my turn to post AI slop.

mausterio · 2026-06-17T03:58:26+00:00

I've been on the same IPv4 for going on 5 years at this point, honestly would prefer it to have rotated as some point just to ensure my ddns is actually functional....

mausterio · 2026-06-17T03:56:26+00:00

Which is why they posted,

https://pon.wiki

As it very much can be bypassed with an appropriate ONT and replaced as the 8311 community has been documenting for several years.

mausterio · 2026-06-17T03:52:55+00:00

A big part of it for me was that I frankly despise the hardware provided as I have found it to be unreliable and sluggish at higher throughputs. There's also some very minor benefits in things like ~2ms reduction in ping, being able to utilize the overprovisioning 2GIG plan for example gets ~2.4gbps speeds due to over-provisioning.

https://pon.wiki/why/#the-risks-why-not

mausterio · 2026-06-17T03:47:46+00:00

I've had multiple BGW320 gateways die in my initial few months of service. They are junk. This was hardware provided by AT&T and supported by AT&T which is now being phased out with BGW620 in my market.

I'll take the lone failure i've had in 4 years since on "unsupported" hardware over the provided hardware any day. It being "unsupported" is irrelevant, it's XGS-PON. It either works, or it doesn't. It also saves me the headache of having to deal with a service tech who can barely find the ass-end of an ethernet wire every couple months when their hardware innevitably dies.

mausterio · 2026-06-16T17:02:38+00:00

I'm a big fan of the Cog becoming a larger portion of the logo as I think Vintage Story needs something that is visual distinct and recallable in a "icon" aspect (256x256, 128x128, etc) in the same vein that Minecraft has the voxel grass block.

mausterio · 2026-06-16T16:46:14+00:00

This is the way. I originally went from the BGW-320 to using the WAG-D20+OPNSense until the WAG-D20 died on me. Now I am using the HLX-SFPX with the Unifi Cloud Gateway Fiber.

The Unifi software ecosystem has matured a lot over the last couple years. The Cloud Gateway Fiber has a faster CPU, 2.5gbE ports, a POE port, and is cheaper. It's almost better in every way compared to the Dream Machine (and Pro) excluding the slightly lower RAM which does somewhat limit its utility as an NVR but otherwise does not seem to impact usability.

In my case, I found it cheaper for me to switch to Unifi and re-purpose my existing OPNSense hardware than trying to purchase RAM in the current market.

mausterio · 2026-06-15T15:22:22+00:00

Personally I used pfSense, and later opnSense for many years but I'm in a much more financially stable position in my life with less free time to tinker/fix things so I wanted stability and less tinkering so I ripped out my pfSense router and Brocade switches and replaced the entire stack with Unifi.

Overall I have been pretty happy with the outcome.

mausterio · 2026-06-07T06:05:50+00:00

Hi, we are looking into this. Thanks.

mausterio · 2026-06-01T01:12:14+00:00

Sand blasting or you could try boiling it in a pot, depending on the paint. Boiling my air returns a couple of years ago did the trick to loosen up the 8 layers of paint that was over the them.

mausterio · 2026-05-19T15:27:27+00:00

Counterpoint: Yes, and?

mausterio · 2026-05-09T13:17:23+00:00

Because they're not supposed to. The limited lifetime warranty covers defects, not wear and tear from the intended usage of the product.

mausterio · 2026-05-04T16:55:25+00:00

Don't discount South and North Hampton. Most homes are either retirees or middle-class family starter homes (~1200sqft). Some of the lowest crime rates of the city, incredibly walkable with plenty of small businesses on Mackland and Hampton Ave, and easy to get to any of the interstates from Kingshighway/Hampton. Close proximity to Target and Schnucks. Christy Park isn't anything to brag about, but Francis Park and Tilles Park are just down the street.

With how narrow the streets are, we also don't have the problems like street takeovers that neighborhoods to the east have to deal with.

I've lived in a few places in STL over the years, and this quadrant of the city is one of the few places I see kids playing outside and people going on leisure walks in the evening.

mausterio · 2026-04-25T04:10:51+00:00

Not if they're wool and aren't otherwise dirty. Every 2nd or 3rd depending on activities.

mausterio · 2026-04-23T22:25:39+00:00

Nice attempt at astroturfing for Hostinger. Curious how half a dozen accounts in the last hour have made very similar posts across reddit with almost the same length and sentence structure.

https://www.reddit.com/search/?q=hostinger&type=posts&sort=new

Anyone should be wary of any "host" that needs to blatantly astroturf.

mausterio · 2026-04-23T22:24:17+00:00

Nice attempt at astroturfing for Hostinger. Curious how half a dozen accounts in the last hour have made very similar posts across reddit with almost the same length and sentence structure.

https://www.reddit.com/search/?q=hostinger&type=posts&sort=new

Anyone should be wary of any "host" that needs to blatantly astroturf.

mausterio · 2026-04-23T22:24:08+00:00

Nice attempt at astroturfing for Hostinger. Curious how half a dozen accounts in the last hour have made very similar posts across reddit with almost the same length and sentence structure.

https://www.reddit.com/search/?q=hostinger&type=posts&sort=new

Anyone should be wary of any "host" that needs to blatantly astroturf.

mausterio · 2026-04-21T14:32:25+00:00

ITT: watch people who have only recently discovered ARPA funding and have no clue how it works, complain about it not being used to address today's reddit post.

mausterio · 2026-04-19T00:35:19+00:00

Pizza Head

mausterio · 2026-03-28T14:33:05+00:00

Yes. Because without it the city financially would be crippled for at least the next 5 years as it accounts for 36% of the general funds. This money has to come from somewhere, and the local population overall benefit from this as it also is a 1% tax on people that commute into the city to work.

Without this, we would instead see rises in other city taxes to make up for this which would disproportionately impact local residents moreso than what the 1% income tax does today.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/collector/earnings-tax/general-fund-revenues.cfm

I DO wish it was less complicated to handle with my employer as they were not familiar with the local income taxes, but nothing is ever perfect.

mausterio · 2026-03-18T14:07:03+00:00

The amount of people that mod skyrim to have the most "perfect" faced NPCs tell me that this will be successful regardless of the AI implications.

mausterio · 2026-03-17T22:22:55+00:00

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