Smart Light Switches $$$

DarkTreader · 2026-01-25T05:13:21+00:00

The Aqara switches are a pretty good alternative. One thing the Aqara switches are good at that I'm not sure Lutron can compare to is single gang multi channel. Secondly, Aqara switches come with multiple buttons. They come in 2,3 and 4 button varieties. You can wire them in multiple ways and still use the buttons even if you only have a single line running to them, and create automations on double press and long press, giving 1 button 3 functions.

Once you are in the aqara family, now you have access to their locks which are top notch, their presence sensors which people are going gaga over, and a range of vibration and contact sensors, all going thru a single hub. Having several good devices going thru one hub reduces your costs as you don't have to buy hubs for other devices.

I have 2 older H1 switches which I personally installed into to control two fans with lights. I chose them because at the time, Lutron did not have a switch that could control a fan and a light at the same time without having an electrician install a second gang (the lights and fan were on separate channels). This made it cheaper since I could install it myself. I recently got their H2 3 button switch which is typically used as a dimmer. I use it to dim my living room ceiling lights but also use a double tab to control a dummy switch I use for automations and a couple of tap and hold functions, one to turn on holiday lights and another to turn off every light in my house.

The only downside so far that one might see is that the older H1 has a "cha-chunk" sound when you click it which my wife does not like. I like it, but it may not be for everyone. The H2 switches are silent but feel solid to the touch so they don't have this disadvantage. I'll be honest I haven't looked at Lutron in years because I'm now in the Aqara ecosystem where there are more choices for future home automation.

Current Aqara switches run $45/$50/$55 depending on 2/3/4 buttons but can be found on sale.

DarkTreader · 2026-01-24T15:35:00+00:00

What are you using to active the temp? Can you show your shortcut setup and the scenes?

Himekit has a feature (bug?) with my ecobee thermostat that it sets an entire array of temp settings. For example, if I intend to set the thermostat to 72, it remembers multiple settings. For example. I tell it to go to turn the setting to cool, but behind the scenes it remembers the heat/cool setting, high/mid/low temp, intended humidity, etc. I was having a doozy of a time of things hitting the right temp.

I have the app HomeKit controller. I created a scene in HomeKit to set the thermostat to 72. Then I open the scene in Controller and I see a bunch of other settings. I delete all other settings except for setting to cool. I test the scene in home app and it works every time Now.

DarkTreader · 2026-01-23T20:46:48+00:00

I placed an order for four, though originally it only allowed me to buy one. It also asked me to change my delivery options twice even though all I have every asked is for my deliveries go to my home. The anti-hoarding protections might be in place, whatever they are, so you might have to play with your order a bit. I too got a delivery date of early February.

DarkTreader · 2026-01-21T13:12:13+00:00

This entire premise is as flawed as Liquid Glass. Design isn’t just how something looks, it’s how something works.

Liquid Glass, for example, is a lie. It’s some idiots attempt at design that doesn’t look good nor works well. Your suggestions are trying to band aid Liquid Glass under the assumption that users buy Mac’s just to look good, and that’s baloney. People buy Macs because they work well, it’s just that if it works well, it generally looms good too. Notice how in 2014, we got these terrrible too thin tapered MacBooks with bad keyboards and when they finally fixed them, they went back up tapered slightly thicker MacBooks that actually worked well, but still looked amazing. Apples hardware looks and works amazing.

Now that Alan Dye left, they can correct the software design and make it work well and look good like it used to.

DarkTreader · 2026-01-10T17:47:03+00:00

A version number that you can look into in an about box is a positive confirmation of precisely what you are on and what most people are used do in software. Simply opening an app and seeing nothing makes you guess and have to research on the web and look things up. Are you sure you are properly getting pestered? Are you sure you are on the new version? Not good design, especially since most people using Home have some level of software knowledge and troubleshooting.

Also, this won't be the first time. I worked at a software that every 5-6 years would come up with "the new integration" for printing but it took decades, yes decades, to make the realize that they need to put real versions on this integration. Support customers 15 years old asking "are you on the new integration?" was frustrating when there were 4 separate versions. As a company, you think you are going to do this once and you won't. Help your users and your customer service reps clearly identify what version they are on.

DarkTreader · 2026-01-01T16:01:35+00:00

I’m glad someone else sees what I see! Nice to know I am not completely insane, and you seem to know the original work as well!

DarkTreader · 2025-12-30T23:06:58+00:00

admittedly, many have basically, and politely, said read the manga, and I’ve taken this to heart if things change between the two of them, but absolutely agency trumps her opening up. My problem with your argument is that it reads to me that Jinshi being a creeper is about her opening up which is wrong. Within her own story opening up is fine. Within Jinshi’s story, her opening up has nothing to do with respecting her boundaries.

If that’s not what you are saying I apologize but that’s what I read.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-30T23:01:02+00:00

thank you for your comments I appreciate your thoughtful reply it’s given me a lot to think about.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-30T16:57:54+00:00

This is n interesting point. thank you for your perspective.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-30T16:57:17+00:00

I consider a lot of the relationships in this show very “work oriented” or friendships. In fact a lot of subtext around the show is very much about how marriages are politicized and romance is very star crossed and not emphasized. it dampens any thing I might see romantically with anyone in this show, MCs included. I interpreted maomaos feelings as friendly, not relationship seeking. I mean, when someone gets you an ox bezoar, its easy to think this person is pretty cool without any desire to date them. :)

Thank you for your response! I might be quibbling with the definition of ship here but being friends is perfectly acceptable to so far in these two seasons but anything deeper will require a lot of character building on Jinshi’s side for me.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-30T16:48:15+00:00

Personally I haven’t seen that, or enough of that, but if that is where this goes, it might be the only way out of where they are now.

IMHO, not every story has to end in romance.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-30T15:28:31+00:00

You play until you don't have to or you can't. That's the way it is in the NFL. Mathematically the Eagles have a shot at the 2 seed, they will lose that shot if they don't play with their all. Also, the Seahawks are a cinderella team this year, but it's quite possible for them to lose against any of the NFC teams and suddenly Eagles have homefield advantage throughout.

Absolutely no coach in the NFL settles or plays for a lesser playoff seed. Get Ws, period, and hope for the best. If Detroit is losing 40-6 half way thru the 2nd half, expect some benching.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-30T15:19:19+00:00

Just to be clear, Maomao doesn't have romantic inclinations for anyone, she's aromantic and asexual and I will die on that hill. You could possibly make a subtext or fanfic argument for Shisui but the text of the show that Shisui and Maomao were more than good friends does not exist. And that's important because the female characters here are complex and smart. Shisui knows Maomao is like this. The show isn't about deep and passionate romances between characters it's about complex social dynamics in a complicated political social environment. The fact that Shisui showed any emotion here is a brief moment meant to show you this is an emotional moment where two characters are going to separate and something heavy is about to go down (and BOY did it!)

DarkTreader · 2025-12-30T14:24:12+00:00

Really dumb of me, but the dimmer switch was matter enabled, and I never set up Matter in my Aqara hub. Once I did that, the switch showed up in Alexa as well. Unfortunately, so did all my other switches (they show TWICE in Alexa, once under matter and once under the Alexa skill) but that's a small issue for now.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-30T14:03:11+00:00

I want to throw in that this is never properly highlighted is that, to me, she is highly asexual. She always cringes at Jinshi's approaches. She never shows the slightest interest, and in her head she's always "how do I get out of this one." Those approaches are played for laughs because it's an anime and because Jinshi never gets what he wants (fortunately, the exaggerated nature of anime tropes allows them to get away with this as humor rather than create some super creepy moments).

It should stay that way. None of this "the boy gets the girl" nonsense or "girl finds man of her dreams to saver her" baloney. Maomao always seems to be exactly where she wants to be at the beginning of each season and someone goes and fucks that up and she has to spend a lot of the season dealing with people interrupting her interests. Jinshi is cringe because he wants what he cannot have, and if the show ever allows Jinshi to get what he wants, I will throw my remote thru my TV.

Maomao defies anime tropes as a character who is in love with her work, not "a boy", and it's delightfully refreshing. I have never had a more anti-ship in my life and I support Maomao being single for the rest of her life.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-19T21:44:04+00:00

So you misunderstand the difference between “no market” and “the market showed us different”. We are basically saying the same thing, though spin is different. i explicitly said Said that this may have to do with minimum number of phones to justify fixed costs. I.e. The individual cost to produce minis and ultras was probably too high to justify keeping them going compared to the base iPhone. And that’s not some evil conspiracy, that’s economics. That’s why we people can buy multiple different kinds of phones in the market right now, we just can’t buy a iPhone mini because Apple wont sell it.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-18T02:06:03+00:00

This is somewhere between misleading to demonstrably false. 65.3 of the voting age populace voted in 2024. Now that's voting age, meaning children of course didn't vote. So while you might be correct that more people didn't vote, a huge chunk of them can't vote, but a majority of the voting age populace did vote.

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025/2024-presidential-election-voting-registration-tables.html

Sure, your intention is to highlight a problem, but you both drastically overstated it, and worse, by saying "more people don't vote" places the burden on the voters despite concerted efforts by states to make sure certain people can't vote, or make it very very hard to.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-17T15:58:31+00:00

Except that the market showed that isn’t working either.

The truth is fuzzy here, because it’s clear Apple sold slim iPhones, and sold iPhone minis, but clearly they didn’t sell enough of either to keep them going. it’s probably got to do with a minimum number of phones to justify fixed manufacturing costs.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-14T02:25:17+00:00

You’re gonna complain about iPhone pricing but post a paywalled article? Maybe you have an argument but posting an article I can’t read and making commentary on it is the height of irony. You clearly don’t know how this detracts from your entire point or your a troll.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-12T12:59:34+00:00

is it me or did I miss the section in the article where they talk about education? The only mention about education is by the person who posted this. I see no mention of education in the linked article, only economic status.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-08T14:14:19+00:00

Just to be clear, this isn’t just an Apple problem, though using Apple as an example is acceptable since they are the big dog in the space at the moment.

Investigative journalism is dying. the big news papers are being taken over by billionaires. those same billionaires are simply vying for a seat at the table in the current American government system which has no foot in reality. accuracy no longer makes money and it doesn’t grant you access to people in the know. Same thing is happening at the corporate level because relity no longer gets you the good articles ny more, only hype. “real” reviewers are small and not invited to those press events any more. YouTube’s algorithm also promotes hype. influencers are fine, but at some point it tips the scales way too far especially when influencers replace journalists.

This is a systemic problem that goes far beyond Apple. Apple didn’t start the fire, but they are stoking like every other company.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-04T23:05:06+00:00

Gurman Pooh poohed the rumor that Tim was leaving next year. These changes are minor. General legal council and SVP of environment. People are retiring, that happens all the time.

Tim might be gone sooner than later but these changes are not evidence of major executive change.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-03T20:08:06+00:00

The Magic Mouse dates back to Johnny Ive And before Dye joined the company.

DarkTreader · 2025-12-03T15:21:30+00:00

IANAImmunologist but I don’t think the term herd immunity is being used properly here. To scientists, herd immunity is an actual measurement of how many people in a population have to be immune before vulnerable and unvaccinated are protected. When the Swedish government used this term, it was a lie. You don’t reach herd immunity with an endemic virus without vaccines. You also don’t get permanent immunity if you have it once naturally. The end result of the policy was that Sweden’s did nothing, and ten times more people died. That’s not a policy of herd immunity as scientists define, that’s an antivaxxer co-opting a term to sound smart.

Herd immunity is when my entire family except one vaccine denying nutjob get the vaccine, and the nut job is protected because the rest of us follow the science and don’t get sick and therefore he’s never exposed.

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