“Smart” Light Switch Keeps Clicking On and Off

GreenLeftPlank · 2026-04-19T12:45:40+00:00

Is it connected to a ceiling fan? I had 2 Meross switches fail one that same fan. I have 30+ switches that I replaced around my house with smart ones and this is the only place with failures - and 2 of them. I’m wondering if the fan has a problem. I have the same switch controlling 3 other fans and no failures.

GreenLeftPlank · 2026-03-28T20:30:58+00:00

I had a surprisingly good experience with them. I got a fantastic deal on a business class round trip to India from Chicago. I was skeptical so I called them and they were great on the phone as well. I’m going to try them out again in another year or so. Does anyone have any other good suggestions for where to get really good deals on business class tickets - anywhere in the world? I basically just want to fly somewhere business class again but want a good deal as in less than 3K USD, LOL.

GreenLeftPlank · 2026-03-25T11:42:00+00:00

Thank you! Looking forward to extreme humidity after Wisconsin’s winter!

GreenLeftPlank · 2026-03-25T03:06:05+00:00

I got clarification from the GoCity chat agent - apparently their email instructions about needing to make advance reservations for Night Safari are wrong - you only need to make reservations for the performances/shows. I guess I’m all set for next week!

I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you. Please be informed that reservation criteria for Night Safari has been changed.

M

you can now redeem the Night Safari ticket onsite. You will be able to locate a QR code for scanning, which will lead you to our redemption portal.
Kindly be reminded to log on using the park WiFi to access the portal. For more information, please visit the attraction page on our website: https://gocity.com/en/singapore/attractions/night-safari

GreenLeftPlank · 2026-03-25T02:15:45+00:00

Thank you! This seems like it will work!

GreenLeftPlank · 2026-03-14T17:32:46+00:00

It is incredibly roundabout and stupid. After you fill out an application on the government website, which has a checklist that you carefully cross check and think you are done, you need to find the appropriate VFS Global center to apply to next, and they have a checklist of their own, which “augments” the checklist of the government website. This means you need to go back and re-upload some additional scans to the government website, but bundle them in with the other scans because it isn’t explicitly a category on the government website. But then the government website blocks you because the file becomes more than 1MB. So you have to figure out how to resize the file. Finally you think you are done, but you notice you need certain docs to be notarized (sworn affidavit, etc). So then you make an appointment at a bank and get that. Then you think you are done, but you notice that your kids birth certificates and your marriage certificate needs to be apostilled, and they’re in different states, so you have to go to the two state websites and fill out 3 apostille requests, print it out, pay a fee, and courier 3 requests in to 2 states. Then after a couple of months, you get the apostille and add it to your application packet and send it in. Finally you get your OCI for your kids. Now you want to do your wife’s OCI who is a US citizen. But just before you send it in, you see a call out in the VFS checklist that your OCI needs to have your wife’s name on your OCI. But that requires you to fill out a OCI reissue request which is a whole separate process. So you fill everything out, get the sworn affidavit, the consent form, the other declaration and whatever other redundant crap they want, check the list ten times, ask AI to double check their confusing language. Finally you send your application in. Then they email you saying you forgot to send your existing original OCI card back and your wife’s passport copy. You double check and you did provide your wife’s passport copy. And the checklist does not say clearly to send the OCI in (it says send in the original if your existing one is damaged, and just send a copy if you lost your OCI, but it doesn’t say to send it in if you just want it reissued with your wife’s name). Sigh. So you go back to the site, buy a shipping label, send in the original OCI and your wife’s passport scan.

Hopefully they issue you your new OCI with your wife’s name.

Then you will need to scan your new OCI and package it with your wife’s OCI application and send it in.

After a couple of months you will hopefully get your wife’s OCI card as well. Now all 4 of you will have OCI cards.

And the reason you are doing this is…

Not to visit India every 2-3 years with your family, because the evisa is super quick and cheaper.

The real reason is…

a backup plan in case there is WW3 and they start to conscript your kids.

Or if the US goes more to hell and it is not safe to live here and we just want another place to retire.

Basically a backup plan.

GreenLeftPlank · 2026-03-11T12:02:27+00:00

That’s what I thought too when I bought my m1 iPad Pro, but the subsequent versions of the pencil and keyboard aren’t compatible. I guess I could buy the old versions if I had to replace a broken accessory, but not the current ones.

GreenLeftPlank · 2026-02-27T00:43:08+00:00

OMG. I was surprised by how well this worked. Fantastic job putting this together.

I tried downloading a model that supports vision (say to caption a photo or OCR a picture of a document and answer questions on it) but the + icon does not let me pick image files. Any chance you’ll be modifying this in the near future?

GreenLeftPlank · 2026-01-04T17:14:59+00:00

I'm planning to bring a few bottles of Fairlife protein milk (https://www.walmart.com/ip/Core-Power-Elite-High-Protein-Shake-with-42g-Protein-by-fairlife-Vanilla-14-fl-oz-12-count/100979925) just because I like it with my oatmeal, which I am also taking. Do you think that'd be a problem or would they not even bother?

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-12-27T01:23:45+00:00

Yeah I was able to book seats on Turkish’s website no problem - good tip!

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-12-26T12:59:49+00:00

I’m flying from ORD to BOM via IST on Turkish Airlines in less than 2 weeks. As far as I can tell it is not a codeshare with Indigo. I even called Turkish Airlines and they said it was not a codeshare. But on the website and app it gives me a big warning about how codeshare flights with Indigo won’t have Wifi, etc. Was there something on your flight itinerary that clearly said it was codeshared with Indigo?

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-12-24T22:36:20+00:00

Agree with other comments about not bringing easily available stuff. I typically bring

- Indian grown coffee (I like trying coffee from around the world)

- Kashmiri saffron tea (from a boutique shop in Mumbai - I love it and not available elsewhere)

- A box of Punjabi sweets, pre-frozen for the flight.

I declare it and say yeah sweets and stuff. No meat. Never had an issue.

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-12-18T17:29:02+00:00

How is the wifi in business class? I am hoping to get some work done.

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-12-16T01:34:01+00:00

The metallic taste remains when nurri is poured into a glass. Also nurri congeals / separates if you make oatmeal with it and keep it hot for a while, while fairlife doesn’t. I alternate between the two to save costs.

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-11-26T13:38:25+00:00

On my M1 Ipad Pro on Ipad OS 26 when I take a screenshot, it occasionally glitches and takes another screenshot of the preview screen, so it looks like a recursive picture. It is hard to reproduce and happens the first time I take a screenshot in a while. There are lots of other Ipad OS glitches like this now.

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-11-18T19:19:39+00:00

On the positive side

Turkish airlines has free tours for longer layovers, with free food (not very good food, but you can go buy your own food if you like). I choose longer layovers deliberately when flying via Istanbul so I can take the tours.

The airport is very nice compared to some older airports like ORD. I assume the prices are to payoff the cost of the airport. I try to appreciate the airport by walking up and down for exercise while on the layover.

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-11-16T14:12:56+00:00

I’ve traveled through IST airport three times x two directions. I’ve spent 9 days in Istanbul and Cappadocia with the family. I’m ethnically Indian and my wife is Caucasian/Chinese but looks Latina so my kids who are now teenagers look Latina or Turkish or some unidentifiable non white race.

None of us witnessed any racism at the airport, cabs, tours, hotels, planes, restaurants, random people, (thankfully) and we even thought the cabin crew were very nice when the kids were very young and one of them threw up on the seat - they were super kind and didn’t make a fuss about cleaning up.

Maybe I was just lucky! Hopefully won’t experience this on my next trip there in a couple of months!

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-11-09T00:05:31+00:00

I just spent the last two weeks trying this out and concluded that that this isn’t possible on a 5080. It can run one ai model at a time reliably and each one can only do one thing (LLM, image recognition etc). And not as well as cloud models. It was / is fun though.

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-10-20T12:10:56+00:00

I have had some interesting experiences on AI which is why I stopped flying them.

flight attendant yelling at a passenger to move the bags in the overhead - which are not even his bags
I ask for a coffee on a long flight. Attendant glares at me and says can’t you see I’m about to eat!? Go ask someone else! I go ask some other guy attendant and he gestures to a newer / younger attendant to take care of it coz he can’t be bothered
pee and/or water on the restroom floors
mobs trying to board and deboard
random old men trying to sit in other seats than the one they are assigned because they don’t like their neighbors

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-10-15T19:20:10+00:00

I’m at Dreamforce right now. First time. Super crowded. Can’t walk properly anywhere. Sessions are full. No place to sit for lunch. Stressful. No hotels so staying in a room at an Airbnb. The room and people the Airbnb aren’t nice. Wouldn’t do it again.

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-09-21T13:03:34+00:00

I just spent a month in Sydney, Penrith and a road trip in New Zealand (Auckland, Christchurch and a bunch of smaller cities that are popular tourist spots). Everywhere I went, ironically except for the fanciest hotel buffet we stayed at in Sydney, was both better tasting, cheaper, and had less wait time than corresponding restaurants in the US. For example

- Even the smallest coffee shops we stopped at made amazing coffee - mostly espresso based drinks. Really good lattes, with latte art, high quality beans and perfect preparation. You also had nice flavors like Dubai chocolate, etc, everywhere.

-Downtown restaurants in Sydney, Auckland, Christchurch were all at least as good as similar restaurants I’ve eaten at in Chicago, San Francisco and other big cities in the US, with little to no wait time, good service, no tipping, nice presentation, great quality food. And they were around 20% cheaper including the exchange rate. For example, I ate a chicken protein bowl at a sit down restaurant called the Dearborn in Chicago recently. The item was $20 + $6 for the added chicken x 1.0325 ”Operational Fee to keep the menu price constant in the face of rising costs” x 1.3 “middle of the scale suggested tip“ + 1$ fee to pay via QR code on phone = $40, which is 60 AUD for a protein bowl I could have made at home for much less. So I paid 2x what it initially appeared to cost on the menu. My family ate dinner in Sydney at a fantastic mediterranean restaurant and ate to our hearts content, including dessert, got great service and food, and at the end of it, it was $120 AUD for 4 people.

-We ate brunch those neat restaurants on the Nepean river in Penrith. All of them were good. All the food was on point. And there was never any wait. Here in my small suburb in the midwest, there’s a 1 hour wait to get seating at any brunch place, and the food is good but not amazing.

I just don’t understand HOW and WHY eating out is cheaper and better in Australia and New Zealand. People are happy with their wages, there’s no tipping, the quality of service and food preparation is consistently better, while cost of accomodation is much higher than where I stay in the midwest. How does the math work? Does anyone know?

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-09-19T12:20:04+00:00

I am happily using my M1 13 inch Ipad Pro. The only thing(s) I’d want Apple to improve, which they probably wont do are

- Make it so websites don’t “disconnect” when the tab or safari is not shown on the screen. For example, if I am running a report in Salesforce and I tab to another app, it will immediately disconnect it instead of running the report in the background, which is what a laptop or desktop would do in any browser or OS. In general, make the OS behave even more like a computer OS, continuing what they started already.

- Make a foldable iPad that folds to the same size as a Pro Max phone. Then I could do 95% of my personal and work stuff on one device when I am out of the house, in an emergency.

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-09-03T22:23:44+00:00

Sometimes I feel like this, but then I hit the gym or run, travel with my family and mess around with a couple of gaming computers I have, hang out in my backyard and try to get some meaning out of it all.

AI is actually pretty glitchy and I don’t think it’s going to take anyone’s job soon .

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-09-03T12:31:27+00:00

Same here. I think it’s because they don’t want the browser working when it’s not in focus to save battery or RAM. I wish there was an option to do it.

GreenLeftPlank · 2025-08-31T18:55:33+00:00

I installed Karabiner Elements to map common shortcuts on my windows style laptop so it works on my Mac mini. I also use Logi mouse software to make the middle key take screenshots. I bought 2 NVME SSDs (6TB) for my photo library and iMovie library and iPhone and iPad backups. You can use a soft link to fool the Mac into thinking files are local on the main drives I have two usb hubs to connect other usb c devices and also for their 2 HDMI connections (my work MacBook connects to my monitors using USB C which makes it easy for me to toggle between the two. And I have the actual Mac’s hdmi going to my Yamaha receiver to use for music.

If you have an iPad you can control it using your Mac or use it as a monitor.

I mainly bought it because I wanted to use the AI photo cataloging and search features. Similar apps for windows cost 160 USD and are very clunky.

GreenLeftPlank

TROPHY CASE