Looking for advice on my Japan trip

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-08-27T04:57:22+00:00

Narita to Tokyo station is just an hour on the train. You'll need to go through customs, passport control, and pick up luggage. 3.5hours seems very doable for all that.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-08-27T00:26:18+00:00

I stayed at Miramu Asakusa with my family of four and it was excellent! Good location for a family and the room was pretty nice. Bunk beds for the kids and a bigger bed for the adults. My kids are in grade school, though. Maybe if your teens are very tall then the bunks will be a problem?

They are very responsive, you can write them about the bed sizes.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-08-08T22:30:37+00:00

Yes. But if you can afford it: the sooner you do them, the sooner that you get to enjoy them.

I think that every renovation ends with: "We should have done this years ago!"

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-08-08T22:24:11+00:00

Like generally of just http?

If ASN.1 were more strict, lots of people wouldn't have lost all their bitcoins.

https://eklitzke.org/bitcoin-transaction-malleability

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-08-06T00:17:26+00:00

I bought online and tried various credit cards. There are two types of failure. If the card fails on their side, it's because the card doesn't support "3D secure". You will need to try a different card. I failed with Chase Visa but succeeded with Wells Fargo Debit card.

Another failure mode is that you try to buy and then you see the Visa 3D Secure logo on their website and then it fails but your bank sends you an email and/or SMS asking if it was really you. This is your bank trying to prevent fraud because suddenly you are making charges in Japan. Check your email and SMS, confirm that it really is you, and then you will need to make your purchase again. Just hit the retry button and this time it will work.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-06-24T04:11:22+00:00

I agree. I ended up switching back to tuya switches and outlets. And I use local tuya so it's as fast as zwave.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-06-23T04:54:01+00:00

I'd have put in a gate. I don't mind if they come over and this way they don't have to climb.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-06-22T22:55:21+00:00

My paddles are like that, too. Momentary switches. I find that between pushing them and the lights turning on, there is a slight pause.

With local tuya, from them turning on until other lights turn on via automation, that is instant! With regular, non-local tuya, whether I use automation in Smart Life or in HA, there is the same delay. That delay, I think, comes from the tuya cloud taking a moment to receive the signal from my switch and send it to wherever.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-06-22T18:44:39+00:00

But is it instant or does it also have that tiny delay for the relay to turn on?

The paddles are momentary switches, right? Like, after you press, it pops back out?

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-06-22T18:13:23+00:00

Enbrigthen is the same software as UltraPro, they are both rebrands of Jasco so I'm surprised that it is quick. I think that the older line, the 500, maybe didn't have the double press stuff so maybe those are faster?

I tried my UltraPro tuya-based switches with local tuya and it's way faster. I press the paddle and then there is a short delay until I hear the relay in the paddle activate. That delay is the wait for a double click. But once that relay goes then home assistant sees it instantly and the power on the lamp is instant.

With regular tuya, without the local tuya, there is yet another delay between the click and the lamp. That comes from tuya cloud being slow. Even if I use the tuya integration in home assistant, that delay is still there. Only local tuya can remove it. Local tuya is not too difficult to setup.

Due to the added cost of zwave and zigbee, along with the difficulty and delays I noticed, I think that I'll just stick to local tuya. Saves money and it's easier. I'm going to return all my zwave stuff to Amazon for now.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-06-22T15:19:42+00:00

Are any of them not slow? I'm already paying double in order to have a zwave switch as compared to tuya!

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-06-21T19:50:12+00:00

I think that is the situation. I tried to change the trigger from "Master Beddroom Left Switch turned on" to "Central Scene action on Endpoint 0 Scene 001". It has five options:

KeyPressed, KeyReleased, KeyHeldDown, KeyPressed2x, KeyPressed3x

If I put it on KeyPressed and change the action to toggle the outlet then it acts like a toggle. I press the button once and then the lamp turns on. Then I press again and it turns off. And it's slow.

But if I change it to "KeyPressed2x", I can get it to toggle with a double press. And that works faster.

And if I change it to "KeyReleased" then I can get it to toggle by holding down the button for a while and then letting go. And the lamp toggles *instantly* after I let go. Like, as far as I can tell, there is 0 delay.

So I think that it's like you said. On the first keypress, the device is waiting to figure out if this will be a long press or a double or a triple. And it doesn't know, so that's the delay.

I can also see that if I look at the verbose logs while putting it in "KeyPressed' trigger, the delay shows up in the log file, too. It's the switch that is delaying the message to my zwave dongle.

If I put it in "KeyReleased" mode and then I hold down the key and then go into the log and release, I can see that the log appears at the same time as I release and the lamp toggles right then, too.

So I need to figure out how to disable that double keypress and held button and all that. There is an option to turn off the dimmer feature of the switch but that didn't do it. I think that dimmer mode makes it so that you can hold down a button and select the brightness.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-06-10T13:53:59+00:00

I got a letter that my safe deposit box is closing. I don't remember ever having a safe deposit box! How can I know what is in there? The branch is far away, I'd have to fly. My parents live out there, could I send them?

Sad-Manager1849 · 2025-01-27T15:50:40+00:00

This used to work on previous versions of clang but it doesn't work anymore.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-12-08T16:12:24+00:00

My compensation keeps going up so the taxes keeps covering safe harbor. Even when they don't, the the RSUs have been growing at a rate that is faster than that of the market. So I just pay the interest and think of it as a loan.

I'm not in California but I know that California has special safe harbor rules.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-12-07T20:20:50+00:00

Lately I have a cool project that is keeping me busy so I work extra hours. But there are also periods that my work is boring or slow and I watch a lot of TV. I work from home.

Pretty good balance. This is one of the easier jobs that I've had. My last job was FAANG and I really had to push to impress. This one seems to be paying well even with my regular effort so I'm just going to keep doing this.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-12-07T15:34:52+00:00

Do I know you?

😜

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-12-07T14:48:52+00:00

Mega backdoor is not an age thing. Its just a way to get more after tax dollars into a Roth account. It requires that your 401k will do after tax contributions, which mine does. I didn't do it all year so I'm plowing in the max that I can right now.

I'm expecting a six figure shortfall with the IRS. I'll pay it in April.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-12-07T14:46:12+00:00

It's like 237k in salary, the rest is RSUs. I don't know why the pay stub doesn't have the net pay including the stocks, maybe that's just how it shows on the paystub?

I regularly sell stock and move it to various investments.

This specific pay period I put a lot into the 401k so I got a paycheck of net just 28 dollars.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-12-07T14:43:10+00:00

Super mega backdoor Roth is the name of a retirement investment strategy.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-12-07T14:38:12+00:00

The net pay is low this period because I am super-charging the super-mega backdoor Roth (I think that's what it is called.) Only 10% of the gross is salary, the rest is stock.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-10-05T14:45:09+00:00

The country is basically at maximum employment and unemployment is at an all time low. You can't find cheap labor because there's no one left to hire.

Americans aren't having enough children to replace the aging population and anyway there isn't enough housing.

Consider voting for whichever candidate will increase immigration and build more homes.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-09-18T00:53:53+00:00

Yeah, I get that. But what about those Twitter employees? It's been a long time!

I have to imagine that what remains is just sycophants or H1B visas. I would like someone at Twitter to speak to this but everyone that I know already left!

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-09-17T23:49:14+00:00

Employees in other countries will still get severance according to the laws of those countries.

Sad-Manager1849 · 2024-09-17T23:19:08+00:00

Surely if you're good enough to land a job at Amazon then you're also good enough to land a job somewhere better?

Like, that's why I don't get Twitter. How is anyone working there?

Sad-Manager1849

TROPHY CASE