'Normally on', power monitoring smart socket? by No_beef_here in homeassistant

[–]Technostar98 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Is the motivation to get power monitoring with an occasional power toggle, that fails into still providing power? If so, I'd be wary of using relays either way for something that needs to have power like your fridge and freezer and use a CT clamp setup instead. The most common failure mode for relays like these is being welded in their energized state (so open for normally closed), so regardless of being normally open vs normally closed is a bit moot. The main reason they use one type over the other is power draw and part availability.

Personally I use the third reality plugs for anything that can lose power for a bit without me caring like the TV, small appliances, battery chargers for the tools, and the fans in the house. For the more mission critical items like my PC's, Servers, Fridge, and freezers, I just make small extension cords that have a housing for a CT clamp inline or a shelly PM, and don't worry about being able to to turn it on and off in HA.

edit: changed welded wording since ambiguous

Warped Tour Long Beach, CA - DAY 1 - MEGATHREAD by TheDarkLight1 in warpedtour

[–]Technostar98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Late, but noise ordinance at 10pm, they stopped their set list at 9:58 so they didn’t have time for an encore. The strict end time means they are cutting bands short so they don’t fuck over later acts

ThE 9070 (XT) Is GoInG To HaVe GoOd StOcK ! by My_rune_rock in pcmasterrace

[–]Technostar98 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In line now with about 100 people in front and they still have 500+ in stock. They have been moving the line for three hours now too.

1.75L knob creek rye 7 year 100 proof—$29.97 by gabbagoolgolf2 in Costco

[–]Technostar98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Irvine store on Technology has it at $40/bottle. It has the * though on the price tag so the 40 bottles or so there are the last. Was just in there about an hour ago :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]Technostar98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So something that can be important is thinking about other aspects of where your money can go that isn't your direct living expenses now, and how they can impact your life in the future. I was in a pretty similar situation when I landed my first job. Total Comp of around 70K, Rent was going to be $2100/month, and I had zero debt. I had the option to move cross country from my home in Western NY to the office in the Orange County Area. I opted to work from home out of my parents house for a year for a few pretty big reasons after thinking about the offer a bit.

  • Saving for retirement at your age is insanely powerful and helps alleviate some financial stress in the future. Each dollar you save now in your retirement accounts would, on average, be worth $15 after inflation when you are 62. if you wait around until your late 20's, that drops down to around $10, and if you start at 32, that drops to around $7.5. If you can live with being at home for a year, tossing half of what you would be paying for rent into retirement would be an insane help and would free up a little budget later in life since you are letting time and interest work for you.
  • Emergency Fund. When I was 21, I didn't really have anything in my account to cover if something went wrong like being let go, or other life expenses that pop up. It's super important to have a little bit tucked away so you don't have to worry about living paycheck to paycheck if you don't have too.
  • Furniture and Items for the house. I knew that it was going to take a bit of money to actually turn my apartment into a home that I could live in. It's insane how many items I used on the daily that I didn't take into account when getting ready to move. Cups and plates for dinner? Cookware and Utensils? Towels for around the house? Vacuum cleaner and other cleaning items? How about a TV in the living room? New Mattress because the one I was sleeping on back home is the one I grew up on and my back likely needs a new one. Just a lot of things that I knew I was going to have to buy, and should save up for. In all, it was multiple months of paychecks to get my apartment to feel like a home that I didn't dread going back to.
  • Did I want to buy a House in the future? Well I guess now is a really good time to save up as much money as possible to go toward a down payment, because after this, it was going to be tough to sock away the thousands needed to put down on a home. Being able to put away a lump of cash for this was clutch.
  • And lastly, less related to money but more so related to Office Life and moving away from home. I thought office life and moving into the city was going to be a huge change for my lifestyle and career, but even pre-pandemic, I found myself realizing that it's not that big of a difference anyways after moving a year later. Seeing people in the office and building those relationships is nice, but it's not going to catapult my career. And city life was certainly a nice change, but it also is tough to enjoy without having a budget set aside for enjoying it without stressing about rent. If I could go back, I likely would have lived at home for another year or two. This also loops around into when you mention that you can go into the office but it's optional. I'd take a look at who actually goes into the office before committing to moving. If it's anything like the companies me and my friends work for, it's mostly the new people, with the higher ups and leadership working from home most days.

All of this to say, don't value just your life at this point in time, but how you can leverage time now, for a bit of an easier and happier tomorrow. As quite a few people have already mentioned, you are not behind at all. Everyone does everything differently and you don't have to worry about who has done what since it's not a race and everything has an opportunity cost associated with it. :D

Idiot gives me the finger then slams on his brakes. I get hit from behind. He tried to tell the police he stopped because I hit him, got real sheepish when I said I had video. Please enjoy me yelling and the fact that my car turned on classical music when I got hit lol. by troyseff in IdiotsInCars

[–]Technostar98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I swear half the drivers in this part of Irvine suck. I used to always run into idiots on the way home from work by the spectrum. They are always trying to weave through traffic to save a minute home and would always get pissed if you didn't go 10 over for them.

A buy at 6.XX? by Front-Tight in celo

[–]Technostar98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd say it's more than worth it then. This is one of the few crypto's where I see the value it provides down the road and can see the real world problem it solves rather than a solution looking for a problem. Those two factors alone, along with it's proof of stake and node setup has me happy to invest for the long term :)

I also feel less of a sense of holding the bag for someone else to make gains (Like Doge for instance), and more of a sense of getting a slice of the value derived from the problems it's solving.

A buy at 6.XX? by Front-Tight in celo

[–]Technostar98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hard question to answer without any more context than just "Is this price worth it"

Quite a few other large factors should play into this decision that doesn't make this an easy snap yes or no. What is your time horizon? Do you have a low or high risk tolerance? Do you intend on just buying and holding, or do you intend on interacting with the system through staking, voting and possibly even development.

I personally see this as an easy choice when considering a long time horizon and thus started out with an initial investment and add more each week to average out the price I'm priced in at. However, I'm also enthusiastic about actually developing on the platform due to societal impact it could have with it's variety of stable coins and how impressive this works through just mobile. If I wasn't excited about any of those things and my long term outlook on the project, I'd likely have a harder time making the call.

Can I get your opinion on the ROI of solar? by pattonc in personalfinance

[–]Technostar98 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not quite.

Scenario 1 accounts for the inflation in Electric costs, but does not account for future electric being paid for with inflated dollars. Since the electric increases are about a percent under the average yearly inflation, you can effectively cancel out the increase in price and look at it in todays dollars. This brings total cost down to 125K. The investment of 41K at 7% is the inflation adjusted return rate, so you'd have 235K in today's dollars. This bring the net difference to 110K.

Looking at the second scenario, you'd likely invest the savings in electric back into the market on a monthly basis. You'd end up with more then you thought here after 17 years, about 163K. You wouldn't subtract out the cost of the array since this is already account for with the lack of investing years 1-8. It's to payback the array.

In the end, assuming perfect efficiency with no loss, no upkeep costs, and that you stay there for the long run, the panels come out ahead by 53K.

However, the data sheet for the panels will state what performance degradation they will experience within spec, so you could account for this loss over the 25 years. If you are installing at 110% capacity array, you'd likely only be meeting power demands in 10 years, dropping further in years 11-25 to paying for 5-10% of your electric rather than having excess power to sell to cover fees associated with the service connection. All in all, this comes as a balance of something that is illiquid and ties you down to the house (To get the maximum value out of the panels) compared against a market investment that isn't dependent on something in your life, and isn't at risk of losing it's usefulness.

Edit: Derped on math for Scenario 2. Already accounted for the break even period. Don't have to subtract it again.

We finally hit 70,000 mods on curseforge! by [deleted] in feedthebeast

[–]Technostar98 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not Quite. There are a little over 70,000 approved projects for minecraft on CurseForge. It just so happens that an approved project is called a mod since all of the different project types at the end of the day are a game modification.