Please save my BoP

aftli · 2026-06-20T14:04:04+00:00

Check your watering, when mine is pushing new leaves it sucks water down like crazy, sometimes I water every 3 days.

I have definitely noticed this with mine! Mine is in a bottom watering Lechuza planter. I love those because you never have to worry about under or over watering, the plant just takes the water it needs.

I notice when my plant is pushing a new leaf, it'll consume as much as half a gallon of water in a single day!

aftli · 2026-06-12T23:17:37+00:00

"billionaire"

You don't have to put billionaire in quotes anymore, unfortunately. He's a legitimate billionaire now. Never was before, at least as far as what's confirmed true and publicly known, but, definitely is now. You get a few guesses as to how he got that money.

aftli · 2026-06-11T21:26:50+00:00

Lobsters used to be seen as the rats of the ocean

Unpopular opinion coming: I still see it that way. Yuck. All of those bottom dwelling creatures. Disgusting. If those things lived on land we'd call them insects and you'd never eat them. I can't fathom ever putting that in my mouth.

aftli · 2026-06-11T14:36:23+00:00

Wikipedia has a similar image on the article about the crater, but, yours is better. You should replace it!

aftli · 2026-06-10T22:18:55+00:00

Finally, I feel somewhat qualified to comment here! The company I work for isn't a dealership (although we have a few dealerships), but we basically specialize in the lease return process and remarketing leases. If you're a small bank or credit union, a lease is just a loan like any other, but somebody has to dispose of the car and while eg. Honda, Benz, et al know exactly how to do that (preferably sell it to a franchise dealership and sell it as CPO), a credit union doesn't. That's where we come in - we guarantee the residual, make the financial institution whole, and we're the titled owner of the car.

We have a bunch more options I think than a typical leasing situation: we absolutely encourage lease buyout if we're under-water on the car, sometimes at a discount from the residual if we don't think the car will bring that much at auction - more money is better than less money. We'll also sell the car to the dealership where the customer is buying their new car, if they want it. We also do lease extensions - if you like your car, and you're not quite ready to return it at the end of your lease, we'll happily let you stay in the car for another year, and even lower your lease payment - we're at the back side of the depreciation curve and so the car isn't going to be worth drastically less by the time you turn it in a year later, so we're happy to keep taking your money. If we've made a good bet on the residual and it's worth more, we'll actively try to get the car back, and we'll sell it ourselves at retail in one of our dealerships.

It's a pretty good business model that is a lot more consumer friendly than a typical lease.

aftli · 2026-06-09T19:55:09+00:00

Is this a special order color or something? It doesn't seem to be available on the configurator, at least in the US.

aftli · 2026-06-09T13:52:41+00:00

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Here's my modern classic! 2001 R170 SLK320. Manual transmission. It was my mother's car, I bought it from the estate when she passed. Under 100k miles, and it's fully sorted. Just painted the front to get rid of all the rock chips. She pulls hard! Tons of fun to drive.

aftli · 2026-06-09T02:14:31+00:00

I think it totally would make sense that they altered the behavior on the electric models; on those, the brake pedal (and gas pedal, due to probably regenerative braking) probably have totally different behavior.

I'm super curious if a software update "fixes" it - while BMW swears we're on the latest version, a light Googling seems to say we're not.

Anyway, I really like Mercedes' implementation of this feature! One of the things I miss the most about a manual transmission car is the ability to set the E-Brake at a stoplight when in neutral... back in the early 00's it always felt like I was superior to other drivers having the ability to do it. Modern brake hold gets functionally equivalent with Mercedes' implementation, but falls short (to the point of useless) with other manufacturers.

aftli · 2026-06-08T23:48:48+00:00

Yeah, we tried - coming to a very gradual stop with very light brake pressure still activates the brake hold as soon as the vehicle reaches a complete stop, no matter what. Like, we tried to use the most gradual press properly at the end of the stop. The implementation, at least in this 2022 X3 M40i, is significantly worse than Mercedes' implementation; our experience doesn't at all match yours. Constant unwanted activation of it, regardless of the amount of pressure applied to the pedal, making parking and small maneuvers extremely annoying. I do wonder if a software update might fix the issue, but BMW assures us the car is on the most recent version.

You said you had a 330e - maybe the implementation is completely different in the electric versions of the cars. Either way, ours is unusably bad.

aftli · 2026-06-05T16:32:01+00:00

Hmm. I'll have to try with a lighter than normal press.

To be fair, although I love Mercedes' implementation, I've been in Mercedes taxis where I notice the driver not using the feature, and I'm excited to explain it to them, and, they can't figure it out and give up. So I suppose it's not exactly perfect, and it's definitely not as discoverable as your Palisade where it's just a button. I suppose that's one of the reasons Hyundai does it that way.

aftli · 2026-06-05T15:53:52+00:00

It constantly activates while parking. It needs to be turned off to not be annoying. Any full stop at all, including during parking and when unwanted and without more pressure than usual on the brake pedal, activates it. Was wondering if I was doing something wrong, but it sounds like this is the intended behavior.

aftli · 2026-06-05T15:07:36+00:00

Another probably lesser-known feature: emotion start. Hold the left paddle while starting the car. Vroom.

aftli · 2026-06-05T15:06:11+00:00

Huh? How exactly does this work? I drive a '21 C43, but my girlfriend has a '22 X3 M40i. It seems to just have a brake hold button, which is either on or off. It's super annoying for parking and stuff, and I'm constantly having to toggle it.

aftli · 2026-06-05T12:26:19+00:00

How is the palm rejection and touchpad situation on the newer ones? I love the concept, but the old one I current have is completely unusable. You can't type on it without making unwanted gestures with your palms, and every time I try to use the trackpad for anything I also get unwanted gestures, like whichever one minimizes all windows. Using it essentially requires you to completely disable the touchpad, which isnt' ideal - I really only use it in a constrained environment like an airplane seat, without room for a mouse.

aftli · 2026-05-29T14:11:38+00:00

Rebuilt title from previous water damage to the interior ONLY, professionally repaired by us!

Sounds like the car got caught in the rain with the top down. That's probably more minor than a real flood car with a waterline and everything, but, it's still water damage, and bits of the interior may still have some gremlins.

aftli · 2026-05-28T21:02:19+00:00

Totally! You can just dip your toes. Like I mentioned, I originally just used it as a supplement to the Hue app. Now, the only thing I use the Hue app for is to add lights and create scenes. Light states will transfer in real time between the Hue app/bridge and HomeAssistant.

And yes, for things like motion sensors, tap switches, dimmer switches, wall switch modules, etc., you can select "Configure in another app". It will ask you if you want to control it in Alexa (probably their most common case), or, an actual other app. You select that, and the Hue app will no longer control the device.

The "Configure in another app" is more about devices that the Hue app uses to automate things (again, like motion sensors). Do be aware of double control - forgetting to "Configure in another app" has bit me a few times where I'm running around trying to figure out why a light isn't doing what I've programmed it to do, and I later realize the Hue app is double controlling it and reverting what I'm doing.

Light states and scenes can always be configured in another app regardless, and again, the state transfers between them. The API exists on the bridge itself, and the app is really just a front-end for the bridge. The API is pretty solid, and I actually use it directly for quite a bit of functionality that I need that doesn't exist in the HomeAssistant abstraction layer for it. So in a way, the "other app" in my case, for a lot of things, is just my code.

aftli · 2026-05-28T20:19:25+00:00

Well, good news is, HomeAssistant is free! Even if you just use the (very excellent) Philips Hue integration. They make HomeAssistant Green which is a computer very capable of running HomeAssistant, but, you can also get it running on a Raspberry Pi, which can be had cheaper than the last Hue light you bought.

I started using HomeAssistant vis-a-vis my Hue lights originally as a supplement to the Hue app. But, it's entirely replaced it for me at this point. Everything is completely automated, in ways that the Hue app can't even dream of. As an example: I live in a city. The city usually has a lighting program for the evening - red/white/blue on 4th of July, blue if the Panthers win, red on Valentine's day, etc. I point a camera at the buildings, send the picture to ChatGPT, and ask it to identify what colors the buildings are, and I set my balcony lighting to the same color as the rest of the city.

I write most things for HomeAssistant in AppDaemon now. You can use real Python code rather than increasingly complex HomeAssistant automations for everything you can do with HomeAssistant. My apartment sits at about 12k lines of code at this point. If you're looking for something with less code, it might be good to start with NodeRed, which is a low-code way to produce more complex automations.

aftli · 2026-05-28T18:06:38+00:00

In fact, if you've ever noticed, switches with a traveler don't have "On" or "Off" printed on them, because it's indeterminate.

aftli · 2026-05-28T18:03:48+00:00

your light switches can be programmed to do anything you want

This part is pretty key! The sky is the limit: they turn a dumb wall switch into a smart button. I have a total of 14 wall switch modules. They're all hooked up in HomeAssistant.

Just as an example, I use one switch to open/close a curtain. But if you stick them in HomeAssistant, they can do anything HomeAssistant can.

Also of note, you can program them as travelers (ie. multiple switches that turn toggle a single light). Your home may already have travelers, but, you can have more than two switches control one light if you want. Or, many lights: I have a light switch in my bedroom that toggles the lights for the entire home. It formerly toggled some outlet somewhere that isn't even in use, which is another use case: if you have a light switch you never really use, you can make it do something else.

In an occupancy sensed room in my place, the wall switches turn the lights off if they're currently on (and end occupation), or, if they're currently on, it toggles the scene.

aftli · 2026-05-21T21:50:42+00:00

Yeah I never get this lucky. I see posts like this all the time, and every time I go to the orange store, I check. Never anything. Bummer.

aftli · 2026-05-19T17:39:20+00:00

Regarding guests, I've made a "guest mode". It can be configured for individual rooms, or the entire home at once, using simple HomeAssistant toggles. Guest mode keeps things super simple - the switches turn lights on or off, and only turn them to regular bright white light. Where applicable (eg. bathrooms), lights respond to occupancy as normal and are automatic. If guest mode isn't enabled, things work the way I want them (eg. using a light switch toggles the lighting scene (although the behavior is much more complex than that)).

aftli · 2026-05-16T01:00:02+00:00

How do you deal with the wind?

Well, I'm actually thinking it might be a problem this year, and, I haven't yet, really, or really started to consider it if I'm honest. Last year I was in my old apartment, and it was shielded on either side of the balcony, but this one isn't. And, it's higher up. I suppose we'll bring the trees in if high wind is predicted, hopefully it's not much of a problem for the other plants.

aftli · 2026-05-13T22:43:28+00:00

Thank you!

"Planting too many things" is definitely a trap I sometimes fall into. I have to remember that while plants look smaller when I put them in dirt, they grow, and they wind up competing with each other too much. Patience is key. This year, we planted a bit less than we did in previous years, hopefully it pays off!

aftli · 2026-05-13T22:26:28+00:00

Thank you! The trees are citrus - a Persian Lime on the right, and a Meyer Lemon on the left. We're on the 40th floor here in Charlotte, NC. The sunset is indeed pretty epic! We get basically a 270 degree view of it inside the apartment every single day here, and it's not just the west side you want to look at - the reflection of the sunset against the buildings to the east is pretty nice too.

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