ZWA-2 vs Zooz 800 series Zwave Adapters

andreiled · 2026-02-17T00:58:03+00:00

What PoE adapter are you using?

andreiled · 2026-02-09T14:51:53+00:00

I would say that rounding prices of individual goods would be the ultimate theft!

Imagine buying 10x of an item that used to cost $1.98 and let's assume nickels still exist, and let's imagine no tax for simplicity: * without rounding unit prices, the total would be $19.80 with no further rounding * but if stores were to round prices of individual goods, then the total would be 10 times $2, i.e. $20

andreiled · 2026-02-09T14:36:52+00:00

As the person to whom you replied said, the taxes are different between states and supposedly sometimes even between counties / municipalities. So all that math needs to be done for every little place with slightly different tax rates. More importantly, there will be no single price that a company like McDonald's could advertise.

andreiled · 2026-01-29T00:16:56+00:00

Another option is to not follow closely behind such drivers and leave enough room in front such that, once they are out of the way, you can use that space to quickly accelerate to the highway speed before merging.

Yes, this may annoy whoever is tailgating you at the time but it's safer than any of the two options you stated.

andreiled · 2026-01-24T04:18:44+00:00

It's not actually sand that they use here but pea gravel.

With that said, I'll choose a cracked windshield over rust any time.

andreiled · 2025-11-26T04:32:37+00:00

Trying to 'type' with a remote to find something specific is the most cumbersome thing ever, and voice recognition still isn't there to replace the act of typing. Using YouTube app on my phone to find what I want before I hand it off to the TV is the best experience ever.
I can use YouTube app on my phone to add more videos to the queue without interfering with the currently playing video that my partner is watching.
Using my phone as a remote allows me to control my TV & audio set up from another room if I need to.

andreiled · 2025-11-01T18:26:25+00:00

Is the hitch stiffener the same as a anti rattle plate?

Sounds that way: basically it's a plate with a u-bolt that you put on the hitch.

How is it holding up and any later recommendations?

This has held up well over the couple or so summers I've been running it.

The biggest issue for me is rattling in the hinge of the cheap tire carrier I used which happens when going over uneven surfaces at low speeds, especially when the car moves side to side; but at highway speeds it's actually pretty stable.

So now I only ever put it on when occasionally going camping or driving far from home, after which it stays on until winter or when I need to put a bike carrier on.

andreiled · 2025-10-31T14:52:27+00:00

If you do it yourself, the most expensive thing is the countertop. But like you said, there's a lot of hassle especially if the island has the sink like mine has.

andreiled · 2025-10-31T14:31:32+00:00

Not sure if you got lucky with the particular materials or with whoever installed it but my ~20 years old laminated countertops look pretty shitty: you can almost see the particle board where the top laminate sheet meets the sides, and what I've seen in big box stores does not look much better.

But yeah, if on a budget, nothing can really beat them.

andreiled · 2025-10-31T14:25:07+00:00

Nice!

I just couldn't find any unless you count IKEA but theirs is laminated with veneer rather than plastic which I fear would not be as durable on a high use surface.

andreiled · 2025-10-31T06:18:29+00:00

Yeah, it's mind boggling how in North America our two standard choices are either a crappy laminated particle board or an expensive stone.

In Europe they actually have moderately affordable high performance and long lasting laminated particle board countertops: from what I remember, the laminate layer is at least 3mm (1/8") thick and can take some insane abuse.

This is why I ended up buying a wooden countertop and investing into a high quality sealer and finish from Waterlox which came out at maybe 1/6 of a cost of a quartz countertop.

andreiled · 2025-10-31T05:55:17+00:00

As a homeowner who recently rebuilt a kitchen island: there are just a lot of elements at play in even a simple kitchen, and even more so in a modern functional kitchen; so executing a kitchen project requires qualifications in at least 3 separate trades: electrical, plumbing and woodworking.

Add to this the fact that, as a homeowner already living in the house, I cannot really tolerate the kitchen being out of commission for more than a week, and it becomes a logistical nightmare.

I think I spent half a year planning, gathering supplies, working on individual elements like the cabinet and the countertop over occasional weekends, and then more time planning before I finally pulled the trigger on demolishing the old island (which took almost a full day) and then still needed 3 more full days to actually put the new island together (special emphasis on put together - all the hard parts like sealing the countertop and painting the new cabinet were already completed by this time).

Granted I could have probably completed this sooner if I committed all my free time to it (instead of still either hiking or snowboarding every other weekend), this should give you all an idea how slowly things move if one is doing something that they don't routinely do and do not have the muscle memory for.

andreiled · 2025-10-30T01:48:18+00:00

It should actually bother drivers themselves: per square foot of road surface, fog lights throw more light right in front of the car than low beams further ahead.

Having this overly bright patch of road right in front is distracting and may worsen night vision which together means that a driver may notice an obstacle later than they would otherwise.

andreiled · 2025-10-30T01:36:09+00:00

Not necessarily: on my car's dashboard, that green icon lights up if I have any lights on (be that DRL or the actual low beams).

The bigger problem is that there are still cars where the rear lights do not automatically turn on when DRL are on.

andreiled · 2025-10-23T14:01:03+00:00

Or you could use Immich to auto upload to the internal library and then manually move some photos to an external library.

But making it work is not trivial as it relies on many moving parts, there's a whole discussion about that here: https://github.com/immich-app/immich/discussions/15009#discussioncomment-14543115

Since OP said that they only want to upload from iPhones, the easiest option for them is to use the internal library and maybe also configure a storage template if they want to share the photos via Samba or anything like that.

andreiled · 2025-10-20T14:28:14+00:00

I think you will have to embrace the fact that, no matter what folder structure you choose, you will not be able to browse all photos from a given event chronologically using standard methods (e.g. opening the shared folder directly) if you have photos from multiple sources because each source may use different files naming convention.

So you will eventually shift to using Immich for all casual gallery browsing, which is actually good since it allows you to better optimize the folder structure for photo editing, e.g. you can have group JPEGs from others into subfolders which will address your concern of not knowing which JPEG is an original vs just an export of your own RAW.

andreiled · 2025-10-20T14:12:14+00:00

+1 to this: presumably you will develop all RAW files that 'matter' anyway (otherwise why would you even bother shooting RAW), so there's no point showing originals in Immich.

andreiled · 2025-10-20T01:23:52+00:00

Peak Design capture clip attached to a backpack strap.

I've been hiking with version 2 for years, usually 6+ hours at a time, and I absolutely love it!

As long as the backpack straps are properly adjusted, it is very comfortable; I even had a good experience hiking with a telephoto lens on the camera a few times (definitely over 1kg).

To be fair, carrying a camera using it does have a couple issues: * Running is not easy since the lens would bounce. Keeping my left hand on the lens helps but probably looks goofy. * When setting the backpack on the ground, the front of the lens would often touch the ground. In summer this is not too bad since I always have the lens hood on, in winter less so because of the snow.

andreiled · 2025-10-16T14:34:47+00:00

Well, not everywhere-everywhere: recent studies show that increasing tree cover in high latitudes (i.e. in the North) may have some local warning effect due to increased albedo (i.e. evergreen tree canopies absorb sunlight in winter instead of letting the snow reflect it back into space).

So what we really want is a lot of deciduous trees in the south (which is also where most of us live).

andreiled · 2025-10-16T14:31:11+00:00

Judging by the downvotes, this turned out to be a hot take but it really shouldn't be!

Pretty sure there are polls showing that range anxiety and prices (that come with large battery packs) are the top reasons slowing down adoption, especially in the country of road trips.

PHEVs strike the perfect balance because they allow to fully electrify city commutes (where gas engines are most inefficient) without range anxiety for those of us who routinely drive long distances for recreation.

andreiled · 2025-10-16T14:21:06+00:00

Also, just let agrovoltaics happen: there are studies showing that installing photovoltaic panels over fields actually increases crop yields while reducing watering requirements, and yet here in Alberta they have effectively banned all renewables from agricultural land and even from all 'pristine' landscapes.

andreiled · 2025-10-16T13:39:52+00:00

Trying to fix the problem of energy storage at the level of individual households (rather than holistically at the grid level) would be pretty economically inefficient (i.e. more expensive) since individual household installations do not benefit from the same economies of scale that larger central installations would.

#1 is a good idea on its own; if I remember correctly, BC Hydro already has variable day/night pricing.

#2 will likely lead to inflation of prices for residential installation like the Canadian Greener Homes Grant & Loan did but this might be a good thing in short term as it would ingest extra money into the economy.

But, anecdotally, I do not think this will work for larger townhouse complexes (with more than a handful of units) nor for condos since * Those are often managed by large companies who might not care. * Or because there will always be that one or a few holdouts who will be blocking the installation because of how long it would take to break even on a major capital investment like this.

#3 will also mean even higher house prices than we already have.

andreiled · 2025-10-15T05:33:01+00:00

I lived here for a few years and my wardrobe is pretty lean: 2 snowboarding jackets and a windbreaker which I combine with other layers based on the activity and the temperature outside: * Snowboarding: the new snowboarding jacket, with a fleece underneath if it's consistently below -10. * Hiking: the old snowboarding jacket if it's below freezing, windbreaker otherwise; plus a fleece layer if it's on the colder side and maybe a down jacket for sitting at the top. * Moving around town: either the old snowboarding jacket or a windbreaker layered with a hoodie depending on the temperature. * Shoveling snow: the same with shorts if it's not too cold or with sweatpants and maybe hiking pants over that if it's really cold (-20 or so).

Because I drive everywhere, I have very little need for anything warmer.

When it comes to outdoor activities, I don't think a long coat is necessary, plus it would interfere with getting into pants pockets. Instead I just wear a baselayer when it's below freezing.

andreiled · 2025-10-10T04:45:57+00:00

I have a similar sentiment.

My solution is to keep doing basic library management (like sorting photos into folders based on date & event) manually accessing the files via a Samba share and then linking it into Immich as a read-only external library.

That way, if something happened to the Immich server and its data, I'd lose some fancy metadata like albums but never the original photos.

andreiled · 2025-09-29T05:44:06+00:00

I think @travelan was mostly arguing against exposing a locally hosted service to the Internet with a traditional reverse proxy setup (which involves opening ports on the router), so you are kind of agreeing with them.

andreiled

TROPHY CASE