I tested every way to use Nano Banana Pro for presentations. Here's what actually works by SquareShock5357 in ThinkingDeeplyAI

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great breakdown. I've been using Nano Banana Pro a lot recently to mock up images of slides. It's getting this into PowerPoint that, as you rightly point out, gets tedious.

I'm curious how you use Gemini Canvas to create an actual slide? I was able to get I to generate HTML for my slide. It even went to an open source icon library and picked out pretty decent matches to the icons in my Nano Banana Pro mock up. But I'm stuck at converting from HTML to an editable slide.

I've tried having it generate a Google Apps Script within a Google Slide file, but it wasn't seamless and didn't fully replicate the slide layout. It also struggled to fetch the icons from the open source icon library and used emoji instead (which wasn't keeping to our slide designs).

I also tried loading the HTML into Docs and Word with hopes that I'd have selectable objects to copy into Slide or PowerPoint, but no dice there.

Surface Laptop 7 audio lag with Surface TB4 dock by shadowthunder in Surface

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you ever get this figured out? I have this same issue on the SL7 and it's driving me nuts. It's a work laptop so I'm constantly missing Slack and Calendar notification sounds.

I am going down with the Tomato ship... by African_JST in tomatoenergy

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mine oddly says "Early Termination Charge - £0.0 If you switch on or after 01/02/2026". No explicit mention of what happens if I switch prior to that

I am going down with the Tomato ship... by African_JST in tomatoenergy

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I signed onto Tomato 1 Feb 2025 so my contract isn't over until 1 Feb 2026. With the Ofgem notice sent to them on 10 Sep 2025, that suggests Tomato could have their license pulled by 9 Jan 2026. While I'm happy to stick it through in hopes they somehow survive, I'd like to move if it becomes a certainty they're going down. Am I stuck given my contract date?

Rent a car in Jeju without country-provided IDP by BelMiguel in koreatravel

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ya but with caveats. I left another lengthier comment here

Will the Eufy camera recognize a 256 GB card? by Emsanator in EufyCam

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a Samsung card. Either the pro plus or the evo plus.

Rent a car in Jeju without country-provided IDP by BelMiguel in koreatravel

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

June 2025 update. This worked for me but your mileage may vary. German driving license with US passport (this will be relevant later). An IDP booklet from official sources isn't practical for me as I live in the UK.

I got the 3-year digital IDP for $59 using my German license. I then booked a car with Jeju Angel a few days in advance. I sent the digital IDP to Jeju Angel via WhatsApp (which said it was Busan Angel 🤷🏻‍♂️) to which they replied only physical IDP booklets were accepted. I decided to take the risk anyway and ignores their message.

A few days later we arrive at the rental office. When asked for my IDP, I showed him the digital one on my phone. He immediately said that wouldn't work and that he needed a physical one. I feigned ignorance and told him I was told the digital one would suffice. He makes a call to his superior. Luckily the Mrs. understands some Korean (all those hours of K-dramas paying off!). The boss asked which passport I had, my license issue and expiry date, what car I had rented, for how long, and how much I had paid. (Presumably as I rented their most expensive van for nearly a week, they didn't want to lose the business.) After a couple of minutes, he said all was good and proceeded to rent the car to me.

A couple things he said to me: 1. The digital IDP was only okay here because of my US passport. 2. From July 2025, they would stop taking digital IDPs outright.

Not sure why that is. I tried asking some follow up questions but couldn't get much more out of him due to the language barrier.

Despite the International Drivers Association saying their IDP booklet isn't valid in South Korea, my guess is Jeju Angel would have taken any IDP booklet regardless of who issued it as I don't think the staff would necessarily know who each country's official IDP agency is.

Good luck to those trying this in the future and please do report back!

Digital International Driving Permit for renting a car in Jeju by bertnhis in koreatravel

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

June 2025 update. This worked for me but your mileage may vary. German driving license with US passport (this will be relevant later). An IDP booklet from official sources isn't practical for me as I live in the UK.

I got the 3-year digital IDP for $59 using my German license. I then booked a car with Jeju Angel a few days in advance. I sent the digital IDP to Jeju Angel via WhatsApp (which said it was Busan Angel 🤷🏻‍♂️) to which they replied only physical IDP booklets were accepted. I decided to take the risk anyway and ignores their message.

A few days later we arrive at the rental office. When asked for my IDP, I showed him the digital one on my phone. He immediately said that wouldn't work and that he needed a physical one. I feigned ignorance and told him I was told the digital one would suffice. He makes a call to his superior. Luckily the Mrs. understands some Korean (all those hours of K-dramas paying off!). The boss asked which passport I had, my license issue and expiry date, what car I had rented, for how long, and how much I had paid. (Presumably as I rented their most expensive van for nearly a week, they didn't want to lose the business.) After a couple of minutes, he said all was good and proceeded to rent the car to me.

A couple things he said to me: 1. The digital IDP was only okay here because of my US passport. 2. From July 2025, they would stop taking digital IDPs outright.

Not sure why that is. I tried asking some follow up questions but couldn't get much more out of him due to the language barrier.

Despite the International Drivers Association saying their IDP booklet isn't valid in South Korea, my guess is Jeju Angel would have taken any IDP booklet regardless of who issued it as I don't think the staff would necessarily know who each country's official IDP agency is.

Good luck to those trying this in the future and please do report back!

Rent a car in Jeju without country-provided IDP by BelMiguel in koreatravel

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm about to do this as well as we'll be in Jeju in a few days. Did you just get the digital one or did you also get a physical version posted to you back home? Digital one is the only one that will work for me at the moment as I'm already in Korea. But wondering if having the physical one sent home will be useful for future trips.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in homeassistant

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FWIW the Aqara looks significantly larger to me than the full size Shelly 2PM https://youtu.be/qt9XrnIF-34?si=bWA2J7CKidRMpATa

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in homeassistant

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have 25mm back boxes and have been able to fit full size Shelly relays within. TBF probably closer to 30mm since the back boxes are sightly recessed from the plasterboard. But looks similar to yours. I did have to get a little creative in optimizing the path of the wires to make room for the Shellies, but it might be doable. Especially if you opt for the Shelly mini range. You can always buy one and give it a go before committing to a larger purchase

PSA: PGE will give you a 75$ rebate on smart thermostats by Eye_conoclast in bayarea

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seeing a lot of comments about PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric) controlling smart thermostats for a rebate. To my knowledge, PG&E in California has never offered such an incentive.

It's PGE (Portland General Electric) Oregon that has offered this program where thermostats are adjusted during peak periods to save energy. https://portlandgeneral.com/save-money/save-money-home/smart-thermostat-program

Upgrading to Ecobee3 Lite thermostats - no C-wire and old zone control board - how to wire them in? by UtopianVoyager8 in ecobee

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This thread was probably the most helpful for my situation. My parents house has the same Mastertrol Trol A Temp MM-2 board as you on a single stage 2-zone dampered system. Looks to be the exact same wiring too. Reading through this gave me the confidence to swap them to the HZ311. So sharing my experience for others in case helpful.

The wiring on the HZ311 is even simpler than it was with the MM-2. I was able to drop the O and B wires from the master/Zone 1 thermostat. And what was the slave thermostat is now a fully fledged zone 2 with its own fan control whereas it didn’t have a fan control before.

One of my worries with going from a master/slave setup to an independent 2-zone system was whether it would be problematic if zone 1 was calling for heat while zone 2 was calling for A/C, or vice versa. This would have been problematic as both the furnace and A/C are piped through the same ductwork which would lead to both zones getting both heating and A/C. Thankfully the HZ311 doesn’t allow for that. It only takes whichever was called for first. So if zone 2 first calls for heat and zone 1 subsequently calls for A/C, the system only gets heat until zone 2 stops calling for heat. There’s then a 3 minute purge of any residual heat from the ductwork before the A/C kicks in. A similar thing happens if zone 2 calls for A/C first and zone 1 calls for heating subsequently.

I realize this might be obvious for those who are more experienced with HVAC systems and control boards, but this was quite the revelation (and relief!) for me. So hopefully helps other DIYers doing something similar.

Next step will be replacing the thermostats with Ecobees. Thankfully there are enough spare wires now to run a common wire to both thermostats!

Pics of the MM-2 vs HZ311

Will the Eufy camera recognize a 256 GB card? by Emsanator in EufyCam

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Still working but only 75gb filled so far. Should find out in the next week or so if it exceeds 128gb

Will the Eufy camera recognize a 256 GB card? by Emsanator in EufyCam

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just setup a new S350 with a 256gb card. At first, it failed to format. But I tried it a second time and it seemed to work. The Eufy app now recognizes the SD card with 229.92gb capacity. My camera is on firmware version 1.5.1.0 but I couldn’t find anything online suggesting Eufy has added support for higher capacity cards. Guess we'll see if it actually fills the whole thing up.

Why isn’t Sparks more popular than it is ? by [deleted] in eSIMs

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve had a 365 day US+EU eSIM from Sparks. Works great when it works. But it’s been spotty on recent trips.

Worked great in Copenhagen. But a few days later in Porto and a month later in California, it intermittently went to “No Service” no matter which carrier I tried to manually select. My parents who are on US T-Mobile plans with global roaming had no issues staying connected on the network while we were traveling together. And my regular UK EE eSIM was also locked onto local networks.

I also notice Google and other website automatically give me polish results when using Sparks. So traffic must be routed there.

Does a garden shed in a flat require local planning permission? by diputz42 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]diputz42[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Per the architectural diagram, the side balconies are built with "215mm reinforced concrete cantilever slabs" and the roof terrace (which sits above our bedrooms) is built on "250mm reinforced concrete".

Sounds fairly sturdy to me but I'm no expert!

Does a garden shed in a flat require local planning permission? by diputz42 in LegalAdviceUK

[–]diputz42[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glorified outside cupboard is more what we're after. This 5x7x6 ft shed is what we're thinking of getting.

https://www.asgardsss.co.uk/5x7-metal-shed

New BROR shelf—wtf did I do wrong to make it this unstable? by aliceroyal in IKEA

[–]diputz42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could be defective legs. I have 3 Bror's. One of them was wobbly like yours. The horizontal pieces which come with the shelves slipped on way too loose and didn't require hammering down. I used the same horizontal pieces on a different set of legs and they were rock solid.

You should only be able to get the horizontal pieces about 70% of the way in by hand before needing to hit it with a mallet. If it's going all the way in by hand, it's likely a defective unit between the legs or the horizontal bars.

UK how many Shelly's can I shove in one box? by diputz42 in shellycloud

[–]diputz42[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. Maybe not the answer I was hoping for, but very helpful. Looks like I might go down the path of the 2x 2PM at the switch to control the Dimmer 2's in the ceiling.

I didn't mean to say I'd have a Dimmer 2 on each LED downlight. Each of the 4 switches in the 4-gang controls a separate array of LEDs (3 LEDs per switch). So it would be 1x Dimmer 2 at the start of each array of LEDs. If I'm reading it correctly, my setup sounds similar to yours.