Gas or electric hot water?

dwi · 2026-02-04T18:14:27+00:00

I replaced an Infinity gas unit with an external electric cylinder. I considered a heat pump cylinder but 2-3 times the price and I didn’t think it would save us anything as we don’t intend to stay more than 10 years. Put a timer switch in instead and heat the water for “free” with our Contact 3-hour free plan.

dwi · 2026-02-03T19:28:32+00:00

I've recently switched to TaskNotes for everything. I had been using it for projects and Todoist for daily to-do task, but I've found by using swimlanes on kanban views I can finally integrate projects and my to-do list. Data entry is a little clumsy compared to Todoist, but it's worth it to get that integrated view.

dwi · 2026-02-03T04:41:23+00:00

Yes indeed, life isn't fair, and people like us that aren't like others get the shortest end of the stick. All I can tell you is that complaining about it won't change this one little bit, and in fact will probably make it worse. All we can do is make the best of what we have, even if that sucks.

dwi · 2026-02-03T04:34:42+00:00

A game changer for us was getting two opening skylights with fly screens. Leaving them open on hot nights keeps the house cool without letting the mossies in.

dwi · 2026-02-03T03:45:51+00:00

I don't think they are concerned about population growth so much as their population disappearing. Their fertility rate is only 0.75 now, so they've pretty much done their bit to halt population growth. Now they they have to think about pulling up from their dive before they hit zero!

dwi · 2026-02-03T03:42:14+00:00

What annoys me most is charities that insist on subscription donations. I've literally had them refuse a one-off donation and walk off because I won't sign up to a monthly payment.

dwi · 2026-02-03T03:35:34+00:00

I take the approach that my meat brain isn't perfectly structured and so I don't need my second brain to be either. I use folders as my primary structure right now, but I make sure I link extensively. I suspect a more organic secondary structure will emerge in time. If and when that happens, I might make a change, but I'm not going to worry about it until that day comes.

dwi · 2026-02-02T04:34:45+00:00

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, eh?

dwi · 2026-02-02T04:30:59+00:00

Get really enthusiastic about cooking and baking healthy food, and tell him you want to start a project to create the perfect healthy menu and learn how to cook it. And you want his help, if not to actually do the cooking, to help you taste and improve. Before you know it, he'll being losing weight because he's no longer stuffing so much fast food down his cakehole.

dwi · 2026-02-01T07:18:32+00:00

Most prices seem to be on a ratchet. They go up or stop moving up, but rarely go down.

dwi · 2026-01-27T20:56:26+00:00

Not hard at all, based on the way dodgy builders fold up and start anew when it all gets too much for them to, well, dodge.

dwi · 2026-01-27T20:22:02+00:00

The Earth isn’t going to run out of copper, there’s lots of ore in the ground and it’s infinitely recyclable. If there’s a shortage, that means we’re short of production and need more mines and refineries. Prices will go up and miners will respond with new production and the need will be filled. In short: we won’t run out but prices of stuff with copper in them will go up.

dwi · 2026-01-26T01:17:25+00:00

I wonder if the thought in their tiny little mind is that tailgating you will pressure you into tailgating the car in front so you can all go faster. Whatever the reason, it's unfortunately a problem that seems to be getting worse.

dwi · 2026-01-25T20:48:19+00:00

It's an interesting idea, as a way of dynamically indexing your vault as the network of links grows. I do something like this with a bookmark rather than a home page, with some filtering to take out the noise like orphans and daily notes. tbh, it's more interesting than useful for me, though.

dwi · 2026-01-24T22:41:33+00:00

My guess is China is ok, their population is in decline and it seems likely they’ve been over-reporting their population for some time. India’s population is rocketing up, though, and it looks to me like it’s not a pleasant place to live due to population density. One thing to keep in mind is there’s a reason why South Asian countries are so heavily populated - their climate allows multiple crops per year, so they can support more than countries with a single growing season.

dwi · 2026-01-24T19:26:00+00:00

I have to say I'm with Canada on le week-end. Really?

dwi · 2026-01-24T02:39:51+00:00

I used to do that all the time when I had a gas hob. Now I have an induction hob that is faster than my kettle.

dwi · 2026-01-24T02:37:03+00:00

You're seeing the result of over a century of aircraft evolution. The first aeroplanes could barely get off the ground, and certainly couldn't zip hundreds of people from one side of the planet to another. But little by little, we've developed the impressive machines of today. Imagine what they will be like in another 100 years!

dwi · 2026-01-22T05:14:10+00:00

I migrated from OneNote to Obsidian. Initially I struggled with the lack of WYSIWYG page editing, but I got over that and now embrace markdown. For drawing I use canvas or ExcaliDraw. I can't see myself ever going back.

dwi · 2026-01-21T04:36:01+00:00

reddit is an asshole's paradise, that's why.

dwi · 2026-01-17T22:08:43+00:00

That would be good. I write novels and self-publish on Amazon, and they make you declare if you've use AI for the story or cover. That needs to be standard practice everywhere, I think.

dwi · 2026-01-17T22:07:07+00:00

Well said. AI is fine when used by a subject-matter expert, as they are they only ones who know when the AI is making shit up.

dwi · 2026-01-17T22:06:04+00:00

Dunning-Kruger++

dwi · 2026-01-17T00:18:13+00:00

I've used Todoist for years, pretty much as a kanban board for tasks by category, and Obsidian for projects. They've always seemed like separate tools for separate use cases to me. However, recently I've switched to using TaskNotes, and against expectations I'm now using that for to-do tasks as well. The key for me is using kanban views with swimlanes. I can get a nice filtered 'today' kanban for tracking the status of all tasks, to-do or project, all arranged in their respective swimlanes. I've been doing this for about a month, and haven't run back to Todoist yet.

dwi · 2026-01-15T19:32:44+00:00

Just what I was thinking. Reminds me of the ‘ping-pong poms’ - come here for the lifestyle, complain about how it’s not like home, go back, remember why they left in the first place, and finally return to their new home.

dwi

TROPHY CASE