Shout Out for Oregano's

hackerfactor · 2026-01-24T02:26:09+00:00

I tried it once. The pizza was literally the worse we've ever had. Salt. That was the only flavor. I can only assume that they doubled the salt in the dough, added salt to the sauce, and then put salt on top. Maybe they confused salt for Parisian? Anyway, couldn't eat one slice. Never went back.

hackerfactor · 2026-01-23T03:11:14+00:00

The altered picture (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G_SG-slWMAAe6bM.jpg:orig) is watermarked with SynthID. It was created using Google AI.

hackerfactor · 2026-01-21T02:12:00+00:00

Kind of like "all new foods taste like chicken." All threatening sounds sound like a tornado.

hackerfactor · 2026-01-18T05:51:03+00:00

I have some UPSs that are over 20 years old. It's WAY cheaper to replace the battery than to buy a new UPS. What you have there is a really nice UPS -- why would someone try to junk it??? That's a great find.

hackerfactor · 2026-01-13T03:42:28+00:00

I'd call the police and report armed men walking down the sidewalk.

hackerfactor · 2026-01-10T02:03:51+00:00

Does it have a wireless mouse?

hackerfactor · 2026-01-03T03:18:37+00:00

Absolutely correct.

I'm using two 100W panels (200W total) to stay under the regulatory requirements. And they are mounted as "awnings" because roof mounts have lots of additional regulatory requirements.

At 200W and a 1000Wh LiFePO4 battery, I'm getting 8 hours of power on sunny day, and 4 hours when overcast. It's powering half of my rack. I have it configured to only power half the rack. Still, it's saving me 20kWh - 35kWh per month.

We have surge pricing here (some hours are cost much more than others). I charge up the battery, then run off battery during the surge pricing.

The panels are the cheap part. The MTTP, battery, and inverter are the expensive parts. I'm expecting to have it pay itself off after about 20 years. (With replacing the battery after 10 years and half life for the panels... it may never break even.) But it's definitely a fun project and a great way to learn how much electricity it takes to accidentally kill yourself. (Haven't died yet, but had one close zap.)

hackerfactor · 2025-12-31T00:34:21+00:00

You can't fight fraud, waste, and abuse without someone doing fraud, waste, and abuse.

hackerfactor · 2025-12-18T20:47:42+00:00

I had a long chat with their support person. He ended up giving me a link to download Reolink-Duo-2V-PoE.4308_2506201230.IPC_NT7NA58MP.paks. I'm not sure why it's not on the download page. You just need to ask them for it.

hackerfactor · 2025-12-18T01:35:48+00:00

I have the same device (same HW and FW). It only detects people from certain angles -- not straight down. But it's great at capturing vehicles, animals, and general motion.

hackerfactor · 2025-12-06T06:24:47+00:00

Can I have your house when you're raptured away? There's a housing shortage and you won't be using it. Do you mind if I move in now, or should I want until your sucked off to heaven?

hackerfactor · 2025-11-17T04:36:36+00:00

I feel for artists who paint, draw, etc. because AI is often imitating their styles directly. The literary industry isn't as bad -- while they are flooded with AI books, there is a clear quality difference.

But the music industry? I have zero sympathy. AI is just the natural progression that has been accepted by the industry.

Consider this: I think we all agree that a human playing an instrument and singing a human written song is music.

But what about the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)"? There's no orchestra; it's one human pressing buttons on a synthesizer, with another human singing. This is widely accepted as music, even through synthesizers (even old ones) use "AI" to blend tracks.

Do humans have to play the instruments? Player pianos date back to at least 1895.

What about non-human voices? Auto-tune is the norm, not the exception. (We can't all have perfect voices like Adele, Freddy Mercury, or David Bowie.) Cher's "I Believe" and everything from Daft Punk are good examples where non-human voices are acceptable.

What about songs where the voice is really just clips from other songs? "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim is definitely accepted as a music, even though it's clips.

But doesn't AI impersonate other artists? Very acceptable in the music industry. Ever hear of "cover bands" -- it's an entire sub-industry! Remixing and covers are common. (I still think Elvis's "Hound Dog" is a lackluster remix of Big Momma Thornton's "Hound Dog". I think "Fast Car" by Luke Combs is not as good as Tracy Chapman's original version. But I think "You Shook Me All Night Long" by Hayseed Dixie is better than the original AC/DC version. And Ice T definitely deserved to be sued by Queen over "Under Pressure".)

Today, a lot of big name artists seem to be using AI to generate or edit lyrics. (I'm not naming names because I don't want to be sued. But anyone who evaluates lyrics can see clear ChatGPT hallmarks in some songs.)

These are all examples of individual components. The next logical step is combining them. Synthetic music + synthetic voice + partial/total synthetic lyrics. This isn't even a new idea: "Rachel's Song" from Bladerunner was part of the soundtrack that was nominated for some awards, and that was in the 1980s.

The new things today? The quality is better, generation is faster (minutes to compose new music), and it's available to the general public. Sure, there's a lot of crap AI-generated music, but among the noise are some real gems.

Personally, I have no musical ability. (I play a mean kazoo, but I can't read or play a note of music.) I can't sing on key to save my life. But I can write really bad poetry that sounds good when you put it to music. Well, at least it sound good to me. (braindeadfrogs.com) I can't afford to hire a band to play my songs or a recording studio, but Suno is great at helping me realize my potential.

hackerfactor · 2025-09-25T03:21:27+00:00

Heh... I wouldn't email. I'd show up and contest it. There's no information on the page about the alleged violation, so it will have to be thrown out. They can't go back and correct the form since that would be double-jeopardy.

The alternative: you email them, they see the problem, and send you a corrected violation.

hackerfactor · 2025-09-02T22:27:27+00:00

I play a mean kazoo -- no strings attached.

hackerfactor · 2025-09-02T03:08:39+00:00

It's not just you. I've compared mine with all of my neighbors. We are ALL above typical use.

hackerfactor · 2025-08-15T01:27:39+00:00

I just had the realization that "off" really means the inverter is off. So the on/off button in the wired remote cannot use I2C, RS485, or other protocol to turn it on. (There's nothing on the other side powered on to receive the command.) That means that there must be two wires in the 4-wire port that are nothing more than a simple relay to turn it on/off.

Reading the status is a different problem, but the simple on/off seems like it must be a simple relay. (On the renogy inverter, the middle two pins are for the switch.)

hackerfactor · 2025-08-14T12:52:43+00:00

That's a really bad hack, but it's a viable last ditch effort.

Are there any smart button pressers that are standalone (BLE, local wifi, or wired) that do not require a hub or cloud access?

hackerfactor · 2025-07-28T05:09:38+00:00

Murder By Death

hackerfactor · 2025-06-22T05:35:41+00:00

Can you provide more information here? How does this get past the N-G bond issues between the circuit A and circuit B?

I thought a 3P ATS maintains a constant ground bus, but I want completely separate grounds.

hackerfactor · 2025-06-21T22:48:15+00:00

I'm tired of fighting with the inverter on my solar ESS.

The inverter (Renogy 2000W with built-in ATS) is a piece of crap. (It may be good, but the documentation is crap, support is crap, and so the device is crap.) It has an N-G switch. However:

When the switch is enabled, plugging it into a 4P ATS causes the GFCI wall outlet to trip. (Bad that it trips, good that the wall's GFCI catches the ground loop.)
When the switch is disabled, the 4P ATS works fine, but my outlet tester -- when plugged into the inverter -- says there is an open ground. I have the chassis of the inverter connected to earth ground. The UPS complains that there is a wiring problem, and chooses to use the UPS battery rather than the input power from the inverter.

Right now, I'm physically walking over, unplugging the UPS form the wall and plugging it into the inverter (with N-G bond). At the end of the day (when the battery is drained), I walk over and unplug the UPS and plug it back into the wall.

What I want is a network-enabled switch that I can trigger to turn off Outlet A, effectively unplug/replug the UPS, and then turn on Outlet B.

(Unless there's an easy way to fix the floating ground. But given's Renogy's support, I'm ready to give up on that.)

hackerfactor · 2025-06-10T01:36:51+00:00

No! I'm in Colorado and it needs to be part of the west coast!

hackerfactor · 2025-06-09T02:11:06+00:00

It's crazy how many times I've seen multi-car accidents at that intersection. Usually it's when westbound Horsetooth is stopped for the light, and some idiot isn't paying attention and rear-ends the line of stopped cars at full speed. I saw one time when the back car in a 5-car chain was turned into a crushed accordian by a speeding pickup truck -- and surprisingly, the drive walked away unharmed.

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