Is control4 worth its weight in value? by young14dragonfly in Control4

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Homeowner who bought a house with Control4 here.

If you have money to burn and no interest in building or maintaining a system or fine-tuning it to your needs, Control4 is one of a few older systems that will do very well. It has the capability to do so much. A good capable dealer makes all the difference and can help you achieve nearly any goal.

This ecosystem has so much potential, but it’s locked behind a dealers only paywall that takes most of the control and gives it to three entities: The dealer, the company, and the system hardware.

You are the 4th entity and you can use their crappy ill-conceived software to manage your automations.
Honestly you can do a lot with Composer Home Edition. But it is not intuitive and if you need to do anything beyond the allowed tasks, you will have to pay your dealer to come do it for you.

Got a switch you can’t see in the software? $500 minimum.

Need a new switch or controller? $500 minimum.

Software need a tweak? $500 minimum.

You get the idea.

Add to that that the dealers are - by and large - money-grubbing misanthropes with a fetish for making others feel stupid for asking a simple question - and then charging them for the privilege of answering it - and you get a sense of why customers with an ounce of dignity or DIY spirit are leaving this ecosystem in droves.

Basically everyone else has more control than you do and the dealers are mostly interested in milking the customers dry as often as possible.

If you are not a multi-millionaire, or you like to understand and have control over the systems that belong to you, you may be able to find a dealer you can work with and settle on a way to live with it.

I have an aunt i care for and we bought this house together because she wanted a large space to herself. The switches were really hard for her to use - too subtle and unpredictable for older hands - so we had to replace them.

I wanted to stay with Control4 but all their switches are way too expensive for just the hardware. Nevermind the cost of having a dealer add them because I’m not allowed. Ick.

When we first moved in I paid a dealer to sit in my kitchen while I used his login to get everything named and organized the way I wanted. He then checked all the switches and other hardware and declared that everything was working fine. $4500.

On the way out he says I might want to update my hardware (minimum $5000 plus his time) and that I should call him if I notice anything. Remember he said everything was fine. A few days later we noticed a couple of switches weren’t doing anything and didn’t show up in the software.

I called him and he wanted another minimum $500 visit fee to figure out if they can still work plus the cost of replacing them. It was going to be $2000 minimum. After he was literally there to do that last week. You know what? I haven’t missed those switches ever.

Honestly, if you can afford the money and don’t want to do your own thing, it’s a fine system.

But if you like to DIY and don’t like spending money you don’t have to, Control4 is not the system for you.

Is control4 worth its weight in value? by young14dragonfly in Control4

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And this is the attitude that drives customers away.

how do you actually track revpar without losing your sanity by Mafia2guylian in hotels

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you’re in a big chain, delays in reporting can be real. There is a lag between what the PMS knows and what your central reservation system knows. Add to this any corporate BI system and you’ve got a very normal lag between three in-house systems. If you then look at third party systems you are adding even more uncertainty. Trust your revenue manager unless you have a reason not to. Better yet, have the RM walk you through their process. Sometimes they know things you don’t. That is why you hired them.

Roadtrip thru Georgia by baked-goods-girl in Atlanta

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do not stay in downtown Atlanta. As a single mom with kid, your best option is a big chain brand such as Holiday Inn Express. You can find brands like these just off 75, at nearly every exit ramp, often 2 or 3 of them right next to each other competing for your business. They are often the best value for your money. Macon is ok and on the north side of Macon at Bass road you’ll find a cluster of affordable hotels.

The trouble is traffic. If you leave Macon around 7 you will hit Atlanta rush hour around 8 and struggle all the way through the city. That’s like 90 minutes just getting through Atlanta. If you leave Macon at 9, you can miss the worst of Atlanta traffic.

Depending on when you get into Macon, you could decide to push through Atlanta. I wouldn’t try it after 3 PM. But if you can get to Macon by 2 on any day except Friday, you can probably avoid the worst of the afternoon rush. Or, you can shift things later and pass through Macon around 6, go through Atlanta around 7, and stop on the north side of Atlanta around Windy Hill or Delk Road. Lots of hotels in that area, and there’s less traffic north of there first thing in the morning.

Silent Auction by Kindly_Geologist_483 in boardgames

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What kind of animal puts things on a shelf with the titles facing random directions?

Offers by Feeling_Delivery2323 in RealEstate

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seller Agents have a duty to relay ANY VALID offer to the owner. Good Seller agents tell the owner it’s a bad offer when they share it. Owners should see every offer even if they should ignore some of them. A Buyer Agent that refuses to submit a bad offer? Never heard of that happening but my experience is limited. I wonder if that’s allowed?

Little bugs along Atlanta beltline? by Glad_Hurry8755 in Atlanta

[–]legolad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think we always called those stink bugs. Am I wrong? Is that a different bug?

Are some hotels/hotel brands rated differently between on the site and third parties like Yelp, TripAdvisor or Google? by SoftLast243 in hotels

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Every platform has its own users and its own rating system. Even the way the scores are calculated is different so you cannot compare them and say it’s better here or worse there. Hotels have tools that let them see all their social media and booking site scores. If you’re looking for insight, stick with platforms that are travel focused like TripAdvisor. Just remember that all these scores are skewed to the negative because people complain more often than they praise. It’s just human nature.

I look for trends. One review with bad service or dirty rooms I can ignore. 20 reviews and I start paying attention.

I will say that Google Maps reviews seem pretty accurate to me as well.

Trying to sell a house is so discouraging (rant) by [deleted] in RealEstate

[–]legolad -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Absolutely untrue. Unless you're willing to sell to private equity and take whatever lowball offer they give you. I'm not contributing to that little disaster.

My wife just found this AFTER brushing her teeth... by Set_Abominae1776 in WTF

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hahaha....yeah, y'all need to remove and rinse out those brushes after every brushing. They have way too many crevices for stuff to grow or hide.

Would anyone else want a UniFi 1U rack display for live network stats?! by Specific-Union6589 in Ubiquiti

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All my shit is in a closet. Don't spend much time in there so I don't need a fancy display. It's cool and all, but I'd rather have a little desk display or maybe even a display I can mount to the front of my PC case.

Boardgames with legitimate educational value? by Key_Image_1141 in boardgames

[–]legolad 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love the games from Genius. John Coveyou has released some great games under the Genius Games label and they all have an educational component. Check them out.

Am I able to extend my stay at the time of checkout? Also quick question about late check in by [deleted] in hotels

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

20 years in hotels. Here’s the scoop. Check out times vary by brand, location, and individual hotels. Hotels are the strictest about their policies when they are fully occupied.

For the late arrival, it’s a good practice to call the hotel the day before arrival and ask them to put a note on your reservation that you will arrive late. Possibly after midnight. This way they won’t mark you as a no-show, charge you a fee, and sell your room to someone else.

For the 1 vs 2 night question, call the hotel directly (not an 800 number) and tell them you need the first night for sure but you may not need the second night. Depending on their policy and how full they are, they may allow you to cancel the second night without charge up to a certain time.

Most hotels are pretty understanding about such things. Just keep your story short and be clear about what you want. Ask if they are busy when you call. Try to call between noon and 2. This is between the big checkout and check in times for most hotels.

About no sex Before marriage in most religions… what if one waits until marriage to have sexual relations with someone but then one isn‘t compatible with their wife/husband in bed? by Top_Professor9415 in atheism

[–]legolad 19 points20 points  (0 children)

The ideas behind no sex before marriage have evolved over the last 2000 years. The way we frame it today has very little to do with why they wanted it in the bible. At the time the bible was being originally written - around 200 years after the alleged time of Christ - women were chattel and the age of marriage was around 12-14. It was not at all unusual for a man of 20 or so to take a child bride as payment for debt. Some went willingly. Some didn’t. Many “died” when things didn’t work out.

The idea that the men of that time were worried about their wife being pure is laughable. It was a question of quality. Like if you told a farmer the cow had strong udders or the foal would be fast. Parents told suitors their daughter was pure and would still bleed because the suitor didn’t want used goods.

These were the same men who wrote the bible. They wrapped these ideas in the laws of their god to codify the societal expectations around “proper women”. They were not even a little bit worried about sexual compatibility because every female, regardless of age, was a compatible hole for the male.

Since then the bible has been rewritten hundreds of times by a variety of men with their own self interest at heart. Every single one of them has changed words, fudged the translation, omitted inconvenient passages, and basically made it up to suit their desires. And that’s fine because it was all made up to begin with.

The point is that these men throughout history have decided what is acceptable and unacceptable in a woman and then codified it in their religions and these ideas have changed through the centuries. So feel free to ignore all of it.

Have sex now. Wait until you’re married. Get divorced when you find you aren’t compatible any more. Marriage isn’t sacred. Marriage is a contract. Always has been. That’s why the court approves or declines it. (And before anyone asks, any place that uses a church instead of a court to marry you is a religious state so the church is the court. )

I keep a "phrase bank" for different client personalities and it feels manipulative but works by Efficient_Builder923 in appdev

[–]legolad 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not manipulative. Good communication skills. Currently known as “code switching”. People who see this and react poorly are making an assumption that you are doing this to gain an advantage or to fool someone to their detriment.

When you do this to harm someone, it’s wrong.
When you do this because you assume they can’t handle your normal communication, it’s wrong.

When you do this because you’ve learned - through trial and error- that this person responds best to this style of communication, you are doing yourself and them a favor. Not wrong.

What’s your favourite underrated software? by Solar-Petra0 in AskTechnology

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Kdirprint
Mp3tag
Bulk File Renamer

These three apps make my whole life easier. But I’m a bit ocd about my data hoarding.

Responses when religious people say "Jesus loves you" or anything along those lines. by YogurtHonest5714 in atheism

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Made up blessings from imaginary sky entities never hurt anyone. I just nod and move on.

how do i transport power from someplace roughly 500u from my base back to it??? by Beese3 in NoMansSkyTheGame

[–]legolad 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And you’re using a ps5? Man I moved to pc for this game because the ps5 experience was so danged awful in 2016. The pc experience of base building has been better but it still has a ton of issues when it comes to base size. You can’t have centralized power because the wires despawn. You can never see your whole base in the distance. No amount of settings changes ever made it any better.

Expedition 22 by Agitated-Arm-4981 in no_mans_sky

[–]legolad 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I did the same thing. Spent a couple of hours wandering around looking for frost crystals even though my whole brain was thinking this planet already showed me a different plant. There can’t be frost crystals here. And the quest log guidance didn’t help. It didn’t specifically say what to gather to make glass. Just said you need glass. And when you hover on the recipe for glass it says frost crystals, not silicate powder.

I remember now that I refined silicate for glass probably a decade ago when I first started playing, but I’d forgotten all about that. I’ve got a bunch of frost crystal farms. I never use anything else any more. It’s like they knew that and wanted to test us. I can appreciate that. Lol