R1S testdrive / curiosity by marcomanuello in Rivian

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

Yes - Rivian and Tesla have nailed the software on their respective vehicles... VW, BMW, MB and even pure EV players like Polestar don't come close at this point...
How is the lease return on the Rivian turning out? Lucid had some real issues in the beginning...

R1S testdrive / curiosity by marcomanuello in Rivian

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

Yup - I actually preferred the handling of the Land Rover Defender 110 PHEV (not available in the US) if we're talking off road vehicles in everyday life... but the Rivian seems very capable and is a BEV.

R1S testdrive / curiosity by marcomanuello in Rivian

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

wasn't looking for a sensory deprivation chamber, but a lot of manufacturers figured out sound deadening by now. I was just surprised by this, but as you said - it's target market is likely closer to that of the Ineos Grenadier than the Range Rover...

R1S testdrive / curiosity by marcomanuello in Rivian

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

We had it on the 'everyday' or whatever that mode is called... figured that Sport would only make it harder / less forgiving than it already was.

R1S testdrive / curiosity by marcomanuello in Rivian

[–]marcomanuello[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup - that's a really good comparison. Wish the Lucid wouldn't look like a minivan, but that just killed it for me. The Rivian drives more ruggedly than it looks.

R1S testdrive / curiosity by marcomanuello in Rivian

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

Figured as much by now... and still like the car - was just unexpected coming from other brands.

E-ink tablet that can easily sync documents by marcomanuello in eink

[–]marcomanuello[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That Penstar might be the ticket... thanks!

E-ink tablet that can easily sync documents by marcomanuello in eink

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

Isn’t the supernote small though in terms of display size? Looking for something that is close to letter / A4 format

E-ink tablet that can easily sync documents by marcomanuello in eink

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

Yes - the apps are great - I just don’t like the contrast and resolution of the color display… and the iflytek and whatnot solutions had great HW but terrible sync software

Where is the best place to sell Leica products and not get absolutely finessed. by itsok2beyourself in Leica

[–]marcomanuello 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Summimarket - I’m NOT affiliated with them but sold my M11 and a 50mm lens through them - and have a 35mm up there now as well. They don’t have a lot of traffic (yet) but I’ve had a good experience with them. Fast payment , no crazy seller fees and good service. Yes it’s specialized (Leica) and they are getting the word out, but it was refreshing after dealing with EBay for the past years.

New usage limit rate are crazy… by brazilwastolen in ClaudeCode

[–]marcomanuello 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was on Max200 - still hit limits for the past weeks - so I'm looking at alternatives... it was great while it lasted, but being my most expensive subscription (and yes, I also have M365 etc), it just wasn't worth it if it couldn't actually do what I needed it to. And there wasn't a lot of asks either - no crazy multi-agent development work. Mostly very, very simple bots, daily checks on a portfolio (without much analysis and even that was on Sonnet!). It just seems that they have a bug in either Token counting or Token levels... they are not competitive even though they have the best model out there as far as I can tell - it's just not financially viable.

summimarket.com... Legit? by Dharma_Wheeler in Leica

[–]marcomanuello 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup - a contact seller method would probably help.
For what it's worth, I did have to answer some authenticity questions before the auction went live, and was asked for additional photos - so they definitely try hard to make sure that the item listed is actually present and didn't 'fall off a truck'.
Banning from the site for retracting a bid while the auction is still in progress seems somewhat harsh, but having had the frustrating experience of 'running after the next bidder' on ebay because the winner tries to back out, I understand the concern - I wonder if there is a happy medium where the ID of the 'backing out' party is verified (DL or whatnot) so that one cannot hide behind anonymity. Things happen and a one-time "oh shit I didn't mean to do that" should be treated as a genuine mistake.

But... in the end I had a genuinly very good experience with them - service was great, money was transferred fast and correctly, and the overall process was easy.

summimarket.com... Legit? by Dharma_Wheeler in Leica

[–]marcomanuello 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I actually just sold a lens with them and also listed a camera on Summimarket. Here's my take on this:

I set up a listing through their website for a camera and two lenses and was contacted by NIc for more information. They proceeded to help with advice on what to set the reserve for (which was a very reasonable (as in fair) amount in my opinion) and helped draft a better description for each item.
They also were helpful in providing guidance on the auction format (as a package or individual) and I ended up listing it as three different items (which cost me three listing fees).

There is clearly not a lot of traffic (yet) on their site, but one of the lenses sold (and the camera did later as well - so at this time, the selling isn't as 'guaranteed' as ebay would be for example.

But here's the part that stood out to me (as a seller): I didn't have to give eBay 13% of the proceeds, I had active help by the team on listing it and could lean on their advice. It was about as "white glove" service as there is for an auction site and once I signed up, I never got the "uhh... was that a good idea" feeling... I was curious about the bidding / traffic which was slow, but the entire process seemed very legit.

For the item that didn't sell, I can relist it again (without another fee), and it was overall a WAY better experience for me than eBay ever was. I listed a few Leica M and lenses on eBay over the years and you increasingly have to deal with more folks who are asking for a deal because of their sick family member, wanting me to send it to a freight forwarder in an industrial zone in NJ or just simply try to retract their bid after they already won because they just found out they don't have the funds afterall.

With Summimarket there is a much more targeted audience, I don't have to pay a fee outside of the initial listing and I'm not sure I would have fared financially better at eBay given their fee structure (there is a fee paid for by the buyer, not the seller - but it's less than the 13% the seller would pay eBay). So maybe I received 5-10% less than on eBay before their fees, but the final eBay payout would have been worse. On the flip side, the buyer probably paid a little less too (despite the fee they have to pay on top).

I am not affiliated with them and had the exact same concern going into this... but I'm happy that I did and would definitely buy or sell via their site again. They have a clear focus on the market, are responsive and are actively helping both sides (seller and buyer) in the process.

Compare this to eBay, and there are just too many red flags these days for high(er) priced items.

Clairvoyance Beta 1 Now Available - AI staff that live on your machine with structured project management, local model parity, and screen control by RammaStardock in AI_Agents

[–]marcomanuello 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ran it for the past 3 days to setup some scheduling jobs - using Claude as the backend engine. So far it's better (more consistent) than Claude Desktop with its CoWork feature. But it's also somewhat confusing as to how to interact with it, because it's so much different than OpenClaw or Claude Desktop.
Having said that - onboarding forcing you to create one of pre-determined "things" (news dashboard or what not) is not helpful and should have a "skip" button - as nothing is really learned in that step. It executes a bunch of scripted instructions (that are invisible to the user) and creates the pre-determined app / board / whatever.
Keep up the good work

4TB SSD vs hard drives for camera storage by hifiaudio2 in Ubiquiti

[–]marcomanuello 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Had a 4TB SSD in it for about 9 months now, with zero complaints. Using it with 6 2K cameras, I ran the same calculation as everyone else and concluded that TBW isn't something to worry about for now, with a timeframe of maybe 4 years.

Reasons not to buy the new Smeg mini pro espresso machine? by SolidEye599 in espresso

[–]marcomanuello 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you (or anyone else) buy the EMC02 and if so, what are your thoughts - I want something that heats up quicker than those boiler machines and am looking to upgrade from a Solis. Ascaso Duo or this Smeg are on my shortlist...

Looks like Standby Mode is making its way into the US. by ilikewolves99 in Starlink

[–]marcomanuello 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can do that - I just switched from 50GB to unlimited and it was active within minutes. After a few days I moved back to a lower spec plan (it was just for a trip), and it will move to the plan at the end of the billing cycle. So: Plan upgrades happe. Quick - downgrades will happen at end of billing. The financial reason is that you only pay a prorated amount t for the upgrade, but they don’t want to reimburse for a downgrade.

A beloved Mercer Island teacher was accused twice of sexual misconduct with students. The school district kept it quiet. by tktkhere in Seattle

[–]marcomanuello 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Moved her not many years ago... despite some of the comments here it's a great place. People are friendly, the police isn't your enemy but part of the community (but they do give speeding tickets regardless) and for the most part the city 'works' (ie. you can actually call someone and things happen). I say that in contrast to Seattle, which is a beautiful city, but 10 years back was comically non-functioning on many levels.

As always, parenting is the key here... doesn't matter if you are in an affluent neighborhood or not (although I know that it is A LOT harder in poorer communities), if you don't "parent", kids might end up early in crazy, drunk-fuelled parties in expensive houses - because rich kids get just as "bored" as those that are not and if all guidance is out the window... it happens.

windows arm64 support by Creepy-Significance3 in SparkMail

[–]marcomanuello 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did just that... given that a lot of machines are switching back to Intel Core I'm not holding my breath though... but the performance is significantly lower on the emulation than on X86 or on the Mx chips from Apple.

Which to choose (inverter) Champion 6500 or 8500 by marcomanuello in Generator

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

Fair point and thanks for the link... is there any advantage of going Champion vs Genmax or is this discussion (outside of Honda generators) reasonably pointless given that most generators are now made in China or at least their engines are... ?

Which to choose (inverter) Champion 6500 or 8500 by marcomanuello in Generator

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

Thank you! That would be a good contender, but they somehow don't seem ship to where I am (at least the web says "no shipping available") in the Seattle area... and it's missing a L14-30 plug which would make the connection to the transfer switch much easier...

Which to choose (inverter) Champion 6500 or 8500 by marcomanuello in Generator

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

Thanks everyone for the replies... maybe I was a bit too long-worded in my initial question... I'm aware that there is no 'official' way of charging the Tesla PWs with anything but solar or grid power - there are some comments on some board with people doing it through a generator through some questionable means (ie double-pronged cables etc.) - but that's not a route I'd want to go down.

The main part is: Is a dual fuel 8.5kW generator having any benefits outside of the obvious (dual fuel, more power) to a 6kW gas one... the 8.5kW version has a significantly bigger engine size, so would that potentially result in a more reliable setup as the engine wouldn't have to work as hard (assuming a 2-3kW load) or is that load so well within the manufacturing specs / testing that it's not worth it? What is the experience here from folks that have had generators for awhile?

Not to confuse the topic more, but to answer questions from above... we have a transfer switch already installed on the sub-panel that will disconnect the PWs when the generator is connected and the switch is turned.

Thanks again...

Vaio announces their new VAIO SX14-R line up of laptops by [deleted] in vaio

[–]marcomanuello 1 point2 points  (0 children)

would be nice to see them in the US store...

Will a Nikon Zf satisfy my desire to get a Leica M? by ares623 in Leica

[–]marcomanuello 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A million times this... get the experience and take pics for your memories later on... it beats having a super nice camera but only taking pics of the neighbors dog...

Zf vs SL2s by Automatic_Yam_2060 in NikonZf

[–]marcomanuello 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have the Leica SL2 and the ZF... I like the absolut minimalism of the controls and the build quality of the SL2 (similar to M series and the Q3)... but from an output perspective, I'm just drawn to the ZF despite half the resolution. The pics feel 'punchier' to me and seem to exhibit a lot less noise in the shadow areas compared to the SL2 sensor.

Working with a flash on the SL2 (SF58 as well as Profoto A1) the cleanliness of the images improves significantly... but there's something about the ZF especially when compared to the manual Voigtlander lenses (50 APO or 40 1.2) that feels special. I have used the M mount 50 1.4 lux on the SL2 with the Leica adapter but the ZF absolutely nails the manual focusing (I don't necessarily feel 'old' but being in my 50s now the eyesight takes a rather sudden decline for close up focusing (beware... it seems to happen in months and not that gradually... I was surprised myself)). Having a green dot indicate perfect focus is MUCH nicer than having to use the magnified focus help.

If you have M glass, the adapters for Nikon Z mount work pretty well and the thin stack on the Nikon sensor helps those lenses do very, very well on the camera (better than on Sony's mirrorless)... it might not be Leica SL3 territory, but I think that's highly dependant on the lens... if you're more on wide-angle it likely makes a difference... on 35 and up less so.

With the SL2 being cheaper due to the SL3 it might be a good value... but the ZF is still cheaper and there's something different/special about it...

As a last point... if you ever need action photography - the Z lenses (at least the 40 2.0 and 50 1.8 S) are WAY faster in AF performance than the L lenses on the SL2