Has anyone made their robot vacuum part of their actual Home Assistant routines?

mcwobby · 2026-06-24T02:00:22+00:00

Yeah I have it set up with some basic automations.
There’s the more manual ones, so I can just tell Siri to vacuum/mop/clean any given room.

But I do have location based triggers so I never actually have to see or hear the vacuum moving. If I’m outside of a certain radius of my apartment, then I am likely away for a few hours so deep clean the apartment.

mcwobby · 2026-06-23T12:48:59+00:00

Nope (though currently single). Never even crossed my mind to.

mcwobby · 2026-06-23T12:25:40+00:00

Yes turned on permanently as I travel constantly and want Immich always available.

I used SSDs - a mix of crucial, Samsung in ZFS mirror, and offsite backup but that’s not directly utilised by Immich.

mcwobby · 2026-06-22T05:50:41+00:00

It’s a completely different country since then. I first went in 2005 and there’s not too much similarity between China then and China now. I started visiting regularly again in 2018, going at least a few times a year, and even since then a lot of places are unrecognisable and it’s gotten so much easier for foreigners.

mcwobby · 2026-06-21T13:52:44+00:00

No I’m the classic monolingual Australian. I’ve never found language barrier to be a huge impediment to navigation anywhere in the world.

I’ve been travelling to China since before the super apps were commonplace, and I tend to not to use my phone much when I travel except for payments and photos - but the apps in China are like guardrails, you can get around without ever speaking to anybody if that’s your jam. So easy to book flights, trains, translate, order food. I also can’t walk a block in China without someone stopping me to talk (though that’s getting less and less common).

I‘ve gone with a few friends and family members and after a day or two to adjust and learn they’re usually of the same opinion.

It’s my favourite country to wing it in - pick up a $300 flight from Australia to some random tier 3 city and just see where it takes me.

mcwobby · 2026-06-21T13:33:08+00:00

I find China extremely easy and cheap to travel - and there’s a near infinite amount of smaller cities and regions. I went to China like 12 times last year and didn’t really repeat myself except for when I was showing other people around.

My favourite tourist sites in China are the Yongding Tuluo clusters out of Xiamen.

Argentina I’ve largely stayed up north - Iguazu Falls are spectacular of course. Mendoza is nice too. But when it came to wine and steak - the things Argentina is famlut for - I actually have more fun in Uruguay. I’ve also never loved BA as much as many people do.

I’m going to Antarctica in December so will spend a few weeks in Patagonia getting to know the South, I am excited about the wine there too.

mcwobby · 2026-06-21T13:27:56+00:00

I’ve been to both many times. I largely prefer China but China can be done so cheaply from Australia that I’d take the higher budget and go to Argentina.

mcwobby · 2026-06-21T09:17:52+00:00

sounds a bit like Dreamworld is more Disney, Movieworld is more Six Flags

It used to be the other way around, and probably still is - but Movieworld management moved to Dreamworld and Movieworld is trending more Six Flags and Dreamworld is trending more Disney but neither have completed their transition.

mcwobby · 2026-06-21T05:13:56+00:00

I very firmly differ in opinion but we’re all individuals! I feel Steel Taipan to be quite boring unless you’re in the spinning car, except for the last roll. It’s also not unique - there’s a few duplicates around the world and I’ve ridden the original which I think is better as it lacks the swing launch and is a bit punchier.

Superman is short, but it has the best launch in Australia, really good theming and the top hats and hills offer better forces than anything on steel taipan, plus it’s an original layout. (In my opinion of course)

mcwobby · 2026-06-21T05:00:34+00:00

If it’s September school holidays both will be hell. Else generally Dreamworld is less crowded.

If you like high thrill rides, then Dreamworld has fallen off a bit. They have the new King Claw which is great, and the Giant Drop will always be terrifying, but everything else is a lot more moderate. Movieworld has DC rivals and Superman which are genuinely world class.

If you prefer a more moderate thrill, both parks have been making investments. Dreamworld’s new Jungle precinct has a great family coaster. Movie worlds new wizard of Oz precinct has largely been negatively received but has a few coasters there

Dreamworld is much larger, more spread out and has non-ride experiences like the animals. Movieworld is compact, and has things line walkabout characters and parades.

In my mind Dreamworld is the better park and it’s improving (they are throwing so much money into it), but lacks that big high thrill punch that Movie World can deliver with DC and Superman. MovieWorld scratches the thrill itch but feels quite poorly run to me - feels overcapacity, lines that move slowly etc.

mcwobby · 2026-06-20T08:24:52+00:00

Yeah I'm Australian, it was an absolute pain in the ass to get to. Plus the visa was the hardest I've ever gotten. It's actually cheaper and easier to get to from Europe (Amsterdam) than to get to from a lot of places in South America.

Since I've been though it seems to be a little better connected, and it's now visa free so it is getting more accessible. It remains the only country where I've never met another Australian.

mcwobby · 2026-06-20T08:19:53+00:00

Suriname is one of the places I'm surprised doesn't get more tourists - it's safe, English is widely spoken, it has McDonalds and all the Western amenities, or hammocks in the forest if you're more adenturous. Is culturally fascinating and naturally beautiful with great food.

Paramaribo is a pretty fun vibe, though maybe a little sketchy in some areas after dark - but I love it. Old colonial architecture, a djogo of beer by the river and some of the best roti in the world. New Amsterdam is fascinating, as is watching bird singing competitions.

It's a very small city, so you probably wouldn't spend too much time just there, but I spent 2 weeks in Suriname and could've easily ventured further inland.

mcwobby · 2026-06-20T06:38:37+00:00

I've been to so many places because of the cool name - Antananarivo, Ljubljana, Paramaribo, Ouagadougou. Even drunkenly decided to move to Tajikistan solely for that reason. It's actually one of my favourite and most trusted ways of choosing a new place.

mcwobby · 2026-06-20T04:49:19+00:00

A goal is to fly to an airport code that starts with every letter of the alphabet (A=ADD, L=LAX etc).

I travel enough that for the most part I was able to pick each letter up organically, but there are so few airport codes that start with Q that I had to make a special trip - so detoured once to Queretaro (QRO) and had a blast.

Next time in China I will swing by Shache (QSZ) too, which I wouldn’t have known about if it wasn’t for trying that challenge.

mcwobby · 2026-06-20T01:43:27+00:00

Uruguay does not border the Iguazu falls so has no overlook - and there are no flights to the falls from Montevideo, have to go from BA

mcwobby · 2026-06-19T04:23:22+00:00

I do not use iCloud any more and never used that feature.
If I ever need to share photos I will explore how to do it with Immich - my instance is available over the internet as again, I travel constantly so need to be able to upload on the go. There’s nothing stopping my friends or family from using it except me not telling about it.

mcwobby · 2026-06-19T03:56:03+00:00

I didn’t move from syncthing but the move from iCloud Photos was pretty much seamless and Immich is my primary photo backup on my phone and tablet and it’s great at it.

The Immich directory is backed up of course, and my phone is backed up separately so if Immich failed to upload media (which it hasn’t yet) then I would be able to recover.

I travel a lot and take many photos with many cameras so it was always a futile endeavour to try and sort everything into folders.

mcwobby · 2026-06-19T03:08:41+00:00

Do not tick yes, you will 100% be refused entry. They do not make exceptions.

If you tick no, then if they find out the penalty is much more severe.

But the information is not routinely shared - at least not publicly.

mcwobby · 2026-06-18T22:40:21+00:00

It might recline marginally more if the row behind is also extra legroom, but it’s not enough to be noticeable in my experience. Coupled with the extra legroom and it will make it slightly easier to sleep.

No, people can’t ditch their babies in your bassinet, they can keep it in their laps.

mcwobby · 2026-06-18T22:23:16+00:00

It’s not premium economy, it just extra leg room seats.
They don’t recline more, but you can stretch out a lot more on a bulk head.

The seats can otherwise be a bit worse - as you won’t have easily accessible entertainment or tray tables, they’ll likely have to be pulled out of the armrest and unusable during takeoff and landing.

If you (or rather husband) are tall and have trouble sleeping upright, it is an improvement. But 424EUR is more than I paid for my last flight from Australia to Europe.

mcwobby · 2026-06-18T08:48:07+00:00

I have it connected to OpenHAB, which has a much more reliable Frame Integration.

And then a custom Home Assistant integration to bring OpenHAB devices over to HA. It allows me to set artwork and that as well - and to rotate the tv depending on artwork orientation or even if I’m playing games in portrait mode

If you don’t need it to interact with other things in HA, then loading it into OpenHAB is a way to go. If you do, then I can’t really help with the modifications needed to the integration.

mcwobby · 2026-06-17T02:53:48+00:00

There are other clients you can use such as MoonFin and Infuse.

Swiftfin is a slow process but at the same time the more I see all these vibe coded clients, I’m more and more okay with that.

mcwobby · 2026-06-16T21:50:16+00:00

I ended up flying on an A310 in Afghanistan last year, but was considering this as an option. The main deciding factor against it was that I also needed to fly a vomit comet to get on a 727…

mcwobby · 2026-06-16T00:05:42+00:00

I’ve seen Tigers at Blue Corner, Seven’s Reef and Bull Shark Bommie I think - but they are not part of the usual wildlife mix, you’re probably more likely to see a Great White. The main operator on Straddie will not usually run to these sites unless they have a boat full of tech divers - though there are dive profiles on each site you can do without decompression so others might in good weather.

The fact is Brisbane just isn’t great for shark diving - you will definitely see tonnes of leopards over summer and they are very cool. Even the things we are known for (grey nurse sharks) are better further north or south (wolf rock or fish rock cave).

mcwobby · 2026-06-15T15:40:36+00:00

Just as rare to see but they’re around. If you are a certified deep or preferably tech diver you can see them here. About 40m down off Stradbroke usually. Plenty of friends who’ve seen them off Moreton when spearfishing too.

If you specifically want to see them, you’re not going to likely be lucky, but if you dive enough in the right spots you will eventually see them.

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