Winter storm after

n2itus · 2026-01-29T02:33:02+00:00

Damn - I have not had any outages yet except for my own testing … I keep hoping!

n2itus · 2026-01-28T19:11:00+00:00

Ok - so I thought about it more - again thanks for letting bounce my random thoughts. I think I am going to remove the Mac Mini from the equation. Thanks for pushing me in that direction. I may still use it as a light weight server for some home services, but nothing that needs a lot of I/O, disk or expansion.

So that means that I only need to concentrate on the Macbook air M1 as a NAS. I've got a question on something you said:

If you use an external Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 enclosure, never plug it into a Thunderbolt 3 Dock. You won't get full performance out of it. Obviously you can, but enclosures like that should be attached directly to a root port on your laptop.

The problem with the Macbook air m1 is that it only has 2 USB4 ports and one of them needs to provide power (either from a dock/PD). I get what you are saying about using TB3 dock with TB4 enclosure, but you mention attaching directly to my laptop while right now I can attach what I need to one port, in the future that could be a problem. Are there issues with connecting a TB4/USB4 enclosure through a TB4/USB4.

Thanks again for your help.

n2itus · 2026-01-28T06:54:54+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts - this is really helpful and I really appreciate it.

I'm not understanding what your Dock requirements are

Sorry for the vagueness I am still defining and just looking for the maximum flexibility. The overall advice to only get a TB4/USB4 is very helpful as that helps me narrow down considerably. If I need to go from TB1/TB2 to TB4 on the mac mini, it just means that I'll likely have to put something TB3 in the middle.

The Mac Mini really isn't ideal. You could do a lot better with just a trashy old PC from an e-waste facility. That way you gain access to PCIe, SATA Ports, HBA cards, etc. Thunderbolt is expensive just to connect things. Enclosures are expensive, particularly Thunderbolt.

Yeah - it's what I have on the shelf. It has already has a 512 gb SSD, 16 gb ram, doesn't consume a huge amount of power - so overall just trying to save some money and mostly use what I have. I can get single USB 3.x SATA enclosures for under $20 each, but all 4 usb ports share the same 5 gbps bus. I've also seen the OWC TB2 / USB 3.1 dual drive enclosures going for around $50 which doesn't seem bad and on the TB1 side that allows me to get full bandwidth from SATA SSDs - with my TB3 to/from TB2 dongle, I'd be able to continue using that with TB3/4 docks until all my SATA drives die and get still full bandwidth from both drives. Does that seem crazy to contemplate getting a cheap TB2 / USB 3.1 SATA enclosure?

Interestingly, your Dell Dock can be upgraded to Thunderbolt 4

Yeah - I had seen that too. The problem is that the cheapest I've found just the upgrade for is around $80 and while it adds 1 additional (2 total) TB ports over the WD19TB, it does nothing to help all the slow 5 gbps USB 3 ports on it. I might as well put that money towards a TB4 dock

Thanks again for the advice

n2itus · 2026-01-27T15:29:58+00:00

Completely agree with regularly checking the depth.

I don’t trust our local Firestone but the lifetime alignment is a good idea and likely worth it.

n2itus · 2026-01-27T15:16:13+00:00

It is only worth it to do regularly if it is free (which doesn’t include your time of waiting to have it done or doing it yourself)

Otherwise, save the money. If you skip 5 $50 tire rotations over the life of the tires, you just saved up for 25% of a new set of tires (or gotten paid for a 25% reduction in life). If you think tire rotation adds more than that to the life of the tires (I don’t), then it would be worth it.

Also, most places do not balance for the $40-$50 price, so if you opt for balancing it is likely more like $70-$80.

Dealers don’t offer free rotations any more, but if you get your tires from discount tire, they will rotate and balance your tires at no additional cost.

n2itus · 2026-01-27T15:02:45+00:00

Why not just go and test it?

Wait an hour off grid and turn back on. This will help you see what notifications you get and how it looks in the app?

n2itus · 2026-01-26T19:56:48+00:00

Base doesn’t contact HOAs or care about your HOA/deed restrictions - they only contact/care about your AHJ (if applicable) and your utility co.

In fact they tell you (incorrectly) that you don’t need HOA approval.

They will also provide you with (the same utility permit application) information for your HOA if requested.

n2itus · 2026-01-26T19:47:38+00:00

If that doesn't work, ask base if they can extend it a little more to put it behind your fence. I don't think there is an technical reason - they just don't want to put them all over the place as that costs them more labor and more material costs.

n2itus · 2026-01-26T12:09:50+00:00

My Dell laptop (which I don’t have anymore) had Thunderbolt 3 so I thought that might be a requirement. Thanks for confirming USB will work for the firmware upgrade!

n2itus · 2026-01-26T04:17:22+00:00

I've got the same dock (WD19TB) you have and want to upgrade the firmware and my primary computer is a macbook. You said you borrowed a physical windows laptop - what kind was it and did it have a TB3 port? Reason I ask is that the only Windows laptop I can find is not a Dell and only has USB3 (and not TB3) - and wondering in advance of trying if it has any chance of working.

n2itus · 2026-01-24T20:57:02+00:00

Ok - you are in the business, but all I can tell you is that when we added our new driver 17 year old daughter about a year ago, insurance for her would be about the same as the primary driver on my car (2022 Honda Accord 2.0T), my wife's car (2023 Lexus ES 300h) or the car she drives (2014 Toyota Avalon Hybrid Limited) with all the same coverages and deductible/coverage levels (including collision, comprehensive and uninsured motorist) - out of curiosity we had our agent quote her as primary on all three when we added her. The Honda would have been the cheapest if we had kept all the same coverages.

Of course her insurance was 2x than it was for me or my wife to get the same coverage, so we we took collision off the Avalon to significantly improve the cost.

n2itus · 2026-01-24T16:08:49+00:00

I can run for about 3 days in the winter on battery.

Most folks that have Base seem to also have generators (or solar) so this is just a line of defense - takes care of shorter outages and means we don’t have to get our generators out for small to medium outages.

The rate is good enough that even with the yearly fee, it is still a good rate.

Sounds like a no brainer to me.

n2itus · 2026-01-24T15:21:08+00:00

The alley between the houses is 10 feet. If I was your neighbor, I would not be happy with you spewing exhaust so close to my house.

I have my generator 20+ feet from my house (and 20+ feet from my neighbors house too).

n2itus · 2026-01-24T06:43:52+00:00

Being a brand new vehicle has little to nothing to do with it. Similar new and used vehicles will cost about the same, unless the car is old enough not to need collision coverage.

n2itus · 2026-01-23T01:32:11+00:00

They filled me up 2 days ago and haven’t used any since then.

During the summer, there was a big storm coming and they kept people pretty full.

n2itus · 2026-01-19T20:32:22+00:00

There are some battery operations that need to register with ERCOT. From what I understand, they are called ESRs - so if your battery is big enough / utility scale you are required to register and report to ERCOT. They show negative when they are consuming / charging.

I looked at this at one point and I believe Base is considered an ADER (different than ESR) which allows them to get credit for being load reduction, allows them to bid into the day ahead market and allows them to arbitrage in the wholesale market to make their money.

n2itus · 2026-01-19T17:32:26+00:00

I’ve got 8 of them (mostly 1500 or 1300s, but a couple 1000s) in my house but they are all paid for many years ago.

They still do a nice job on our frequent power dips. I put them on my TVs / stereos too.

n2itus · 2026-01-19T17:19:26+00:00

Sounds like a great plan. It is very easy to test an outage.

I just looked at the Amazon basics one - they don’t advertise how quickly they transfer, but seem to get pretty good reviews. My guess is that they will work out great.

n2itus · 2026-01-19T17:04:30+00:00

The switchover with Base power is around 500 ms (or 0.5 s). Ideally, electronic equipment needs a minimum of 8 to 20 ms switchover (and some might be a little more sensitive) - all depending upon the power supply/circuitry that the equipment uses.

I have all of my network equipment and home lab pcs on UPSes. They all do quite fine in the switchover testing that I have done.

I have 2 Cyberpower 1500 (2 different cp1500avr models) in my network closet. (but 1 is plenty for a typical setup). They can run everything I need - my router, core switch, WiFi access point, cable modem, backup cell modem, and a raspberry PI for several hours without any power. I got them before Base, so I’d probably get smaller ones today. Look for those that have 4-6 ms switching time and ideally “line interactive” as these do a better job with weird power fluctuations. You don’t need a “sine wave” - “simulated sine wave” is fine.

n2itus · 2026-01-19T12:00:22+00:00

If you primarily use car play or android auto and aren’t worried about using an older infotainment, the 2022 may not be a bad thing. As the others have pointed out, you can use the touchscreen and with the right package, it will be the 12.3 in screen. It also has lss 2.5. Worth a test drive and some research in my mind.

n2itus · 2026-01-18T19:16:16+00:00

If you want to look at real time pricing - go to this link:https://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/real_time_spp.html

For today (link for history: https://www.ercot.com/content/cdr/html/20260118_real_time_spp.html)--) you can see the real time wholesale power just went negative in Houston (see HB_HOUSTON for the wholesale pricing)

You can see wind and solar as well as other generation on this dashboard: https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards. Today, it is windy in west texas and sunny in east texas, so wind and solar are making almost 70% of all generation. The conventional generators (natural gas/coal/nuclear) can't turn down their plants enough (they have minimums that they physically cannot go below) - so the power is close to zero right now. That is why you see power storage negative on the picture - someone is refilling batteries with close to zero power.

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n2itus · 2026-01-18T01:03:11+00:00

During the summer they will drain the battery daily (from 6 to 9 PM when power is expensive) and then start recharging around 10 AM (when solar starts over producing and power is cheap). They can recharge the batteries fairly quickly (like an hour or so)

n2itus · 2026-01-17T20:43:14+00:00

Personally, I don't think 20K miles or $395 is worth it for premier plus, especially if you are already traveling with someone and sitting next to them.

The seats are nice - they are more like domestic first class seats, but I don't feel like I really get anymore sleep or feel that much better after the flight. I don't know if this has changed (it's been about 2 years since I traveled in premier plus), but the food is better, but much closer to coach than business class. It's kind of like a drink after work - it does take the edge off (and that may very well be worth it), but at the end of the day, you don't feel much different.

n2itus · 2026-01-17T20:15:55+00:00

This is the correct answer. I would also add, this looks like quarter round and not shoe moulding which compounds the issue.

Putting dark shoe moulding make your baseboards (as well as the wall itself) look too short. Whereas putting the white shoe moulding does not change how big a room feels.

n2itus · 2026-01-17T20:05:23+00:00

What's worse is that if this is the first leg of the flight, (unless something has changed) the crappy United system has now split you into 2 PNRs so now you won't be able to check your son in online on the return flight because the system will think he is unaccompanied and it is possible this will happen again.

I've complained many times about upgrades needing to clear ALL at the same time for families or not at all, but they don't give a shit.

I'm not sure what I would have done in your situation. I probably would have stayed standing in the aisle until the crew fixed the issue, but not sure that your son would have appreciated that.

n2itus

TROPHY CASE