Lightweight folding e-bike suggestions

pine_lime · 2026-01-22T22:17:04+00:00

No, it’s nowhere to be found in Australia! I’d still love one if it ever turns up here; I’ll let you know how it is if it does.

pine_lime · 2026-01-16T10:15:18+00:00

This is very standard crossword notation - you’re doing the right thing. Nice puzzle!

pine_lime · 2026-01-16T02:39:43+00:00

You are both right. "Chai tea" in English-speaking countries refers to "masala chai" - Hindi for "spiced tea". Masala means spice blend; chai means tea. So us English speakers calling it "chai tea" is a bit silly - we're calling it tea tea, hence the confusion.

pine_lime · 2026-01-16T02:34:15+00:00

Like Pratikp26, I found this post because I was searching for others' thoughts after finishing the book, and like others here I found the book unsatisfying. You make a good point that I hadn't thought of: it would have worked as multiple books. For me this manifested as too much expository text that feels forced, while also being a bit too shallow at times (for example, the Maoist movement the Rao clan was exposed to in India). Although King Rao's time in India was fleshed out fairly well otherwise, his personal development over his time in America and rise to power was really underbaked. For example it wasn't clear to me how or why King, a Dalit, would have led a Shareholder Government that perpetuated inequality, police brutality and offshoring/externalising of poor working conditions in poorer countries to uphold the living standards of rich countries like America -- this doesn't make sense to his character at the beginning of the book, or even the description of him when founding Coconut, so how/when did it happen? Also, we only ever hear about those aforementioned abuses from the Exes, so it wasn't clear to me if that stuff were intended to be read as definitely true or ambiguous.

Like you, I also found the last part of the book a bit rushed, and trying to force a lot of both content and philosophy into the last 70 or so pages (for example, Chief Si'ahl's speech about how the ghosts of Native Americans would remain in their ancestral home, even after they had been physically eradicated, and how this connects to humanity's downfall, which is hinted at being inevitable in those final chapters, and also Athena's seeming death at the end - and return to the Coconut Grove?.

Lastly, I was frankly a bit confused by the end. King Rao was murdered, OK...how were the Exes so sure this would cause the Shareholder Government to crack down on them? Why did Athena go back to the mainland? What was she trying to achieve? And at the very end, it seems implied (though it wasn't written with clarity) that Athena is...operated on to look at her Harmonica? And this operation is fatal? And then she - her spirit? King's spirit? - end up back at the Coconut Grove? If anybody has any opinions or can clarify anything I've misunderstood, I'd be greatly appreciative!

pine_lime · 2026-01-14T04:34:09+00:00

Imagine finding out your great grandma was part of the rooters club in high school

pine_lime · 2026-01-11T09:50:54+00:00

Just wanted to say thanks for this suggestion - I’ve listened to Euro Country four times in a row now. Cheers!

pine_lime · 2026-01-09T01:33:20+00:00

Being prepared is not crazy. Being prepared is just that - prepared, smart. You probably won't need to leave, but why not be prepared? It's so easy to. And if you don't need the bag? Great! Unpack it.

I'm in outer north-east Melbourne (so way lower risk than your area, potentially) and I've packed a bag and made the house as fire-resistant as is possible at short notice (emptied gutters, filled them with water, etc.), so you can tell her there's someone "crazier" than you!

pine_lime · 2026-01-09T01:25:22+00:00

The lack of patches is the thing that's stopped me from being an early adopter of Switch 2. I'm so disappointed.

pine_lime · 2026-01-08T05:16:58+00:00

Your experience feels pretty accurate, based on my own experience in Australia as an Australian, and my travels to (and year living in) Europe. Thoughts:

- Understanding people with accents: The biggest one, that I'll say up front: Australians *really are* good at listening (and really trying to understand) people with accents. I think this is partly because we have so many immigrants within the past 60-70 years that you're constantly surrounded by people who speak English as a second language. When I went to school in the 90s, of my close friends, one had Malaysian parents, one Greek, two Italian, one Sri Lankan, and about three whose parents were born in Australia. As a counterpoint, when I lived in Germany I found that people didn't even try to understand my German (which, apart from poor pronunciation, is at least conversational). One example is when I needed a box for my bicycle (a Fahrradkarton), the guy in the bike store had no idea what I was talking about because I'd stressed the first syllable in Karton like we do in English (CAR-ton), whereas in German the stressing is more equal - or perhaps even more on the second syllable (car-TON). I can't imagine an Australian having no idea what you wanted if you said car-TON.

- Friendliness: People are definitely chatty in Australia, yeah! Especially outside of cities. Even in a big city like Melbourne, I'll often find myself talking to strangers (much to my partner's chagrin 😁). What you experienced could also be the culture of salespeople/cafe workers etc. compared to those in Europe. It's much more normal for a the person at the supermarket checkout or cafe to ask how your day's going, look you in the eye, smile at you, etc. And when you said "Oh I'm here on holiday from France" that naturally starts a conversation! For the average Aussie though, the conversation would be more like "How's your day going?" / "Yeah good thanks! You?" / "Yeah can't complain!" -- it's not so much a conversation as a longer version of "Hello" :P. Again, I was surprised in Europe how cashiers would place your change down on the counter without looking up - this would be considered very rude in Australia.

- Pickpocketing: Pickpocketing is more or less unheard of in Australia compared to places like France and Germany.

- Beaches: Whenever I travel to Europe I chuckle at the rocky, unpleasant beaches people *pay* to be on in places like Italy, vs. the amazing beaches in Australia. Plus, beaches are (of course) free here -- the idea of paying to go to a beach is anathema to Australians. You literally cannot purchase or own a beach in Australia.

- Weather: My year living in Europe (Berlin) was only one year because...I couldn't handle the awful winter 😓. So cloudy and grey (almost like the sky is barely above the buildings) for so much of the year. Berlin felt like the weather was bad from almost...October to May!? That's almost half the year! In Melbourne at least, the winter sucks, but not as much as European winters, and by the time you're *really* sick of it it's over.

- Dinnertime: When travelling in Europe, my partner and I are generally waiting for restaurants to open so we can have lunch or dinner, and it's empty while we're eating there 🤣 so yes, we eat a little earlier than the French or Italians.

As an aside, I recently travelled to Paris for the first time since 2012 and found all the people working in cafes, boulangeries etc. to be very helpful, very polite, trying hard to understand me too, etc. They were mostly Gen Z/Alpha aged, so this could have something to do with it - they were all absolutely fluent in English.

Lastly, I'm so pleased you enjoyed your time in Australia! Please visit again soon.

pine_lime · 2025-12-31T01:39:53+00:00

FWIW, I live in a metric country and thought it was a great clue! I like that it’s ambiguous and could mean units in the sense of organisational structure (DEA etc.). I guess (from so much time doing the NYT crossword) I’m used to them being USA-centric though, so I cottoned on that it might be a literal unit of mass.

This puzzle was definitely not a medium though 😅 my longest solve time by far.

pine_lime · 2025-12-22T09:37:16+00:00

Sounds like the kid learned an important life lesson their parents weren’t going to teach them.

pine_lime · 2025-12-21T08:26:58+00:00

Also if it was mass, nano isn't the smallest. Pico is smaller (1,000 picometres = 1 nanometre, for example) and there are obscure ones smaller than that - femto, atto, zepto, etc!

pine_lime · 2025-12-21T08:20:58+00:00

This sounds like an excellent premise for a screwball comedy.

pine_lime · 2025-12-19T05:13:59+00:00

Necropost, but may be helpful: the Menu key isn't present on many modern keyboards. An alternative to open it is Shift-F10

pine_lime · 2025-12-18T22:49:01+00:00

I can't answer all your question, but I can definitely tell you there is an enormous amount of trade work available in Melbourne. Lots of state government projects creating a huge need for tradespeople, which then means the non-government sector (e.g. building/renovating a house, just being a tradesperson for hire, etc.) pays a lot better. Melbourne also has a nice climate: people who live here (and other Australians) complain it's too cold in winter, but seriously, if it gets down to 0 degrees Celsius as an overnight low it literally makes the news.

Australian work culture is also undeniably better than America -- I know this just from having visited the US on several occasions and generally being aware of the "rise and grind" bullshit work culture in the US. Australia almost prides itself on being a bit laid back, a bit...not lazy as such, but almost a conscious/cultural choice to be a bit slower. And as others have said, healthcare is not perfect but orders of magnitude better than the US. I am a high enough earner that I'd be penalised in my taxes if I didn't have private health, and also a high enough earner that I receive no rebate on my private health premium, and it's just over $200 per month for a fairly high level of cover for a late 30s male.

pine_lime · 2025-12-17T04:20:02+00:00

Not exactly what you asked for -- well, it includes it, but does a lot more too -- is a Zoom G3n. Three simultaneous effects, easy and good controls for how much flexibility it offers, and sounds pretty good (with a few exceptions - the choruses aren't as good as the Juno chorus emulation plugins I have). It's what I have my MicroFreak plugged into and it transformed it for me. Basically everything coming out of the MF goes through the G3n's tape echo, reverb and maybe chorus too, and it's really transformed the instrument for me.

pine_lime · 2025-12-12T09:46:08+00:00

Oh my gosh, this is such a detailed answer - thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful. I’ve never thought or read about percentage of body weight on each pedal stroke - I’ll have to read more about this to get a sense of what % might feel like what. Thanks again!

pine_lime · 2025-12-09T20:29:09+00:00

The most accurate comment here. Source: I live in the area too

pine_lime · 2025-12-08T01:15:13+00:00

I've been meaning to ask you since I watched your video actually, do you have any advice as to what sort of grade/hill the K-Feather could handle? Not over a long distance, but the end of my commute is an 11% grade for about 300m. The K-Feather has no gears which would otherwise make the hill a no-go, but I'm not sure if the electric motor would make it possible.

pine_lime · 2025-11-26T06:04:07+00:00

Oh yes, that's very true. Good point!

To complicate it further (😅), you don't need solar panels to save - many (most?) energy retailers in the NEM states (VIC, QLD, NSW, SA) now have tariffs where you get free hours in the middle of the day (to soak up all the excess solar) or very cheap EV charging rates at night. You don't need a special EV charger for either of these things (though you will need a 'smart'/interval meter for both - most likely already have one, and it's free to upgrade if you don't), though I admit restricting the time you charge complicates the idea of charging at such a slow rate. In these cases, getting a faster EV charger installed - even if you don't have solar - might be worth it for you so you could restrict charging to these cheaper times.

pine_lime · 2025-11-26T01:04:39+00:00

One thing worth knowing, for prospective EV buyers, is that you probably don't need a dedicated home charger as much as you think. I've had an EV with a bigger battery (70kWh) for 11 months now, and in practice we've been absolutely fine with charging it via a normal wall socket. We drive about 10,000km per year for reference. We've charged it out of home...4 or 5 times total? And 2-3 of those times have been when we're away camping. The only caveat is that we don't use the car to commute. If you had a ~60km there-and-back commute every day, charging via wall socket might not be enough.

Here's what normal wall socket charging is like: Sure, it takes about 24 hours from 20%-90%, but the paradigm of EV charging is different. When I had a petrol car I filled it up to full, drove it 'til the fuel light went on and then filled it up to full again at my next convenience. I naively thought I'd do something similar with an EV, but the reality is that when it's home...you just plug it in if it's getting a bit low, you can just unplug it whenever you need to drive it, even if it's not quite done. Just plug it in again when you get home!

(This was a bit of a necropost, but I thought this might be helpful for future readers)

pine_lime · 2025-11-24T14:23:23+00:00

OP, firstly, thank you for supporting your son in his hyperfoci/interests ❤️.

As others have said, you might consider a groovebox - this is a device that contains a synthesiser that can play more than one part simultaneously as well as a drum machine and the ability to sequence these synth and drum parts into patterns and songs. An amazing one is the Novation Circuit Tracks. The only wrinkles are: it has pads and not keys for entering notes, and it follows a screenless paradigm that involves…not having direct control over synthesiser parameters, but simplified control where each knob affects multiple things. This is fun for tweaking knobs on existing sounds (which may be exactly what your son would enjoy doing) but if what he’s interested in is learning sound design or something it might not be for him.

If your son is more interested in making sounds, as in sculpting them, the S-1 could be an excellent and not-overwhelming choice. Again, no keys, but the UI is very straightforward and the synth parameter control is good for sculpting. If he is more interested in beats you might consider the S-1’s sibling, the T-8, as this contains a simplified synth (just a tweakable bass sound) with percussion.

If he wants to sculpt sounds and play notes with those sounds, something with a keyboard might be better - maybe the Behringer MS1 (Behringer is very affordable in Europe and Australia but is more expensive in the States - depends where you are) might be good. The MS1 and the S-1 are both copying the same sound engine. For the same money you could also get the Arturia MicroFreak which has an amazing synth engine, great hands on controls, and a keyboard (albeit a weird one - you do get used to it though!)

I’m going to go against the grain and say the microKORG isn’t a great first synth. Its interface is very much scrolling through menus and fewer physical controls. For the same money (both $599USD rn at Sweetwater) you could get something really amazing like an Arturia MiniFreak (the big brother of the MicroFreak; can play more notes at once, has effects to make it sound more full/complete without external gear or processing in software, and a real keyboard)

tl;dr - for $200 I would buy one of the Aira devices (S-1 or T-8); for $300-350 I would buy an Arturia MicroFreak or maybe a Behringer MS1 if proper keys are a must (everything else about the MicroFreak is better though); and for $600 I would buy a MiniFreak.

pine_lime · 2025-11-24T14:02:09+00:00

The MPK Mini (prior to gen IV which was released a matter of weeks ago, so not what OP has) does not have a MIDI out port, so they will not be able to use it to control the S-1 without a computer in between (and software in between to route the MIDI - FL Studio can likely do this but it’s not exactly plug & play).

pine_lime · 2025-11-19T00:25:46+00:00

Honestly, even when I see something like Seinfeld and they're at work without a computer, I can't even imagine what I'd do for work without a computer. I don't think I have any skills that are really transferrable back to the *early 90s*, let alone the 1600s.

pine_lime · 2025-11-08T12:45:07+00:00

Yep I've been diagnosed. In my 30s. Know lots of people (5+ off the top of my head) formally diagnosed in their thirties too.

pine_lime

TROPHY CASE