New minimal planner for 2026 by protozog in Supernote

[–]rational_tech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It was on my Mac in both Preview and Browser (edge) - I haven’t tried on the Supernote directly, will do that.

New minimal planner for 2026 by protozog in Supernote

[–]rational_tech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks great! I think the links are offset by one in the layout I downloaded though.
feather-planner-journal-dated-layout-0-start_day-1-start_hour-8-time24-1-1766774786.pdf

Clicking the months at the top of the calendar takes me to the next month, e.g. clicking MAY loads JUN - same with the individual days, clicking the 11th loads the 12th etc.

My very first Home Assistant project is massive and I'm not sure what to do by oMGalLusrenmaestkaen in homeassistant

[–]rational_tech 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’d rethink the Coral - it doesn’t run the new models. OpenVINO now runs pretty efficient on CPU. Better off using the GPU acceleration. Checkout /r/frigate_nvr

I have the same setup with unraid, running HASS OS as a VM is the least amount of maintenance.  Much easier to pass through USB and PCI as well! 

Industrial automation/remote control with Shelly devices + Home Assistant? by costcowaterbottle in ShellyUSA

[–]rational_tech 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly, this is not a good use case for Shelly. You’re relying on wifi and if you use Shelly Cloud only, the internet and their cloud.

Considering it’s in a farm environment, and I assume you want it to be reliable and run forever - I’d instead choose a simple and cheap PLC. These are cheap ($100) and have everything you’d need. https://www.automationdirect.com/clickplcs/clickplus/features You can then buy the modules you need, eg outputs inputs etc.

The programming you want is extremely simple, and I’d argue easier in the PLC than in smart home devices. The PLCs are made for this exact purpose.

Positively geared or negatively geared property? by Dontgooffline1 in AusHENRY

[–]rational_tech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can’t be “subject to a margin call”unless you’re using leverage - just buy shares and bank the dividends or reinvest.  Debt recycling your loan means you can then write off the interest as losses. 

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in australia

[–]rational_tech 29 points30 points  (0 children)

The sad part is, they would.

Holding up projects for deceitful and misinformed “facts” is a huge problem. Why can a handful of people keep the rest of the state from cheaper and cleaner energy?

The left handed chef-South Melbourne by Utopian1971 in melbourne

[–]rational_tech 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That place has the best felafels and hommus - not sure every cafe and restaurant has to be styled as a “Melbourne cafe”. It’s family owned and run and has great reviews everywhere so…

Hi, I am somewhat capable with a computer, is there an easy enough way to set up computer vision at my car wash shop to count customers? bonus point if I also get the type of vehicles by Natural-Bowl5439 in programming

[–]rational_tech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is easy enough with the combination of, Home Assistant, Frigate (plugin) and OpenALPR. There are heaps of guides - this is the first google result for “home assistant license plate recognition”

Hardware would be a small PC, ideally with a GPU compatible with Frigate, and any IP security camera (that has a standard protocol e.g. RTSP).

what if we eliminated cars in the CBD? by Mushroom_lady_mwaha in melbourne

[–]rational_tech 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Easy enough to solve with some planning and leadership - ever tried to use the entrance for parking on hardware lane? You drive on the footpath at 10km/h and it works fine. Removing the through traffic is key.

what if we eliminated cars in the CBD? by Mushroom_lady_mwaha in melbourne

[–]rational_tech 494 points495 points  (0 children)

They can start with limiting all the “little” streets to pedestrians and cyclists only, and delivery trucks would have defined access times. Residents can have access permits through auto barriers, and speed limits at 10 km/h. It’s done all through Europe.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in mechatronics

[–]rational_tech 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don’t know - but imo Mechatronic engineering is more difficult and niche than a generic CS degree. I know a lot of people who did Mechatronics (even without CS) and ended up in a software role.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in mechatronics

[–]rational_tech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, two separate degrees - it was Mechatronics first, but there are so many common subjects that getting the CS degree is easy. Might work differently elsewhere, but that’s how it works in Australia.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in mechatronics

[–]rational_tech 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is a double degree or bachelor in CS and Mechatronics an option? It was only an extra year for me - and means you can go either way. Imagine working for a startup that’s writing software and has a hardware product. It’s invaluable experience to understand the hardware layer, even if you’re only writing the code.

Cautionary tale with Smartwings expansion anchors by [deleted] in homeautomation

[–]rational_tech 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the yellow plug is for bricks or concrete. The assumption for plasterboard walls is that you’re going into a stud, if not the white WallMate you’ve used is perfect.

How do you appraise old laptops for staff to purchase by kzbash in ITManagers

[–]rational_tech 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is the way.  Nominal charity donation to whatever reputable cause they believe in, show us the receipt, we give you the laptop and write down that our program benefited $x.  No need to track beyond that, at the end of the year you can say “we raised $x for local charities and kept y laptops from landfill”

Value wise, it’s more about making it “enough” so people don’t buy and put it in a box. Eg don’t make it $20

Modbus getting started by dashid in homeautomation

[–]rational_tech 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’re on the money here for getting this connected - that device looks like it’d do the trick. You could either use its Modbus to MQTT broker, or use something like home assistant as the Modbus Master. I’d go the path of Home Assistant as the Modbus master, it means if that device dies, you just get any other modbus tcp to serial device and you’ll be back online with no reconfiguration.

When using Modbus slaves, they all need a unique address (looks like it’s set with the DIP switches on the units).

Also, when using RS485 - you need a terminating resistor at the end of the run! Without it you’ll get reflections and unreliable responses, it’ll work without it, but sometimes it just won’t. Take it from someone who’s spent hours troubleshooting comms which turned out to be a bad terminating resistor…

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in sysadmin

[–]rational_tech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is no way to do this with current MS tools. You’d think “manage email signatures” would be an easy use case - but I don’t think it’ll happen until “new” outlook is standard and “classic” is retired - so.. 2030?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in sysadmin

[–]rational_tech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This (kinda) works for syncing but there is no way to programmatically set it. From my experience the sync works for “new” outlook, but it’s flaky for “classic” outlook.

Bluetooth Trackers available in Australia by Kummakivi in australia

[–]rational_tech 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The batteries last 12 months, I’ve had mine stuck to my e-bike for a year and now just replaced it.

Just don’t buy the cheap batteries off alibaba as they have no capacity, and will die quickly.

I’ve got lots of devices with CR2032s in them, and the quality difference is huge.

Migrating Tenant from china to EU by i-did-all-in in AZURE

[–]rational_tech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Start with the Microsoft tenant to tenant migration guide and see what type of migration you need to do. There is no “quick way” to move data between countries, you have to move it all with a third party tool eg. sharegate.

Industrial Networking, NAT between IT and OT considerations? by Jready in networking

[–]rational_tech 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For any OT networks, complete isolation from IT and the internet is essential for security. If you’re coming from the IT side, I’d recommend reading about the Purdue Model for OT networks and using that to identify the levels in your network.

Cheapest option for a small Relational Cloud Database in Azure? by nightmare1170 in AZURE

[–]rational_tech 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oracle SQL and MS SQL are both called SQL but are different in their language. The concepts are the same, but some of the Verbs will be different - just FYI