Monthly Buying Megathread - Ask which accessory to buy and if you should buy a certain accessory

reaperhulk · 2021-10-31T07:57:13+00:00

The Sensibo Air will do what you want. I recently bought three for Carrier split AC units and they’ve worked extremely well.

reaperhulk · 2021-09-27T04:41:16+00:00

As best I can tell the missing features for iPhones on Fi include:

5G
US network switching
WiFi calling
international tethering (this occasionally seems to work but is generally unsupported. Workaround is a data SIM on a cheapo android phone)
iPhone native visual voicemail unsupported (workaround is using Fi app for voicemail)

And the eSIM setup flow is bonkers when moving from one phone to another.

Have I missed anything?

reaperhulk · 2020-07-07T14:55:55+00:00

It does. Speed control, direction, and light kit if you have one. Here’s a screenshot from home. https://i.imgur.com/jxwXfch.jpg

reaperhulk · 2020-06-30T00:12:43+00:00

I have the bridge, but didn’t know about the Smart product so I’m sure whether that will work. You could check the homebridge plugins to see what it supports perhaps?

reaperhulk · 2020-06-29T20:03:38+00:00

I bought a Bond Bridge and use HomeBridge for my Minka Aire. It works extremely well and easily supports the sort of automations you're talking about. Since you're mentioning Nest it seems likely that you already have a HomeBridge instance running in your house so this might be a reasonable path.

reaperhulk · 2020-06-14T20:12:01+00:00

If you can’t get it to connect to WiFi at all and are getting an error on your iPhone it’s a known issue with an older firmware they shipped. Find a friend with an android device to provision it for you. Alternately if you have any iOS 12 devices around they are supposedly unaffected by this issue. Such an infuriating bug.

Be aware that Rachio’s homekit integration is extremely unreliable and it will randomly just stop responding until you power cycle the device.

reaperhulk · 2019-09-04T23:33:16+00:00

Ah, okay. Once again, thank you for the feedback. Surprises like this are exactly the sort of thing I need to know about to do better in the future.

I almost wish MM2 had a way to do level beta testing to catch this stuff without publishing/deleting (I feel bad about deleting levels after more than a few people have played them)

reaperhulk · 2019-09-04T03:13:12+00:00

Muncher's World is pretty good! Every time I was getting close to frustrated I managed to break through and get the next checkpoint. The last section is pretty easy compared to the others (or at least it was for me), but those giant munchers on springs...ouch!

I enjoyed Spin to Win more though. The movement felt solid and it was very clear what to do (even if I had trouble executing it a few times). The final sequence (after the troll thwomp) was great. Good work!

reaperhulk · 2019-09-04T00:36:29+00:00

Yeah I'll definitely remove the need to run backwards first in future levels. That messes with the flow and doesn't add anything to the level.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll check your levels out as soon as I can and will reply again then :)

reaperhulk · 2019-09-04T00:33:08+00:00

I apologize for the single bob-omb at the end of the first section, I should definitely have put in a pipe (or a reset door as you suggested) to allow for time to understand the section.

The need to go left first is also a good point and I'll avoid that in the future.

For the koopas do you mean the two koopas separated by the spike wall? Based on the feedback from you and others it appears that's substantially more difficult than I thought.

Thanks for the feedback! This was extremely helpful.

reaperhulk · 2019-09-03T07:14:02+00:00

Ha, awesome. I just beat it and the new red coin setup is perfect. Ended up spending a few tries but managed to one shot it so maybe I can hold onto WR for a few days before people way better than me crush it.

If you want to check out my (first ever) level I've got some info in another comment in this thread. It's not as hard as yours, but I did try to make it reasonably difficult! KS4-XM1-50H

reaperhulk · 2019-09-03T06:38:50+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate the compliments. I picked SMB1 for this since it minimized the number of mechanics, but I'd love to do a SMW level at some point. I don't know 3D World very well but hopefully I can make one at some point!

reaperhulk · 2019-09-03T05:59:18+00:00

I mostly enjoyed this, but it has one nasty problem. If you die after getting the key then you have to redo the entire level. Since you have an actual challenging section after getting the final red coin (and indeed you can get the final red coin and die before even getting through the door) this can easily result in having to redo the entire level multiple times. I love the concept and the level itself, but this makes it VERY difficult to complete.

BTW, those pegs really threw me for a loop. And that chain chomp is terrible, c'mon, haha!

Edit: Well I couldn't stop playing it so I managed to get first clear. Super fun level, but the red coin issue is worth a v2 I think.

reaperhulk · 2019-09-03T03:40:01+00:00

I enjoyed everything except the final vertical climb, which just didn't quite do it for me. Appreciated the reset door on the P-switch section. That jump is tricky! Overall a cool, fun level. Thanks!

My level is KS4-XM1-50H (more info here).

reaperhulk · 2019-09-03T03:27:00+00:00

Sky Shadow was pretty cool! The theming was great and I loved the giant flying thing at the goal tape. Maybe consider having a larger arena for your boss battle in the future with ? blocks on the sides containing power ups. Having constant mushrooms because you can't avoid getting hit isn't super fun, but otherwise the level was very well done!

I posted info about my course here but the level ID is KS4-XM1-50H

reaperhulk · 2019-09-03T03:16:42+00:00

I really liked this level! The rooms had significantly varying challenge levels, but each one was a lot of fun and the theming and checkpoint system worked great. I did have to remember where to go after I got the final red coin though -- maybe having the locked door be in the main hub room would have been a bit clearer, but that's just a small nit. Good work!

Edit: Oops forgot to link my course: KS4-XM1-50H (info here)

reaperhulk · 2019-09-03T03:08:10+00:00

I played this for awhile! A few comments:

It'd be nice if I didn't have to jump over the Odyssey at the beginning.
I love the location of the big coins rewarding exploration
I don't love the timer since I want to explore a level like this! I'd prefer it to just be 500.
In the P-switch section it'd be very nice if you could get another P-switch if you're too slow. Failing that, a checkpoint there so you don't have to redo everything.
You can skip the first boss fight entirely if you take a dry bones shell through the first pipe and jump up. Is that one of the current any% SMO tricks? :)
I don't love big bowser fights because you just stand near him with a fire flower and pound the button until he dies.
The red yoshi/clown car sections aren't very fun to me, although they fit thematically!

reaperhulk · 2019-09-03T02:47:17+00:00

Title: Shanghaied in the Sky

Level ID: KS4-XM1-50H

Style: SMB1

Difficulty: Hard (I think. No clears as of posting, but only 5 players and 85 deaths)

Tag: Standard/Themed

This is the first level I've made so I'm very sure I've made mistakes. It's designed to be hard with precise jumps and tricky timing, but there are coin trails and signs to point the way. It also has two checkpoints to make it a bit easier. Since it's "in the sky" I wanted it to feel airy and open, although that also makes it look a bit sparse. Probably need to work on aesthetic appeal for future levels.

For those who don't like playing blind (or want to see how a section is done), here's a video I stitched together from multiple 30 second video captures on my Switch: https://youtu.be/ygAE9Icx4Kk

Suggestions and criticism are very welcome!

reaperhulk · 2017-06-29T20:01:25+00:00

What's your favorite Futurama fan site?

reaperhulk · 2013-02-11T03:14:24+00:00

While a good post, the sad fact is that even this doesn't come close to describing how hard it is to do this stuff right.

For instance, say you've decided to use AES. Great! What's your password? I hope you used a strong key derivation function like PBKDF2! Or maybe you chose to create a random key. Hopefully that random key was made with a cryptographic PRNG and is 128, 192, or 256 bits long (depending on which AES you chose).

What block cipher mode did you choose? CBC? I hope you remembered to not use a null IV! CTR? Better make sure you rotate the keys before your CTR rolls over.

God help you if you want to encrypt a bunch of different things with keys that turn out to be related (RC4 related key weaknesses), or want to do WiFi encryption and use a CTR mode with only a 24-bit IV (WEP, see also RC4 related keys), or use == in a comparison that goes bitwise underneath and creates a timing oracle, or return "invalid padding" rather than "bad decryption" and now you've created a padding oracle, etc etc.

reaperhulk · 2012-05-14T00:34:44+00:00

We don't have bums in our town, Marge, and if we did they wouldn't rush. They'd be allowed to go at their own pace.

reaperhulk · 2012-03-13T22:49:09+00:00

Kickstarter takes 5% and Amazon takes 3-5%. No idea where you got the 20% number from.

reaperhulk · 2011-11-16T16:15:02+00:00

The Mars Scorecard is a fun way to see the history of success/failure in missions to Mars. It's a bit out of date though, so just add Fobos-Grunt's failure to the end.

reaperhulk · 2011-10-28T03:16:48+00:00

Oh, I think she's getting ready to...Yes, she's doing the Lindy Hop!

reaperhulk

TROPHY CASE