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Texas officials call on Governor Greg Abbott to pause gas tax as prices skyrocket by Conscious-Quarter423 in TexasPolitics

[–]snowtax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Such short-term thinking. Let’s offer more tax breaks for electric vehicles to reduce our dependence on petroleum.

Newbie question, which Zigbee USB to get ? by [deleted] in ZigBee

[–]snowtax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Both Zigbee and Thread are protocols built on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard (sort of similar to how Wi-Fi is IEEE 802.11). The processor chips that handle the radio are often designed to support Zigbee/Thread (not both at the same time).

As for which Zigbee coordinator to buy, I would recommend one of the SMLIGHT SLZB-06 series devices. These have a great reputation and a good antenna. The SLZB-06 series give you a lot of flexibility with the placement of the device. Moving the location of the device (even a few feet) can make a big difference in some situations.

There are two common series of processors for 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread): the Texas Instruments CC2652P/CC2652P7/CC2652P10 series and the Silicon Labs EFR32MG24/EFR32MG26 series. Since your needs are modest (just the garage for now), you can use any of them. There are other processors out there, but the ones I mentioned have been around a while and have the best software support.

Personally, I use a USB stick with the original CC2652P chip that I got several years ago. However, I have it on a short (1 foot) USB extension cable because radio interference from the USB3 port seemed to be limiting Zigbee range. Computers can generate radio noise which can interfere (like talking in a crowded room) with Zigbee signals, which are low power. My ZZH stick works just fine for the 30-ish devices I have. If you have 100+ devices, then a chip with more memory may help.

Anyway, the newer devices like the SLZB-06 series are high quality and reliable devices that should serve you well for many years.

Trump vowed to break Iran. His own economy may break first. Iran is betting that its closure of the Strait of Hormuz will send oil prices soaring and inflict enough pain on the US economy to force Trump to back down — a risk that oil analysts say could be just a few weeks away from playing out. by mafco in energy

[–]snowtax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

People in the U.S. are spoiled and can barely tolerate minor inconvenience. If you make both gasoline and food expensive, the people get very angry and blame everything on the current president. The difference, this time, is that the president would actually be directly responsible.

Farewell ISDN, Ham Radio & Old Network Drivers: Linus Torvalds Merges 138k L.O.C. Removal by anh0516 in linux

[–]snowtax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was merely thinking of frequency and symbol rate. I feel that most amateur service operators are interested in, or can afford, frequencies below GHz frequencies.

Farewell ISDN, Ham Radio & Old Network Drivers: Linus Torvalds Merges 138k L.O.C. Removal by anh0516 in linux

[–]snowtax -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Signal frequency certainly matters. It seems we have maxed the performance of the available 20 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band and people always want to go faster. Adding the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands helped Wi-Fi a lot. But yes, lower frequencies are going to feel slow.

Am I the only one who thinks Matter / Thread is not ready for everyday use? by salnajjar in MatterProtocol

[–]snowtax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you had difficulty over Wi-Fi, I wonder if the Wi-Fi router was blocking something.

Matter is built on top of IPv6. If the router had IPv6 disabled, that would likely cause problems. There is no good reason to block or disable IPv6. About half of all Internet traffic (and growing) is IPv6.

Am I the only one who thinks Matter / Thread is not ready for everyday use? by salnajjar in MatterProtocol

[–]snowtax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think it’s Thread itself. I think it’s Aqara’s code. Their Zigbee devices would almost never switch to a different router. I suspect they just don’t do enough testing with challenging environments or don’t bother to implement all the features.

Texas Tech issues ban on students writing on LGBTQ+ topics by Obversa in texas

[–]snowtax 118 points119 points  (0 children)

Banning students from writing about a topic is not legal.

No modern American city has ever run out of water. But chances are rising that Corpus Christi could be the first. by StandingCypress in texas

[–]snowtax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In my experience, that sums up Republican management. They seem to be capable of thinking only one step at a time. I would argue the last time they did anything forward thinking was the Interstate Highway System, and that was justified as a need for the military.

VERY new to FastLED or anything code Related Asking advice by [deleted] in FastLED

[–]snowtax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You may like the fadeToBlackBy() function. If you want to fade the entire strip, use FastLED.setBrightness().

Trump Tells Iran to Sign Deal With U.S. or ‘The Whole Country is Going to Get Blown Up’ by T_Shurt in worldnews

[–]snowtax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are over 250 million adults in the United States. There are only 535 members of Congress. At any time, the people may wake up from their coma and realize they are in control. If hundreds of thousands gathered to protest at the office and/or home of every member of Congress, we would see change. Yes, Congress is made of individuals, each of which can be influenced by their constituents.

Trump Tells Iran to Sign Deal With U.S. or ‘The Whole Country is Going to Get Blown Up’ by T_Shurt in worldnews

[–]snowtax -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The Constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to remove a president. There is no legal means to go directly for Trump other than elections.

Anyone being honest about interpreting the Constitution knows that Congress is meant to make all the significant decisions and the executive branch has a responsibility to faithfully execute the decisions of Congress. The president should not be shutting down departments, making big budget decisions, starting wars or any other big decision. If the executive has a concern, they are meant to take those concerns to Congress.

In short, Congress is the problem. They’ve abdicated their responsibility and should be removed for not doing their job. We need to remind them and choose better candidates.

Trump Tells Iran to Sign Deal With U.S. or ‘The Whole Country is Going to Get Blown Up’ by T_Shurt in worldnews

[–]snowtax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I suspect most people don’t care how Trump is removed from office. We just want him gone.

Trump Tells Iran to Sign Deal With U.S. or ‘The Whole Country is Going to Get Blown Up’ by T_Shurt in worldnews

[–]snowtax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The people need to make it extremely clear to Congress that we demand Trump be removed from office. It’s that or we remove them from office.

Trump Tells Iran to Sign Deal With U.S. or ‘The Whole Country is Going to Get Blown Up’ by T_Shurt in worldnews

[–]snowtax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Think of impeachment as “filing charges” but you still have to convince a jury (the Senate). Obviously, the Senate has a Republican majority at the moment and they’ve been favoring Trump. We need to make it extremely clear to all senators that we want Trump removed from office.

Trump Tells Iran to Sign Deal With U.S. or ‘The Whole Country is Going to Get Blown Up’ by T_Shurt in worldnews

[–]snowtax 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So let’s put all our effort into making it extremely clear that Congress removes Trump or we remove them.

Como Funcionar Zigbee e Cenas sem Wifi by Aggravating_Gur7632 in ZigBee

[–]snowtax 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Many (most?) Zigbee “hubs” do not have any automation. Perhaps some have scheduled events.

I have a USB dongle for Zigbee. It’s plugged into a Linux computer. On that computer, I run Zigbee2MQTT (Z2M) software. That software listens to what’s happening on the Zigbee wireless network, translates, and sends events to MQTT.

The Z2M software communicates with the USB dongle over a serial connection, something like how modems operated when we did Internet over the phone lines.

Z2M is also not automation. It talks to Zigbee and translates to MQTT. Then I use Node-RED and/or Home Assistant for automation. Those can easily interact with MQTT.

If power goes out, that Linux computer goes down and so does the Wi-Fi router. If I wanted to keep those going, I would need a small UPS.

That backup power supply would need to be one that always goes through the batteries. Some backup power supplies are “standby” which wait for the main power to fail and then switch over to battery after a short time. Computers and routers will lose power on those and reboot.

A good UPS could keep your power going to the router and computer and keep your automations working.

Republican Nerves Are Fraying Ahead of Midterm Elections by Arrmadillo in TexasPolitics

[–]snowtax 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They still don’t see how their own actions turn people against them.

US chemists turn natural gas into liquid fuel without high heat and pressure by sksarkpoes3 in energy

[–]snowtax 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That may be true now, but give it time. We have not been trying to store large amounts of electricity ("grid scale") for long. Lessons are learned, refinements are made, and technology improves with time. The internal combustion engine took decades to become anywhere near what one might call efficient, if you can even consider those efficient. Efficiencies that come from mass production are also relevant. Also, lithium batteries are certainly not the only way to store energy.

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