• 2 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • The other person said to never connect to wifi, but I’d say either put it on an isolated wifi (guest network) and lock it down to LAN-only access in your router, if at all possible.

    The reason being that these devices are aggressive about getting a wifi signal, and even if they can’t connect to yours, they’ll apparently search for unprotected wifi networks and connect to those to send data and phone home. Locking it down to LAN only prevents this, and isolating to a guest network means no information about other devices on your network.

    It’s utterly insane we have to do this stuff. If you’re willing to spend more, there are commercial signage displays you can buy that are essentially dumb TVs, and that is pretty much the only way to get a dumb TV today (and obviously, don’t expect smart features from it).




  • I’m in my forties and what you’re describing doesn’t sound normal at all. I beat myself up good in my younger years with sports and still do somewhat regular cardio and weightlifting. I have a bum knee and hip problem, shoulder issues from weightlifting injuries, and my back gets stiff and sore on a good day.

    None of that stops me from functionally living, and none of its anything the occasional ibuprofen or toke won’t fix in the short term. I can still exercise, do physical labor, open all the jars, and be generally active, and without pain the majority of the time.

    What you’re describing sounds more like an inflammatory disease or auto-immune disorder. 110% get a second opinion from a different doc, or a third if needed.






  • DNS is often misconfigured.

    On the linux side of things, people like to manually edit /etc/resolv.conf when it’s actually a symlink and changes to it don’t persist on boot (the real file location varies, but it’s usually in something like /etc/system/resolve). And forget bind9, if it’s not MS DNS it’s not DNS to some folks.

    On the Windows side, people love to ignore that reverse DNS exists, even though so many things use it. They also freaking love CNAME aliases and break stuff in interesting ways (for example, a “load balanced” configuration that’s all just the first node acting as all three nodes of a cluster or pool).

    Many people only know enough DNS to be dangerous and come up with really jank workarounds to get things running because they don’t understand the proper solutions.







  • That’s fair. For me, I don’t have enough roof space or space for battery to do a fully off-grid system. I would have liked to, but I’ve got mountains to the west and I only get good sun on the southeast facing side of the house, so unless I do a porch expansion and battery capacity to size ratio improves, grid-tied was my best option.

    My power company is a not-for-profit co-op and offers 1:1 net-metering, as well as reduced costs for off-peak hours for solar and heat pump users. I’ve managed my energy use to the point I’m at net-zero usage (101.5% production to my usage), but there are low production days where I have to tap the grid and high production days where I produce way more than I draw.


    Edit - other considerations as well, e.g. - solar installer guarantees the work for 15 years (panels) and 10 years (battery) and will fix any issues free (if they’re still in business, if not it’s guaranteed by Solaredge given professional installation). And Solaredge tends to not work with individuals. Honestly, I did look into self-installing and IIRC I would have saved maybe $9k or $10k doing a DIY install, but given the tools I would need, knowledge and resources to do it right, time required to do it alone, and the lack of grid access/backfeed… it was very much worth the extra cost to me. And that additional cost was technically refunded to me when I filed taxes.


  • Not everybody is going to want to do it themselves I get that, it’s actually very easy and straightforward…

    Not really. That likely depends entirely on where you live. In my county you’re required to have electrical and construction permits for the work, and the install must be carried out by solar installers with at least one licensed roofing professional and the electrical portion by a licensed electrician. You also can’t connect it back to the grid for net-metering without further inspection by the county once the work is completed. Part of the cost was all the licensing and permitting, as well as submitting the official install plan to the county for approval.

    That’s not something I would undertake myself. Not only would I not be able to connect to the grid, but my home would be uninsurable.

    Not region specific, but this is relevant: https://www.itekenergy.com/installation/installing-solar-panels-without-a-permit/



  • Not sure what the price is elsewhere, but I got 6.4 kW solar panels and a 10kW battery backup last year, and the cost was $33k USD. This was in U.S. Midwest (Colorado) and with a local (not National) Solar provider.

    I paid cash to avoid the 6% rate loan and additional fees, and I received a $9k tax credit for it this year, bringing the total cost down to $24k. I think this is an expense beyond many Americans, especially since this system could take over a decade to pay for itself, if it does at all.

    No point here, just figured I’d point it out so people are aware of the cost. And bear in mind, this is a small system, in a small (just over 1k sq/ft) home.