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early_riser @ early_riser @lemmy.world
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1 mo. ago

  • People who are learning a foreign language: what are you learning & how is it going?

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  • Not actively learning a language, but I have a degree in Spanish, though it's been years since I used it professionally and I no longer regard myself as proficient. Before that I took Latin throughout high school (a rare treat in a US public school AFAIK), and attempted to learn Mandarin via Duolingo in 2019.

    As it happens I also construct artificial languages as a hobby after the manner of Tolkien.

  • Your task is to blow a job interview in the first 30 seconds. What do you do?

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  • "The trick is to say you're prejudiced against all races" --Homer Simpson (OK the quote was about getting out of jury duty but I think it fits here)

  • Is Pepsi ok?

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  • The comic reminds me of a regionalism in American English. In many Southern dialects, "coke" is a generic term for soda. I personally only use the term for "brown" sodas like Dr. Pepper, root beer, Pepsi, and Coca Cola.

    I'm not a soda drinker, though I do enjoy root beer occasionally. I've heard that the infamous New Coke disaster came about because taste tests showed consumers preferred the taste of Pepsi, so Coke changed the recipe to imitate Pepsi. However, the backlash may have been because these taste tests use small serving sizes, not full cans, so many may have enjoyed a small dose of Pepsi but not a full can.

  • What game do you wanna replay?

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  • Just replay: all the epic 80 hour RPGs I no longer have time for as an adult. I bought the Final Fantasy Pixel remaster collection, got a bit through FF 1, and decided I just didn't have time. Haven't actually played through them for the first time, but I got both Divinity Original Sin and Baldur's Gate 3 and also only scratched the surface. I haven't even left the intro dungeon in BG3.

    Play again for the first time: Any game where discovering the mechanics is the game. Minecraft was the first such experience for me, though the discovery aspect I believe is somewhat unintentional. Mojang just didn't bother including a proper guide or tutorials, so trial and error and/or wiki walking are the norm for new players. I bought the game when it was in beta, back when the player base was made of mostly adults with the means to give a random Swedish guy $20 via PayPal, and I miss the (very relatively) smaller community.

    As for games where this self-discovery gameplay loop is intentional, definitely Tunic. I bought the game thinking it was a Zelda clone that could serve as a light-hearted palate cleanser after the bleakness of Hollow Knight and Eldin Ring. Oh, boy was I very, very wrong. I got so obsessed with trying to decipher the in-game writing system that it was effecting my sleep and I had to delete the game for a while. I ended up cheating to get all the manual pages and the good ending, but I replayed it earlier this year via Game Pass and tried to do it again without looking things up. It's not the same as going in blind even three years later but I did manage to get all the pages and solve the related puzzle without a guide, as well as crack the writing system.

  • What's that one story you always wanted to share with people but never had the opportunity?

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  • Not a personal story, but a historical confluence I find interesting and rarely have the occasion to share:

    There was once a German Calvinist teacher named Joachim Neumann. He was known for his hymns, and would frequent a valley of the river Dussel to seek spiritual retreat. At the time, there was a fad for Hellenizing one's surname, and so Neumann (New Man) became known as Neander.

    The valley (German Thal/Tal) was eventually named after him. Centuries later while excavating a quarry, the remains of an archaic species of human were found and subsequently named after the valley, giving us Neanderthals. Whenever the subject of neanderthal culture comes up, I can't help but imagine them as Calvinists.

    As for a personal story, as the family IT guy, I'm often summoned to troubleshoot issues with printers and streaming boxes. As often as not my mere presence seems to resolve the issue. Now you could say having someone looking over your shoulder would make you subconsciously more careful when entering text, or force you to think through the steps of whatever you're trying to do, so you're less likely to mess up. But we all know the real reason, the presence of a powerful tech-adept has appeased the machine spirit.

  • What's that one story you always wanted to share with people but never had the opportunity?

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  • To the rapidly aging person reading this: GameFAQs is 30 years old, and people are sharing their memories of the venerable guide hub

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  • I think wikis have taken over that niche, at least for more popular games.

  • Skeletor is here to help

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  • It'll just get escaped by quotes.

    EDIT: it might be a better idea to use non-ascii characters.

  • Looking for a good rain gauge (NOT rain sensor)

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  • Does it require an internet connection or can it operate locally? Does it need an app/account?

  • Looking for a good rain gauge (NOT rain sensor)

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  • I’m in the US.

  • homeassistant @lemmy.world
    early_riser @lemmy.world

    Looking for a good rain gauge (NOT rain sensor)

  • homeassistant @lemmy.world
    early_riser @lemmy.world

    Thoughts on the Unifi Protect multisensor

  • homeassistant @lemmy.world
    early_riser @lemmy.world

    How do you name your devices and entities?

  • Control light without 3rd party app

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  • A mix of brands. Sonoff, Thirdreality, and Hue's own motion/light/temp sensor. The current Amazon listing for the Hue motion sensor says the Hue bridge is required, so I don't know if they've locked it down.

  • Today, enjoy your self-hosted home automation

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  • I'm not really familiar with Deseret besides the history and concept. It was optimized for typesetting, lacking ascenders and descenders that tend to break off of metal type over time. That makes it hard to read. It sure has an aesthetic though, and I fancy it would make a great arcane glowing script flowing across a magical obelisk. Shavian was made for the pen. Every letter can be written in a single stroke without lifting the pen, and it uses ascenders and descenders to make the coastlines of words more distinct. Shavian also strives for a "mid-Atlantic" accent in its spelling. This does create some issues if, like me, your dialect uses the same first vowel in cot, caught, father, and bother.

    Of the two I think Shavian has a bigger following.

  • Don't rely on Alexa to wake you up...

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  • ugh I hate this. I have two absolutes when it comes to what makes a good smart device. First, it has to be able to be controlled via a local network, be it wifi, zigbee, z-wave, bluetooth, etc. There is no reason why my communication needs to leave my network when both the sender and receiver are in the same network. Second, it must work as a dumb device. If my LAN goes down or access is otherwise impeded I don't want it to be a brick.

  • Thoughts on Philips Hue Lights

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  • I use ZHA.

  • Thoughts on Philips Hue Lights

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  • I got into Hue way back in 2014, before I knew what HA was, and before I cared about local control. Hue is OK, and they have a wide variety of form factors to choose from, but I'm always afraid they'll enshitify to the point you can't pair the bulbs with a non hue zigbee controller. I'm pretty sure I can't update the bulbs unless they're connected to a hue bridge.

    Using smart bulbs to mitigate the lack of in-wall plugs/switches is a great idea. I do that with my bedroom fan since the light chain is busted.

  • Today, enjoy your self-hosted home automation

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  • 𐑢𐑧𐑤 𐑦𐑓 𐑞𐑨𐑑𐑕 𐑞 𐑒𐑱𐑕, 𐑮𐑩𐑡𐑧𐑒𐑑 ·𐑤𐑨𐑑𐑦𐑯, 𐑧𐑥𐑚𐑮𐑱𐑕 ·𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯.

    𐐊𐑉 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 𐐮𐑁 𐐷𐐭'𐑉𐐨 𐐩 𐐣𐐫𐑉𐑋𐐲𐑌.

  • Today, enjoy your self-hosted home automation

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  • A fellow thorn enthusiast I see

  • Today, enjoy your self-hosted home automation

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  • This. If they sold a dumb lock that just reported whether it was locked or unlocked I would buy it in a heartbeat.

  • HA-friendly printer that won't take us to the cleaners?

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  • Just quickly searching "Brother Printer" on Amazon and every listing has "Includes Refresh Subscription Trial" in the title.

  • homeassistant @lemmy.world
    early_riser @lemmy.world

    HA-friendly printer that won't take us to the cleaners?

  • homeassistant @lemmy.world
    early_riser @lemmy.world

    I made my Unifi camera excitedly scream 'Doggo!' every time it detects an animal. I did not account for the several minute delay for image processing and the fact we have stray cats.

  • homeassistant @lemmy.world
    early_riser @lemmy.world

    Critters in the crawl space

  • homeassistant @lemmy.world
    early_riser @lemmy.world

    Switching from Raspberry Pi 4 to Home Assistant Green or Yellow?

  • homeassistant @lemmy.world
    early_riser @lemmy.world

    A couple questions: adding codes to a kwikset z-wave lock and looking for a DLNA speaker, etc.