Step 0. Make sure your networking equipment can do vlans and subnets.

Given how much I paid for a “high end” consumer router, I just assumed ……

I got into each mesh technology for specific devices. Home Assistant supports them all and they seem to coexist just fine in my use case.

I have a small to medium setup with only a few simple automations and a focus on voice control and scheduling

Preference

• Thread - given Apple, Amazon, and Google support and the standardization work, I expect this to be the future. Eventually. But I’m getting impatient. If I’m buying a device, I prefer Thread but usually it’s not yet
• z-Wave - my first, and most devices. Basically this was what was most available at local stores when I started. No complaints
• Zigbee - by far the biggest selection of simple, cheap sensors. I need to more of those
• all too much is WiFi but I try to avoid

But it also helps that my approach is generally switches and outlets. Hard-wired, predictable network, tend to be repeaters. I have comparatively fewer leaf nodes.

This approach also fits in with my biggest challenge. While my house is small, it’s an older one with dense materials that blocks a lot of radio signals. For example I have no cell phone reception inside yet strong signal just out any door. My focus on switches and outlets overcome this with a repeater in every room

So for example a few years back I got a z-wave IR blaster to control a mini-split AC because at the time I mostly used z-wave. I already had a z-wave light switch in the same room, acting as a repeater, so no worries about connectivity. Now I have both z-wave and Zigbee light switches in that room so expect both meshes to be strong for any future devices in that room

I’ll also vote to reconsider WiFi. Home Assistant supports a variety of local mesh networks that by default can’t connect to the cloud and whose devices are cheaper and lower power.

I use all three of zwave, Zigbee, and thread; ha works with whatever you need.

I choose to pay for remote access, but it’s for convenience and to support the developers. You are free to configure it yourself in a couple ways (and there is decent documentation) or do without remote access

I don’t know how you set up remote access for OpenHab, but from a quick glance at the web site it looks similar

I also liked a friends Toyota that had screens on the pillar near the side mirrors, that showed that side when you click on your blinker

Before the current chaos, it really didn’t even make sense to have that distinction. My Toyota and my Honda were both built in the us. Not just assembled, but with a higher percentage of us-manufactured parts than my old pontiac

Why do we care? I can be a shareholder either way, if I had money. The executives dont care about me either way nor do they directly affect me. But it’s nice when the factory is here, employing thousands of my fellow citizens.

Having lived through it, I also understand this was a hard-won battle for local labor, fought for in previous trade battles

It was a fight though, and that’s probably still going on in some states. There were many lawsuits trying to block them. At one point Tesla was opening locations on native reservations to escape state level protections of car dealerships.

I think common sense won out, believe it or not. Given the dealership model, it makes some sense at least historically, to protect dealers from manufacturers. But when you have a manufacturer that doesn’t have dealerships and never had, where does your argument about protecting these non-existing dealers go?

The problem is the sticker price typically already has excessive dealer markup built in. A line that says that is pure scam , never pay that. But even if you consider the list price, there’s an entire industry around trying to figure out the dealer actual cost and how to pay only a reasonable markup. Meanwhile you have these scammer who are paid commission based on how much they can con you out of. Their incentive is to be predatory

For example Tesla does not have dealers. They have to have similar functions but they’re owned and operated by Tesla, not a third party

• they have showroom, including visible places like malls
• they have service centers, somewhat regional. I have two within half hour drive, but also do a surprising amount of service visits mobile
• they have places to pick up your vehicle, typically a service center, or some of the time they are delivered

New car experience you go to a dealer, independent middlemen, where they attempt to steer you toward higher profit choices, and the prices are all negotiated where they’re the only ones who know the cost and they have a practiced skill to extract money. It’s exhausting and time consuming

New car experience with Tesla: you may look at the vehicle in the mall or online. you schedule a test drive from wherever is nearest: mine was at the mall they had a showroom in the shopping area and a small section of the parking garage for test drive. You buy online and pay list price where all the options, prices, and financing are visible before you choose to buy. They schedule a pickup time, which might be from a regional service center. Much simpler and easier, and you never feel exploited or scammed

You’re not spending any time getting exploited by a sales-bro, none of that stupid thing where they “have to speak to their manager” so you can stew or second guess. No games with interest or tradeins, surprise incentives, bargains with the devil

Things like that and tariffs are absolutely useful tools for trade issues: TARGETED, TEMPORARY tools. There would have been nothing wrong with temporary protection for Harley Davidson if it were temporary, if there was a deadline where they have to start competing again.

I think you mean this as deserved punishment and I agree, but maybe there’s also a silver lining: we deserve this, to break up the dead dinosaur cartel, to restart innovation, to free consumers from a prison of protectionism around overpriced legacy vehicles and help light the way to future technology

Also in “reliable” news …… Olympic pome vaulters seek an advantage by using cross-dress tech to “tuck” and tape to help clear a higher bar

As always it’s a pr thing and the win could be with very little bloodshed.

American and Canada have had disagreements before and we always will. Not as serious but we’ve always had them. The thing is everyone I know, and the news media at the time, holds Canada in such high regard that we’re on your side. If they did try to invade you’d probably get a hoard of rednecks flooding north but they’d have to come through the northern states and would be held up at every crossroads. They’d drown in a mess of protests before approaching the border

There was a related article, that I found as one of the most hopeful and positives for the environment……

I don’t remember how long they said mercury remains in the food chain but what I got out of it was that global coal is peaking and likely to decline rapidly and mercury settles out of the food chain in decades so my children may eventually be able to eat tuna and other seafood without worrying about mercury!

I knew they were birds but wondered what the bricks are for. It’s not an efficient way to drive away pests

There’s also plenty of poverty, lack of investment in infrastructure, lack of protection of resources, and climate change to go around

Nooooo, not the windmills again. We have way too high electricity prices and need our wind farms to come online.

Let taco don Quixote be a nightmare of the past.

The real problem is so many different recommendations, but ….

I do see a higher amount consistently recommended as you get older, but never in the same sentence as exercise. I’m well past the age and weight where it takes intentional action to maintain muscle mass, and I really need to start doing that.

The algorithm started feeding me “Tai chi for older men”, so even that is telling me to exercise

Now it’s on the menu. While you can still ask for double meat in your burrito, you can also order a “protein bowl” that starts with double meat

Well the “good news” is the Lone Star Tick is expanding its territory. If we keep treating our environment like shit, it may just bring down the hammer on beef and dairy