The keyboard has me interested as I cannot stand modern laptop keyboards being a big mechanical keyboard fan.

I would hope that they would do the option to solder your own switches as I am not the biggest fan of the browns plus I would really want to lube my switches.

They seem to make the PCB opensource so I guess I could just get a PCB printed and do it myself but its extra expense. However I would be very tempted to redesign the layout as I really do not like that layout at all as it has way too many keys for me to be useful. I also prefer 3u/1u/3u for my space-bar setup.

As its using v2 chocs it should take DSA MX stem keycaps without it fouling the screen but I would like that confirmed from them. As I already have a ton of 40% keyboards I have a number of DSA sets that would fit as those sizes are pretty standard for “normal” mechanical keyboards.You would lose the shine thru but I see that as a bonus

Final thing, it would have been nice if it was running QMK via VIAL for the keyboard, would make it easy for me to port my standard map to it. However I do like that you can configure the keyboard directly, always prefer that to having to remap in Linux.

While I prefer IRL clothes shopping, the range of clothes at my nearby stores sucks so badly that online is vastly superior for me. Once you have a list of shops that you trust it’s easy to go shopping.

This is partly due to my body shape being an athletic build. Buying online from stores that list the actual clothing measurements means I can choose stuff that actually fits me properly. IRL near me just has generic sizing that is either too tight across the shoulders or far too long.

I spend above average on clothing, your generic brands even online don’t offer actual clothing measurements, but then I would rather have a smaller number of items that are good quality and fit rather than be wasteful with disposable fast fashion thst doesn’t last and doesn’t fit.

The sort of natural looking and sincere charm that someone like Robert Downey Jr. can just turn on and work the whole room at once, not that fake or smarmy shit that has people commenting that it fake after the fact.

I’ve worked with accounts guys who can do it, I’ve watched them work close up, but I be damned if I cant just naturally do that.

I’m fairly broad for my height and need a taped waist on tops so I’m a bit of an outlier.

I won’t buy clothes now that doesn’t put the actual measurements of the clothes on the listing for the item because otherwise, I have no idea what the fit is actually like.

If you buying more expensive trousers then you can have the waist tailored to reduce it. I typically buy 40" and have them reduced to a 34". Obviously, this isn’t worth doing if you buying half a dozen for £50 from h&m or similar budget trousers.

UK majority of the bank holidays are on a Monday, so Fridays would be nice as otherwise you’d lose them and what would become long weekends now.

UK we are seeing a very slow shift to 4 day weeks for more privileged jobs, I work with two people who both have Fridays off as it’s an actual thing you can apply for at my employer.

While the Tories stopped councils from offering 4 day weeks to employees, it’s got to be coming back, further spreading its availability.

Different days off and more teachers than we have currently. The same people who view 5 day work weeks as an imposition as workers should be doing 6 or even 7 day weeks for the same pay as 5, view state schools as subsidised babysitting for their workers kids so schools would need to stay as 5 days rather than drop to 4

Thin base, pistachio, rosemary, and green pesto base (no tomato). For topping honey, thyme, and goats cheese.

The problem is that they did not build battery factories quick enough, they sat on their hands waiting for massive hand outs to pay for the factories rather than investing. All while profiting off existing investment in ICE that is high return at this point in its life cycle. So they ended up making more profitable per unit halo models like the F150 that they do not need to sell in high volumes to get a return on.

Batteries are about half the raw cost of an EV, if you paying somebody else to make it for you its going to be more expensive as they will want to make a profit and you are stuck being able to buy ever how many they want to sell you. In practice they have ended up funding a competitor to develop battery tech as well.

Lowering battery cost is the secret to cheap prices, you cannot truly compete until you make your own batteries in high volumes.

Always been a bloke in the pub or car boot or whatever that can supply hooky dvds or games or hacked satellite, FAST always talks tough about busting them.

Early eights it was disk and tape trading, mostly tape trading in the UK. Was a way more social activity.

Late 80s and early 90s, it was all disk, and you really needed a connected friend who could get the menu disks (custom pirated compilation disks). These were often super hoarded, only traded for a lot of games, like certain private trackers today.

Very early web stuff was all usenet and ftp servers, often hosted at a university. If you knew where to look, anything was accessible.

Early 2000s was a golden period of easy access. It would be slow, and the quality would often be low if it was a video or mp3. It’s gotten harder to find the obscure stuff as time has gone on. I

t’s like the scene only remembers out and out classics or the latest thing outside of some niche places.

Gravy or curry sauce

WFH, summer kid camps that did free or cheap activities during the day, friends who also had kids (returning the favor another day), relatives (mine were extremely unreliable), and all else fails paid child care.

My relatives were absolutely useless for childcare. Its fine if you don’t want to look after your own grand children, just say so. But under no circumstances repeatedly say you will have the grand children then back out on the last day, many many times.

Normal hifi gear, particularly second hand can sound way way better than generic computer crap. However normal hi-fi speakers are designed to work best a certain distance from the wall **and ** a certain distance from you. These distances vary between speakers but it is important to check this before spending any cash as some speakers need to be many feet from you, which isn’t always remotely practical for most pc setups.

I went with Dali Minutes for this reason, so they can be right on the wall and really close to me. I paired mine with a Rega Brio amp and RME ADI 2 USB DAC, then added a monitor audio sub later.

Most proper studio monitors are designed for near field listening they also make a good choice although they can be a little clean for some people’s taste.

What switches does it have? Are they lubed? Are the stabilisers modded? Does it have case foam or other case mods? What type of mount is it? What about the plate? Swing weight and force curve? Linear, clicky or tactile? Silent, oring, ball bearing mod?

There are so many different variables and that’s before you even get to layout changes it’s perfectly possible to build your own keyboard that is perfect or close to it for you.

I have keyboards with different layouts and typing feel that I pick for how I want my typing to feel on any given day. It’s no different from a guitarist having multiple different guitars chasing a different feel and sound.

Not everyone is going to appreciate it and that’s perfectly fine, but there are significant differences with the right changes during a build.

Not the OP but having got rid of my Flair as it was too painful to get great coffee out of at 6am every morning, the learning curve is very steep unless you are already familiar with making espresso.

It’s a decent machine for the money but compared to its competitors from gaggia and rancilio what they lose in fancy programming or the pid or the easy steaming (which is still way off mine) they gain in actually having an opv (depending which one you have), build quality and self service.

I’ve seen far too many people have issues with breville stuff and then problems returning it. It’s not that good ones don’t exist it’s just that more reliable does.

To put your seven years into perspective I should be getting 30 to 40 years out of mine with some regular servicing.

They nice machines but I wanted more consistent with its pressure and water flow, better steaming, not made by breville,and made with industry standard components that can last decades.

No, its a smart thing switch as I have the hub, so its z wave. However I have a lot of smart home switches, lights and so on so that makes sense for me. Plenty of options if you do not want a hub now.

The espresso machine has a proper on off button so I just leave it in on position and the switch turns the power on and off

Majority of any e61 espresso machine is like that, pretty much par for the course for anything other than budget non e61 or some of the new high end espresso machines that use some variation of electrically heated groups.

Mine will be “ready” after about 15 minutes but as an e61 group head is a heavy block it takes along time to get good thermal stability. Difference is I can steam and extract shots at the same time with 2bar steam and 9bar espresso, shot after shot.

My espresso machine has a proper on/off switch, so I just leave that set to on and control the power from the smart switch.