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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • While I don’t have a Steamdeck or similar, I made myself a relatively portable Mac Mini setup with a wireless mouse and keyboard and a usb-c portable monitor.

    Razer Atheris laptop mouse keychron k7 65% wireless/bluetooth keyboard.

    The keychron has mac/win mode and came with a few extra keycaps for windows/mac use if it matters. Can be used over bluetooth or by cable. That one has slim profile keycaps. I really enjoy using it. I’ve seen a similar sized keyboard somewhere on amazon that also folds in half longwise to take up less space. Will probably grab one to play with.

    The portable one was one I took a chance on Temu. 15” 144hz OLED that I snagged for cheap. Can be powered just on the usbc cable but also had mini hdmi and an extra usbc port. Also has a micro usb port for power if needed too.

    The mouse I’ve had forever and is on the smaller side. If I’m feeling for a bigger mouse and plan ahead I also have a MX Master3 for work and a G502 Hero that I normally use at my desktop.





  • Yeah i dunno. Magic mouse? Poor ass design. This? You might have to tilt it up a centimeter or two to hit the power button.

    I have a M1 Mac Mini… power button in the rear. I dont turn it off. It shares a screen with an internal KVM with a Windows PC…that also never gets turned off.

    My work laptop is more of a PITA since that does get shut down and I need to pull it out of the stand i have it resting in to open the lid most the way to turn it back on if I swap the USB C cable from the Mini. Not the case when docked at work since the dock has a power button on it.



  • Yeah, early millennial and OPs comment fits to a “T” for me, though I think some of my experiences had a bit more socialization in context, like ICQ, Aol chat, and MSN messenger. The rise of cell phones, text messages, T9, etc. My kids are amazed when I pull out the VHS tapes at my parents, or my dad pulls out some cassettes or vinyls (though those have been more popular of late).


  • I went from an 08’ VW Rabbit to a '21 VW id.4 a few months ago. Got the $4k tax rebate passed onto the dealer to bring my price down to $19k [~$21k after taxes/fees], it’s the AWD Pro S, and doesn’t have the Gradient Package [some silvery exterior bits and slightly larger wheels]. I love the car, my family loves the car. The only nitpick I reaaaaaally have and that most people have for the VW evs is the damn driver side window switches lol. You get 2 and have to tap a touch sensitive bit to switch it to the back. Makes no sense. The steering wheel touch inputs for cruise control and media are another controversial choice, but I’ve gotten used to it.

    As far as an EV in general goes. Like most have said, check out the charging network you have where you are and where you plan to be. I’ve only done one road trip in my id.4 [from buying it in Chicagoland and bringing it home] and while the range was “OK” [about 150 highway miles per charge], since I was along a string of L3s along the turnpike, I wasn’t worried about making it to a charger. My immediate area had a couple of L3s, but now there’s probably about double/triple around me now that’s opened in the few months I’ve had my car.

    That being said, my circumstance have the car as mostly a commuter, so I tend to last on a charge all week, and then L1 charge it Sun-Tues morning to start all over. Any around town stuff during charging time doesn’t really make a dent since it’s all within a few miles of my home. I also am able to charge at work for free, though sometimes spots get filled. Initially I was thinking about getting a L2 EVSE, but between home and work, I don’t really feel the need for one. I’d also need one with a good 50’ cord since I park in front of my house, otherwise wife and I would have to re-arrange the cars whenever I wanted to charge.

    That being said, if stuff happens and we do go up to my sisters about 40 miles away or something happens to where I do need to charge at a L3, the price per “tank” has been about $15 and taken 20-ish minutes. Most of the time I’m watching a few youtube videos, or going in for a restroom break and by the time i get back the car’s about ready.

    My car, and I think most EVs nowadays will have a setting limiting the charge to 80% to help with keeping the battery healthy. If I’m not using air conditioning at 80% my estimated range is about 190-200 miles, if it’s hot and I’m using AC, it’ll go down to 185ish. First upcoming winter, so I’ll get to see how much my car is impacted. I don’t usually worry about range. I did at first because I had a couple of close calls about charging stations not being available while doing some longish trips back and forth, but I think in general my immediate and surrounding areas that I might frequent have gotten more stations recently.

    OH. Insurance for me wasn’t much more than what I was already paying, but registration in my state tacks on another $200 dollars a year, presumably since having an EV you’re not paying into the gas tax. Some states don’t have EV fees, some do. So might want to check that. My co-worker just found out about that and wasn’t happy lol.


  • When my wife, son and I lived with my MIL for a time she wanted to reduce her internet/cable/landline bill. Dropped the TV, got an antenna and she was able to watch the couple of channels she actually watched for free (minis rhe cost of the antenna).

    She rarely took calls on the landline so she dropped that. We started doing some streaming to experiment and then found out that the local provider she had limited her to a 200GB/month cap and had two levels of overage fees of $50 for 50GB on top of the $150 she was paying for her 25Mbps service.

    We blasted through that as I was trying out Google Stadia at the time.

    Thank god her address was also serviced by AT&T. They gave her twice the speed with a 1TB data cap but for whatever reason it was never enforced for $50/month.

    Moved out and went with AT&T at the new house. Just recently moved houses in the last few years and my choices for internet are either the 50Mbps for $50, whatever plans that the local ISP has which includes fiber, or something like T-Mobiles 5G Home service which didn’t work with my work going WFH (something technical about my work VPN was compatible).

    I’m sticking with AT&T until something better other than the local ISP comes in.