For newbies to home automation, it’s finally getting to the point where we should recommend Matter/Thread.

I mean, I won’t use it yet because I have mature Zigbee and Z-wave meshes, and use Home Assistant, but they want to run HomeKit and don’t seem to want to do their homework

Everything is in git, and I tend to use IntelliJ as an IDE. So my projects are all in ~/Ideaprojects/[PROJECTNAME]

I used to live in a townhouse and no one would bother going along the row. Finally we got together with other residents and set up a table in the parking lot next to the street. That was a lot of fun hanging out with the neighbors all evening, handing out candy

Pre-COViD we used to take out the screen in our storm door (and after put in glass for winter). It really freaked some people out when we reached through to hand out candy! Even better when someone didn’t keep a good hold on the dog and he leaped through! Of course today I have a pit bull instead of mini poodle so that wouldn’t go over as well

Where are you? The JavaScript block also seems to disable reader mode, so maybe they serve a different page in places with accessibility requirements

Like lack of accessibility? I generally use reader mode, because it gives an actual good user experience rather than “one that doesn’t look like the 90s”. I’m not sure if it turns off JavaScript, but it clearly turns off the crap that it does. Maybe half of websites work that way, the rest I either skip or click to turn off reader mode.

I just tried google, and reader mode is disabled, which is a problem for people with accessibility issues.

Does EU have accessibility protections? Does google give the same ad filled, cluttered, crap as the rest of us? What if you try reader mode

You can’t move right-wingers left

Exactly. If you have to chose between right wing and centrist , elect the centrist and move them a bit to the left. prepare to do this through multiple elections

And yet they accomplish nothing

And yet President Biden is very centrist but has passed some of the most far reaching changes ever on the environment, renewable energy, unionization, etc.

An example of both is climate change regulation. Legislation passed during Biden’s term should get us about halfway to our net carbon goal. A pessimist may focus on that not being nearly enough, but I see a new center, where we can have more success working on more substantial change

No, sorry,I was being us-centric - it seemed like that’s where the thread was.

As one very specific example, when COViD funding for school lunches ended, some us states decided to no longer provide free school lunches. Massachusetts passed a “millionaire tax” and funded free school lunches out of that

As a slightly older example, Massachusetts passed effectively universal healthcare coverage, signed into law by governor Mitt Romney, and later served as the model for the Affordable Care Act

Looking at school system ratings by us state, I see what looks like a strong correlation between excellent schools and a stronger economy.

If you don’t vote for the centrist candidate, you can’t object to the right extremist.

Actually this does track that a lot of what I see online is people who seem unwilling to compromise: neither are what I want so both the same. You need to be willing to vote for the one closest to what you want, and work toward moving that leftward over time.

We had a huge success with “The Squad” getting enough attention before Biden’s first nomination to influence the party platform. As a minority voter, this path is more likely to succeed than not voting

Well said!

When I was a teen, I was definitely fiscally conservative. Paying better attention to how you use money is easy to understand and a central pillar of politics. But it was a sheltered life in a town with all well-paying jobs, no diversity, and an excellent education system.

Now I keep floating left the more I realize how many people missed out of that picture.

But it was my kids that really did it. Fighting for better opportunities for them easily turns into wanting a better world for them to live in. I’m more worried than ever about my government’s poor money habits and when it will eventually come due, but we’re in the middle of a rolling disaster of short term and misplaced spending, our politicians more concerned with scapegoats and spite than actually benefitting their constituents

I became much more progressive after living in a “blue state” for much of my adult life. It’s hard to miss that the most successful economies in the us are also the ones who pay most attention to quality of life. We can look at the contrast in our neighboring states, and see the advantages brought by near universal healthcare, investments in an excellent education system, care about the environment, higher minimum wage, support for unions, and so much more

Where are those youth in the US? While they seem loud online, why hasn’t that translated into votes?

What if you start to become better off, but realize so many other parents are unable to provide for their kids like you can, and you can’t hope to provide for your kids like the wealthy can? What if paying exorbitant amounts of money for your kids education drives home the point that we need to make that investment for all kids futures? What if you are more often on the hiring side and realize your well being depends on the next generation having opportunities and the means to successfully achieve them?

What if my goals include family values, such as opportunity for my kids to earn a good living, live a long and healthy life, enjoy the environment, in a world better than the one I had?

One of the points here was those syntaxes no longer work

• search engines are usually free text, with no concept about fields
• the syntax you specify usually depends on specific sites implementing “filtering” which is usually a lot more annoying to use, and people here complaining that no longer works. Plus that’s limited to a specific site
• google search specifically, used to accept syntax like quotes to match a phrase and plus or minus to indicate required presence or absence, but those no longer work.
• certainly part of it is merchandisers using SEO for greater attention rather than better match

I’m currently looking for a new light fixture and haven’t yet found the magical search phrase to get there or a site with filtering that works. Of course it may not exist but all my attempted searches so far return random junk, so I don’t even know

It turns out many of us do search for specific terms when we want specific items.

When you say trends, is it among people not baking long enough? I love gooey cookies as well, but that looks raw.

Recently I used store made cookie dough (because “safe to eat raw”!) in a cast iron pan to make it more like a brownie, maybe like this. Surprise, it’s much thicker than a standard cookie so needs to be cooked longer than the directions say

Sorry to hijack your thread, @Lost_My_Mind …

Wish y’all could have made it. All My guests did come, but there was a ton of food and a lot leftover

Boston. I’m serious too

Oh man, I did not need to read this now ……

I have people coming over today. They cancelled on a previous weekend and are hemming and hawing. The event is that I have a smoker and and want to make all kinds of new foods. I have $100 of meat, an elaborate salad and sides. Dessert also goes on the smoker. I just want someone to help eat.

This weekend’s feast is duck. Dry brined, stuffed with oranges, and smoked. Or chicken, to bribe a picky eater to come.

But it’s cold and rainy so the outdoor seating is out and I don’t really have space inside . I have an afternoon of cooking ahead that I was so excited for but have lost my motivation, dreading wasted time and money if they don’t show up