Lately, HA has focused on voice control, and there seem to be a strong push that yielded some tangible results.

I don't use it myself, so I don't have first hand experience.

But the web site now has a section on voice control.

And there was blog post on it too.

If you search Youtube, you will find people implementing the above too.

I am a Home Assistant user for at least 8 years.

Initially, it was for automating a few things, including existing door/window sensors from a legacy alarm manufacturer. Using RTL-SDR and rtl_433 I was able to intercept the messages, have them decoded, and into Home Assistant over MQTT.

Then it started to be essential for things like: if you leave a door or window open for more than x minutes, it will complain, unless you turn off that automation temporarily.

Now it does many things: Outdoor temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall. Indoor temperature, humidity, Volatile Organic Compounds, CO2, Radon.

It also emails me a weather forecast in the morning and evening. The contents are aggregated from the weather station, and two different sources for the forecasts (Environment Canada, and Met.no [Norway's weather service which covers the globe]).

It also runs my humidifier in winter, factoring in the values for indoor humidity as well as outdoor temperature (to reduce condensation on the windows).

And it interfaces to my Ecobee thermostat, via HomeKit, so it is cloud-free (not depending on an internet connection at all).

Overall, it is a nifty project. Very useful, very customizable.
My only gripe is that they discontinued support for running from a Python venv. I had to move to a Docker container instead. That made certain things that I have been using for years not work anymore (e.g. voice alerts, sending emails from shell scripts). I created workarounds for those, and they work well.

It's sad to say, but this is part and parcel for the US. The rich want to get every advantage they can, and their money allows them to. So as students with real disabilities get accommodations the rich see it as someone getting something they don't and immediately go about finding a way they can get it to. It doesn't matter that they don't deserve it, they think they deserve it simply because someone else is getting it. And with the US healthcare system, they can always find someone willing to give their kids a diagnosis whether they need it or not because they are willing to pay the price (And can afford to pay the price). This is what the US has become, a plutocracy. The rich get whatever they want because they can afford to buy everything and in the US, everything is for sale.

I wouldn't hold my breath ...

My view is: that battle has been lost, for a long time now ...
Bloat is here to stay ...

Don't get me wrong, I wish you were right though.

This is all timed for the midterm elections, which Trump and the rest of the GOP are EXTREMELY interested in. And we all know, Trump is the GOP at this point, so anything that is good for him is seen as good for the GOP.

something something something...democrats give away money to buy votes...something something

Thank you.

Always informative to hear from specialists.

Related to the topic at hand ...

I posted this last year when the topic of dark energy and the acceleration of the expansion came up ...

Anyway ...

Watch Subir Sarkar's lecture on Beyond The Cosmological Standard Model.

Sarkar is a professor at Oxford who has done some interesting work providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is NOT accelerating.

Instead, he is saying that there is a dipole effect because earth, and the galaxy cluster that we are in, are all moving in space, and that gives the effect of accelerating expansion!

He provides compelling evidence (for a non-specialist at least) for what he says and also casts doubts on the evidence for acceleration by analyzing their data (supernovae as standard candles, and their red shift), since a dipole effect is observed on that.

If his hypothesis is confirmed by other research and observations, then the Nobel Prize for Saul Perlmutter and Adam Reiss maybe for nothing ...

An area to watch for sure ...

FYI ...

Canada lost its measles elimination status this month ...

Because of all the antivaxx disinformation and anti-science stance, problems that were basically solved are coming back ...

Now that I know this from reading TFA, the next time I find myself in the position of kidnapping someone for their Bitcoin, the first thing I'm gonna do is knock their teeth out with a pipe wrench.

Thanks, Slashdot. You've made my career of being a terrible person that much easier. :)

I will do you one better ...

Just tie their hands behind their back. No gnawing can get one out of that ...

You owe me 20% of the Bitcoin you get that way ...

No one is really suggesting"at ANY price point". No one thinks renting rooms at 10 dollars is better than nothing, but renting rooms at 100 dollars that normally rent for 200 is better than nothing. And there is nothing stopping you from renting last minute, except the possibility of not getting a room or at least the room you want. If you want to take a chance of not getting a room to save 50 dollars you go right ahead.

Our modern Western economies are messed up.

But even before modern economics, inflation was a fact of life.
See what a house sold for in 1850 vs. 1900 vs. 1950 vs. now.

The modern era of economics started with unpegging of paper currency from gold started this cascade of events.
From that point, money was worth what the country as a whole produced.

And we have this continued growth imperative, otherwise it is called a recession.

That is why people not spending money is 'bad' in the view of modern economics.
Because spending money goes into other people's jobs.
If everyone sits on their money, then goods will not be sold, and no services will be delivered, making other people's jobs' vanish.

But it is what we have, until something better emerges.
Just like democracy ...

We are told that "inflation is good" by economists -- for me, it's nothing but a tax. Asking an economist whose very paycheck comes from inflationary measures is same as asking a christian Bible scholar whether the Bible is trustworthy.

Inflation is not a tax, despite many holding onto this notion.
Some inflation is good, when it is no more than 1-2% per year.

In our current Western economies that are based on continued growth, if there is deflation, then people will defer spending since the money they have today will have more buyer power tomorrow.

Japan is such a case: they have been in deflation for decades. Read up on the effects that made on society.

Another issue with no inflation is that there is no borrowing costs, and some investors will abuse this to gobble up real estate (e.g. some investors bought high rise rental buildings, then raised the rent, making it unaffordable for regular people.
Other people will buy homes, and the unnatural influx of buyers will raise the price for other people.

That is why central banks use interest rates as a tool to curb excessive inflation.

Under 2% inflation is the least bad of the options available.

If your needs for a table are simple, then Lenovo fits the bill nicely.

My tablet is several years old. It is the Lenovo Tab P11 Plus.

My use case is for 'normal' stuff, such as browsing, Youtube, email, ...etc.
I don't use it for drawing or with a stylus.

But it has been solid overall, and quite usable for a long time.

A friend of mine has a backyard astronomical observatory.
In the Great Lakes weather, it is challenging to keep the equipment inside safe year-round from humidity and condensation. Summers are hot and humid.
Other friends have an A/C that they keep running, so there is no condensation, and no mold on optics, and rust on electronics.
This friend though, does not use an A/C at all.
Instead he covered the observatory's roof with something that commercial building use to safe energy. It reflects all the incident Infra-Red, and keeps the building within 2C from ambient temperature.
The material is not a paint. It comes in flexible sheets, similar to neoprene, but not porous.
It is made by Lexan and is called Hi-Tuff TPO.
It does not shrink, and is relatively impact resistant.
He had it for ~ 19 years, and only uses water, detergent and some bleach to clean the green algae that grow on it.

Related: Inside the observatory, he uses a large fan to keep the air moving inside, and has a mesh covered vent on the other side. He says that moving air causes mold to never grow.