It's primarily done for security and secondarily a benefit making it easier (for everyone!) to identify denomination by feel
Readit Newskgermino commented on The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia cnn.com/2025/11/12/busine... · Posted by u/andrewl
kgermino commented on Fallout from the AWS outage: Smart mattresses go rogue quasa.io/media/the-strang... · Posted by u/jerlam
The way I see it is... I'd rather my lawn be yellow, plants dead, than a burst pipe underground causing significantly more expensive remediation.
I agree it's not likely (especially if the system is running as-scheduled), but it was a surprise is all. What if I didn't set up the service at all, and it dropped below 0 C? I would be in for a nasty surprise in the spring.
That's fair, though it's not a given that the sprinklers are for turf-grass instead of something more important.
More interestingly (to me): did it have a local interface or was the only way to update it tied to the internet?
kgermino commented on Fallout from the AWS outage: Smart mattresses go rogue quasa.io/media/the-strang... · Posted by u/jerlam
> there’s a control system and you need to change it
Why does the control system have to live on someone else's server in "the cloud"?
There's no reason for smart home devices to require an internet connection to the producer's service. Companies could just as easily put compute on device, or sell some sort of "bridge" (aka a home server appliance) that runs the compute and the accessories connect to.
Fully offline, local network only.
Save the online stuff just for analytics or other value-add features, but core functionality shouldn't require a web service.
The only reason it's 100% internet connection required all the time is to sell subscriptions, aka consumer hostile behavior.
I agree?
In both cases the control system is physically in your house. It sounds like the sprinkler system did work completely offline (though it's not clear if you'd actually be able to change anything without internet - that would be a problem if not), they didn't set up an account so the system was in "offline" mode and dutifully ran the sprinklers on the last known schedule.
For the thermostat the example was physically removing the control system, which is typically not connected to the furnace through any sort of internet connection, and expecting the furnace to know what to do.
kgermino commented on Fallout from the AWS outage: Smart mattresses go rogue quasa.io/media/the-strang... · Posted by u/jerlam
The connection between the furnace and the thermostat probably shouldn't go through the internet.
So it's perfectly reasonable for the furnace to turn off when it is disconnected, because disconnection would be a very strong signal for an error state instead of regular intermittent network/service issues.
Are there any furnaces that do that?
Certainly, the standard smart thermostat set up is that your ecobee is connected to the Internet, but controls the furnace using good old-fashioned signal wires
kgermino commented on Fallout from the AWS outage: Smart mattresses go rogue quasa.io/media/the-strang... · Posted by u/jerlam
We could even go more basic... safe defaults when disconnected should be mandatory.
For example, if I pull the thermostat off my wall, the furnace should drop into a fallback mode that keeps the heat above freezing (I'm in Canada where this is a concern.)
I moved into a new house and did not set up the lawn irrigation system. Despite being disconnected from the cloud service, the system kept running its schedule, when I would have expected it turn off in order to conserve water.
Well that brings up two immediate issues
A standard furnace and thermostat won’t even know if you pull the thermostat off the wall, much less have any way to handle it beyond “full blast heat 24/7”
More challenging: you expected the sprinkler setup to do the opposite. Instead of following its last-known plan (the schedule) it should stop doing anything (possibly killing the plants it’s watering)
Good off-line only mode in a reasonable plan for what to do without the Internet makes a lot of sense, but at some point, there’s a control system and you need to change it (or even just have one in the thermostat example)
kgermino commented on “No Tax on Tips” Includes Digital Creators, Too hollywoodreporter.com/bus... · Posted by u/aspenmayer
To be precise, social security maxes out at around the income of the 93 percentile of income
https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/
But that would also mean uncapping the maximum amount you are eligible for for social security.
It wouldn’t _have_ to, that’s a political decision not a mathematical requirement.
But, even if you did it would still help tremendously and possibly still be sufficient. There’s diminishing returns where lower income people get a higher percentage of their income as a social security benefit. As long as that policy is maintained the ultra high wage earners would be contributing far in excess of the benefit they get paid back out
> It would be good for everyone if people who are not professional economists paid less attention to this.
It would be good for everyone if the BLS figures were trusted.
Even "not professional economists" might lose trust in figures which are regularly revised downwards ... months after being published.
they're regularly revised up or down because they're (very openly) preliminary numbers released just days after the month ends and before many employers have even answered the survey. When the economy reaches an inflection point they tend to be streaky (multiple revisions down or up in a row) but that's nothing new and mostly just means that the economy has been getting worse over the last year and a half, which... that's one of the big arguments for Trump's victory so I'm not sure why it would be a surprise.
What's the tow capacity and range when towing? No 4WD either. It's not a truck it's a UTV.
6600 lb towing capacity
Towing range is an issue with all EVs and the battery on this one isn't that big, but if you're regularly doing long distance towing I'm not sure why you'd start with a city truck
Respectfully, if you don’t know how long a 2x4 is, I think it would be very reasonable to look this up, as it will make you much better equipped to make this argument.
I generally agree with what you are saying, and frequently haul 2x4s without my truck - but the solution to that is a long flatbed trailer, not a Thule hitch attachment.
it does depend a lot on what you buy it for, but obviously 8' is a good benchmark.
But honestly... at 8' I'm not sure why you're bothering with anything (unless you're getting a lot of them), i usually just threw 8 footers in my Honda Fit and closed the hatch.
There were no reports of the unintentional acceleration in other makes.
What? Unintended acceleration happens _all the time_. It’s usually driver error or a stuck floor mat. The vast majority are drivers who hit the accelerator thinking it’s the brakes then panic when the car speeds up. Toyota had some design issues that seemed to make it more likely (though the software was found to be fine) and got attention due to a viral 911 call and a poor response.
They were absolutely not the only make with unintentional accretion reports/issues at that time; nor presumably today, but I haven’t seen recent numbers