> "Smart Local Control" home devices work as expected until the electronics fail
Recently one of my Zigbee-controlled thermostats started pumping cold air constantly. To fix it, all I had to do was open and examine the board; one of the varistors got some battery acid on it when I had an alkaline battery burst in the unit. Because it was a no-name with an actual PCB, I was able to solder a new varistor in place, and it works good as new.
So I would say that "Smart Local Control" isn't the problem, but rather the ability to repair the thing. Also, the thermostat was $45 when I purchased it 5 years ago, so it was a good investment IMO. I think that's why everyone is upset about the Nest gen 1 and 2 sunsetting; there should be no reason that these devices should be breaking now (no failing electronics) but they die anyway because the company is too cheap to keep an extra endpoint running.
2. That the electronics were designed with appropriate thermal management so they don't fry themselves quickly. Smart bulbs are the most notorious offenders here, but the problem is widespread.
> I think it's close to impossible to "fix" Visa without government intervention (e.g. limit fees to a fraction of a percent), but I'm still grateful to anyone who tries.
I'm interested to see if that works out, and curious what it means for international cards with lots of perks. I imagine, for example, it wouldn't change anything right away for a Chase Sapphire card issued in the US, but if more countries followed suit there would eventually be a tipping point and card benefits would be reduced.
I guess the issuers all have complex models that take these things into account. In any case, I think it's a good move.
I thought about Improv Everywhere recently - they had some great things in the early 2000s.
Re watching this, at about 1:16 one of the agents looks familiar. "Huh, she looks kinda like Aubrey Plaza". Then the credits come on: It was actually Aubrey Plaza.
The government where I live has a no-interest loan scheme for installing energy efficient appliances. Handy, so I used it to fund heat pumps and insulation.
The scheme is administered by Brighte. I signed up on their website. Everything going well for 6 months or so.
Then out of the blue, an email from them: "We just launched our app". Yeah, no, not interested.
A few weeks later, another "You should use our app, it's so convenient!". No, the website works fine. Can I unsubscribe from these notices? Customer service says no.
A few weeks after that: "Switch to our app. We are removing the website".
I email them to complain: I don't want or need their app, just let me use the website. No,they say, it's definitely being removed. I ask how people who don't want to or can't use their app are supposed to interact with them now? "you can always call us instead".
The idea of removing a perfectly functional website just to force everyone onto an app is insane.
But agreed the push to apps sucks, I just assume in these cases it's so they can spam you with notifications about "new products" they're offering, like my bank likes to regularly offer me loans at terrible interest rates
Yeah I'm assuming it's because they want to sell me more.
I'm probably not earning them much with the no-interest scheme. But their approach has guaranteed I won't use them for anything else - I was looking at financing the solar and battery system but this just put me off.
In my experience Uber Eats search may as well not exist.
It is so fundamentally broken that it doesn't actually deliver what customers want.
It doesn't matter what you search for, it's going to mostly deliver bad results. Part of that is going to be bad and integration, but a lot of it isn't.
Search for Pizza, will give you stores that don't sell pizzas. And not even after all the pizza stores.
Search for chicken and I get a vegan only store that doesn't even have any meat terms on any menu item, and never did.
It's a complete failure as far as I am concerned.
That it served a billion queries matters not if they are bad results.
All the home inspectors I looked at (Victoria, where this house is, plus Tasmania) were all quite clear that they would only access areas they could find a way in. Closed up areas, wouldn't be inspected by default.
In fact things like attic hatches are supposed to be sealed ane so even though seen the inspector is not allowed in the attic. (Unless there is other evedence of a problem, though they need to repair the seal in that case.
It's that something regional for specific access type? My Victorian houses always had the roof hatch accessible - it's just another storage area and needs to be available if you want to rewire something.
Attic access has to be weatherstripped - cheap ass builders just seal it.
I ain’t buying’ no pig in a poke. If it’s new construction I can inspect before completion (and you should); if it’s used, I am breaking the seal and crossing the streams. Attics got way too much “fun” to discover.
> Attic access has to be weatherstripped - cheap ass builders just seal it.
True.
> If it’s new construction I can inspect before completion (and you should); if it’s used, I am breaking the seal and crossing the streams. Attics got way too much “fun” to discover.
Don't do this! you can't see much anyway. At least not without walking up there and that disturbs your insulation. Everything you care about is about the roof working, so look at the roof from the outside. Keep the roof in good shape and you don't need to go in the attic.
Also until the house is yours you are not allowed to break that seal. Once it is your house you can do whatever you want, but it is too late.
Nonsense. Every house built in Victoria has an accessible hatch to the roof space. The hatches are not sealed either, it's just a lid resting over the opening, which can be pushed upward. Some have hinges, etc.
Incidentally, I'm in Victoria myself. When I bought my house, the inspector did the works. Multiple roof spaces, got under the house and had a look, full report with photos, phone call consultation to explain everything he saw to me. He even notified the sellers of an urgent issue and they had it fixed that afternoon.
I guess it depends who you hire (and whether or not you want to know about any issues, which is the most compelling reason I've seen in the replies so far for why this was "missed").
The OP is talking about how they handle keeping fresh stock of products with lower sales volume. (Or at least, that's the way I'm reading it)