xyguy

Moved into my own house again recently. I would like to get a lot of stuff automated like I had in my previous house.

Unfortunately, theres a lot if old wiring here and most switches have no neutrals in the box.

What is the current best option for smart switches (ideally dimmers) that dont require a neutral wire?

I'd prefer a non-wifi solution that doesnt require a proprietary hub but it seems like there are limited options anyway and I am having trouble finding almost any good options that dont require a neutral.

Anybody using anything they really like?

I have a Motorola Razr+ 2023 from T-Mobile that I have had for 2 years and is now paid off and unlocked.

It works with physical sims from other carriers but no esim will begin to activate. It only pops up with a message to call T-mobile which I did but, they won't help me because I am no longer a customer.

The carrier unlock in the settings of android says unlocked so I don't know what to do next.

Any ideas or fun ADB things I can try?

I've been watching the Rockford Files on Samsung TV and the commercials and syndication cuts have been getting on my nerves. I decided to get the series on Blu ray and ordered a set on eBay that I didn't realize was from Mill Creek.

I figure I'll just rant and post my warning here.

The Packaging-Not as bad as I have seen in the past from Mill Creek, but there are 4 discs per season and only 2 disc spindles per case. This is annoying and may or may not scratch the top discs over time. There are also 2 of the Blu Ray cases that have slightly different cases than the rest. Not the biggest deal in the world but still just a lack of attention to any kind of detail. The cardboard case that holds all the Blu-ray cases is incredibly flimsy and not glued or printed with any gloss. The slipcovers are kind of shoddy too.

The Content-No special features, no commentary tracks, NOT EVEN SUBTITLES! Half the reason I like physical media is stuff like that. At least the scans are nice. Clean and pretty with DTS-HD audio that sounds as good as its going to at this point. It's just what I assume is the original stereo track and doesn't have a 5.1 or 7.1 remaster. Its a good thing the picture is clear because our deaf friends are going to have to read lips and thankfully it is at least in the original aspect ratio.

Other Annoying Stuff-The DVD release of Season 1 contained the original TV movie pilot in its original release format. This Blu-release only has the chopped up "Season 0" 2 part episode with cuts and alterations. Again, not the end of the world, just highly annoying to have the Blu-ray release not be the superior version.

The printing on all the Blu-rays has a huge section of the artwork covered up with an ad for Mill Creek's website.

The Menus are lame too but what can I expect when there are no features to select from They don't have to be amazing but they just suck.

This is the only HD release of the Rockford Files. I understand that I am probably one of the few people who gives a crap about the Rockford Files but it's a shame that such a good show that was shot on film on location in LA is treated in such a slipshod manner by a fourth rate company like Mill Creek.

--WARNING FOR POSTERITY-- Mill Creek sucks. This is far from their worst release but frankly, all of their stuff is just crap. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here but seriously? NO SUBTITLES? That sucks.

I run a Windows 11 VM on xcp-ng to do testing and Windows specific graphic and video work. I use an old R9 390 in passthrough mode right now but it's running out of steam.

I'm particularly interested in the A380 series of gpus as they have a lot of the modern compute and video encoding features for around $100.

Before I pull the trigger I just wanted to know if anyone has had much experience with ARC GPUs in a VM passthrough scenario. I see in their official docs that resizable BAR is a requirement and I didn't know whether that is handled properly in a virtual environment or on XCP-NG specifically.

Any experience you're willing to share would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

I went out and got the AMD 7800xt to do ultrafast AV1 encoding of large h264 and hevc files.

I am able to select VCN acceleration options in Windows but not Linux Handbrake.

I have tried the flatpak and both the Pop_OS and ppa deb packages of Handbrake. I have the latest mesa driver and am running the most current version of PopOS 22.04. I've had no issues gaming at all, just with picking the hardware encoder in Handbrake. Any ideas or rabbit holes I can go down?

I don't know whether this is an unpopular opinion or not but I actually think that the way Tasha Yar died gave the show much higher stakes throughout it's entire run. Here is the chief security officer, main bridge crew, tragic back story, potential love interest for the robot character just slapped down by the monster of the week. It made all the subsequent dangerous situations seem much more dire because "they were willing to kill off someone in the main cast". I also think that Yesterday's Enterprise was an awesome send off for that character that let them have a heroic ending for her after all.

It was a shame because I think Denise Crosby could have been awesome as a recurring character and in my opinion, we didn't get a great strong female character in the main cast (until DS9 which is an embarrassment of riches in that department). But I maintain that casually killing off Tasha Yar made my first watchthrough of TNG much more exciting.

I don't however like the additional stretch of her half-romulan daughter. It's pretty soap-opera-ish in my opinion and tarnishes the heroic sacrifice of her character.