DynamoSunshirt's recent activity
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Comment on Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods in ~transport
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Comment on Lost in a sea of HVAC in ~life.home_improvement
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentWe plan on putting in a wood stove insert later this year, it won't be in an ideal spot in the house but I think it'll do the trick in a power outage (though most have a blower these days, so...We plan on putting in a wood stove insert later this year, it won't be in an ideal spot in the house but I think it'll do the trick in a power outage (though most have a blower these days, so you're never truly independent of electric). My first memories as a kid are of the 1998 Northeast Ice Storm, which knocked out power to my childhood home for over a week, so I certainly appreciate the ability to heat your home without electricity!
Ultimately I'll probably also look into solar panels and a whole house battery. But even that won't help if you have issues with your compressor. I was on edge for a lot of this last winter, since we only have the oil furnace right now; I consider us very lucky to have not experienced any issues with it in our first winter!
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Comment on Lost in a sea of HVAC in ~life.home_improvement
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentThat is exactly what I'm hoping to do! My understanding is that, with a forced air ducted system like mine, the resistive strips in the furnace can function as a (expensive!) backup during extreme...That is exactly what I'm hoping to do! My understanding is that, with a forced air ducted system like mine, the resistive strips in the furnace can function as a (expensive!) backup during extreme cold or in case the compressor fails. I have to admit that the prices you mention are a whole lot better than what I've heard locally... maybe I should consider importing a heat pump expert from the North Country who wants to take a nice vacation up here in the mountains? Would likely be a lot cheaper than the local experts!
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Comment on Lost in a sea of HVAC in ~life.home_improvement
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentWhy would you so strongly advocate for the backup? With heat pumps rated down to -32 now (and resistive strips that provide 100% efficiency no matter the temp) , it seems like I might as well just...Why would you so strongly advocate for the backup? With heat pumps rated down to -32 now (and resistive strips that provide 100% efficiency no matter the temp) , it seems like I might as well just rely on it. But maybe I'm missing something? Right now we ONLY have the oil furnace, so it seems like our exposure would be no different (with potentially a longer wait for parts if something breaks in the heat pump, but in such a small house I can always buy a few space heaters in a black swan situation).
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Comment on Waymo pauses Atlanta service as its robotaxis keep driving into floods in ~transport
DynamoSunshirt LinkI can only imagine how robotaxis will behave once deployed to a place with chronic snow 30% of the year. Seems like our roads have no end of edge cases for machine vision with no underlying...I can only imagine how robotaxis will behave once deployed to a place with chronic snow 30% of the year. Seems like our roads have no end of edge cases for machine vision with no underlying understanding of the world. Of course human drivers are imperfect, but it's interesting to consider that most humans won't make this mistake as long as they realize that water depth is very difficult to judge. Whereas the robotaxis seem to just... not perceive the water? I wonder why LIDAR doesn't tip them off.
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Comment on Signal, NordVPN, Proton to leave Canada over C-22 in ~society
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentI suspect we'll eventually have to bake protections against this into our Constitutions (or equivalent, I keep thinking of it as a "digital bill of rights"). A right to digital anonymity and a...I suspect we'll eventually have to bake protections against this into our Constitutions (or equivalent, I keep thinking of it as a "digital bill of rights"). A right to digital anonymity and a strong protection against unmasking that anonymity seems like a good starting point.
But unfortunately we'll have to wait for all the dinosaur octa/septa/genarian legislators to die off, because most of them are so hopelessly out of touch with modern tech that you can't even begin to get them to understand the need for protections. They're easy marks for lobbyists and vote whips to steer in any direction because they're absolutely clueless about the consequences of their votes in either direction. In a world where a smartphone and a variety of accounts are table stakes, I don't think it's OK for legislators to be this oblivious.
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Comment on Lost in a sea of HVAC in ~life.home_improvement
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentI appreciate the input! Honestly, the furnace is only 10 years old, so I mostly just want to remove it for personal bias reasons the tank is exactly where I would like to build a door to my...I appreciate the input! Honestly, the furnace is only 10 years old, so I mostly just want to remove it for personal bias reasons
- the tank is exactly where I would like to build a door to my laundry room (currently accessed, annoyingly, through the garage)
- the furnace itself is currently shoved into an awkward nook that takes a chunk of space out of our garage (and that will likely complicate heat pump integration work and duct insulation, since refridgerants are flammable these days and the space might not exist to shove a coil in there)
- I like the idea of removing a fossil fuel, source of carbon monoxide, and potential fire risk from the house.
I am inclined to agree with you about bedrooms etc getting stuffy while overcooling the kitchen/living space. I could of course install a minisplit for each bedroom, but it feels ridiculous to do for tiny 100sqft rooms; that's literally why we invented ductwork!
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Comment on Lost in a sea of HVAC in ~life.home_improvement
DynamoSunshirt Link Parent14k for both? Sounds downright cheap to me, I think the lowest quote I've managed is around 20k, and I suspect that's underestimating the cost of insulating the ducts.14k for both? Sounds downright cheap to me, I think the lowest quote I've managed is around 20k, and I suspect that's underestimating the cost of insulating the ducts.
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Comment on Lost in a sea of HVAC in ~life.home_improvement
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentYou're probably right that a single heat pump in my main living space is the cheapest, fastest solution by far. Should provide some enough heat to be comfy in the shoulder seasons, and enough...You're probably right that a single heat pump in my main living space is the cheapest, fastest solution by far. Should provide some enough heat to be comfy in the shoulder seasons, and enough cooling to avoid overheating in the summer.
I mostly get annoyed at the idea that I won't have cooling (or shoulder season heating!) in the bedrooms, bathroom, or office when the doors are closed. Sounds very annoying when people visit, for instance. While the central heating is fine, it is by no means perfect -- it's noisy, generates a lot of dust, and oil carries a staggering cost these days. I certainly wouldn't mind losing it.
Based on the quotes I've seen, it looks like a single big minisplit would cost around $10k, vs $20-50k for a central solution. (labor really distorts the low and high ends these days, it seems). Just frustrating to learn that insulating ductwork drives up the cost of central so dramatically.
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Comment on OpenAI is preparing to file for an IPO in the coming weeks in ~finance
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentDon't worry, we'll just change the rules for listings so they can hide the worst of it. Regardless, the industry currently doesn't care about the awful financials, so I'm sure the analysts will...Don't worry, we'll just change the rules for listings so they can hide the worst of it. Regardless, the industry currently doesn't care about the awful financials, so I'm sure the analysts will come up with some narrative or another to suspend disbelief a bit longer.
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Lost in a sea of HVAC
Hi everyone, On one hand, I'm very lucky: last year my partner and I purchased our first house! It feels great to hop off the renter hamster wheel. On the other hand, we had to make some...
Hi everyone,
On one hand, I'm very lucky: last year my partner and I purchased our first house! It feels great to hop off the renter hamster wheel.
On the other hand, we had to make some compromises when we bought the house: I wanted to limit our search to houses that already had central air (heating and cooling), because we both work from home and I really want our house to be comfortable year-round. Unfortunately, in Northern New England, that eliminates around 90% of houses. So we compromised and bought a place that has a furnace with ductwork, hoping to eventually add cooling using the same ductwork. Last year, I reached out to a couple of contractors to get a vague sense of how possible that might be. Consensus? Potentially expensive, but feasible.
My situation:
- our house is small, ~1100 square feet in the finished upstairs
- half of the upstairs has shit insulation, other half is decent after renovation
- we currently have a 100k BTU oil furnace that absolutely keeps up. In fact, as far as I can tell, it's massively oversized -- even on the coldest nights (around -20 or so most winters, including this one), it only kicks on ~50% of the time
- we used around 500 gallons of heating oil from September-May (the heating season)
- our furnace is awkwardly tucked between the outlet chimney and three walls, which makes accessing it a pain (and complicates installing a coil on top; I'm not sure if there's enough room).
- thanks to a nearby massive hydroelectric dam, our electric rates are about half the average New England electric price (and come from a pretty environmentally-friendly source!). So the more heating and cooling I can do with electric, the better IMO. I'd rather pay a bit extra to heat with clean electric than save on propane/oil if fossil prices come down (big if).
With the warm season upon us, I'm feeling the heat during my work-from-home days and trying to get cooling installed before the temperature really starts cooking. And, despite having a furnace with existing ductwork that covers every room in the house (90% of which is directly accessible through unfinished basement ceilings), every. goddamn. contractor. has. recommended. minisplits.
But I don't want minisplits. I know it's easier for them. I know it's cheaper. I know most contractors in the area have installed hundreds of minisplits but very few central systems (let alone a combined heating/cooling setup where you have to worry about balancing summer dehumidifying with extreme cold efficiency). I know I'll have to clean out and insulate my ducts. Minisplits would surely work OK, but I really don't want to install one in each of our three bedrooms, plus one (or more) in our open-layout kitchen/living/dining space, and then still deal with no direct cooling in the bathrooms. Aesthetically, my partner and I both find minisplits ugly, and our house is small enough that most minisplit designs would make the tiny bedrooms feel even more cramped.
Ideally, I'd rip out our existing furnace (and oil tank!), install a cold weather heat pump in its place, insulate the ducts, and call it a day. But every contractor also advises that I "keep the old furnace around" in case the heat pump breaks (seriously?) or in case the heat pump can't keep up on the coldest days (fair enough). And then we take a look at the existing furnace, conclude it would be hard to add cooling on top of it, and they tell me to think about minisplits again.
So I guess after all of this, I'd really appreciate some advice from tilderinos with more home improvement experience than myself. Should I think about this differently? How on earth do I find a contractor who knows what they're doing with central heat pumps who doesn't push me aggressively towards minisplits or keeping my dirty, noisy, expensive furnace around? Should I just roll over, give up on my central cooling dreams, and install some minisplits?
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Comment on Smartphone recommendations? in ~tech
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentNo headphone jack, sadly. While I am excited for the Titan 2 Elite (could unihertz finally make a phone that isn't just fine, but actually nice?), the kickstarter campaign that just ended brought...No headphone jack, sadly. While I am excited for the Titan 2 Elite (could unihertz finally make a phone that isn't just fine, but actually nice?), the kickstarter campaign that just ended brought the price down by a solid $100, so it's hard for me to see the actual MSRP.
Tis a shame they decided to keep the non-Pro at 256GB of storage; I prefer a large chunk of onboard storage because apps are getting increasingly bad at supporting SD cards, and 256 is a bit tight for music + photos. But you have to wait until almost 2027 for 512GB!
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The old world of tech is dying and the new cannot be born
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Comment on Public backlash after Utah county approves 62 sq miles of development sites for data center in ~tech
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentCould build a datalabyrinth and really up the distances. Assuming a 10 foot gap between racks for optimized cooling, you could achieve a commute distance of at least 4000 miles, based on my hasty,...Could build a datalabyrinth and really up the distances. Assuming a 10 foot gap between racks for optimized cooling, you could achieve a commute distance of at least 4000 miles, based on my hasty, groggy calculations.
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Comment on Introducing Googlebook, designed for Gemini Intelligence in ~tech
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentIt's funny to think that a lot of people are giving Apple heat these days for "not innovating" in AI... but by merit of enshittifying their ecosystem slightly slower than others, and investing in...It's funny to think that a lot of people are giving Apple heat these days for "not innovating" in AI... but by merit of enshittifying their ecosystem slightly slower than others, and investing in real-world improvements like better CPUs (and consequently better battery life) they've made the only Big Tech laptop hardware worth buying in the last decade.
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Comment on How I feel about LLM (AI) writing in ~tech
DynamoSunshirt LinkI wish I had something more optimistic to add, other than... same. I used to love the internet because I loved the open exchange of ideas that transcended space and language and border. Text used...I wish I had something more optimistic to add, other than... same. I used to love the internet because I loved the open exchange of ideas that transcended space and language and border. Text used to be a decent barrier; I gravitated towards text-heavy communities like Tildes (and, once upon a time, HN, and parts of Reddit, and even certain Facebook communities back in the day). Everything has become infested with low-quality jokes, memes, and outright spam, leaving me my last bastions of sanity, like Tildes. HN has had problems for a long time, but the bot presence has become utterly unbearable lately.
These grassroots communities are dying, replaced with utterly soulless astroturfing.
I fear we've somehow implemented Dead Internet Theory. In a way it'll be nice to touch grass and use the internet less. But I'll miss the friends, the sense of community, the learning, and most of all the reminder of just how big and varied the world can be. It was amazing to wander onto the internet and find other nerds like yourself, whatever niche you care about most. But I guess most people are fine replacing that with homogeneous undifferentiated slop. It makes me very sad. I wonder where (if?) the next generation finds a way to create those niche communities, because it's clear that those nerd spaces are anathema to the capitalist urges of our techno overlords.
It would be nice to see more third places show up in meatspace, but that's also being ruined by our oligarchs. So I really don't know what to hope for. Maybe a nice solar flare that could knock out 99% of modern computers and leave people OK? Aliens?
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Comment on ‘It’s shameful’: New York’s elite lash out at Zohran Mamdani’s second-home tax in ~finance
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentDoes that mean people who own just one home don't pay property tax in France? I've often wondered why we don't at least exempt the average house price from property tax. If you want something...Does that mean people who own just one home don't pay property tax in France?
I've often wondered why we don't at least exempt the average house price from property tax. If you want something fancy, pay extra. But why penalize people who just want someplace normal to live in?
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Comment on Mark Ruffalo and Matt Stoller: This merger can, and should, be stopped in ~movies
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentAt the end of the day, fewer people in charge of all media in the country is a terrible idea. We'd be better off breaking CNN into hundreds of pieces than handing it to oligarchs who already have...At the end of the day, fewer people in charge of all media in the country is a terrible idea. We'd be better off breaking CNN into hundreds of pieces than handing it to oligarchs who already have a chokehold on other news companies.
At least right now the oligarchs have to collude. When you let them merge, you even take that barrier away!
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Comment on Reddit reports 69% jump in revenue, topping analyst estimates in ~tech
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentPersonally I've seen a huge drop in response quality and a massive increase in low-quality meme responses on the site in the last few years. Even on serious subs, somehow image-only top-level...Personally I've seen a huge drop in response quality and a massive increase in low-quality meme responses on the site in the last few years. Even on serious subs, somehow image-only top-level comments routinely get upvoted to the top. That's fine for social subreddits, but pretty cancerous any place where you want answers or a nuanced discussion.
I suppose we'll see how it pans out in the next 5-10 years. I think the fact that we're having this conversation here (and not on reddit) is a telling sign that the best discussions are slowly migrating away from reddit. And not just because of one issue, it's death by a thousand cuts: neutering the API and custom apps, selling user submissions to AI companies for training, mistreating longtime moderators, disguising ads as posts and comments.
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Comment on The people do not yearn for automation in ~society
DynamoSunshirt Link ParentInteresting that you bring up North Korea. So you acknowledge there is a place for political violence? I do condemn political assassinations. But I also admit there's a fine line; I understand why...Interesting that you bring up North Korea. So you acknowledge there is a place for political violence? I do condemn political assassinations. But I also admit there's a fine line; I understand why Malcolm X tended towards more violent behavior than MLK, for instance. Oppress and mistreat people for long enough, and they become desperate.
Oddly I think I agree with you: assassination in North Korea? Fine enough. Assassination in the USA, even in 2026? Not OK.
Maybe we're stuck on the nuance of where to draw that fine line? But I'm not sure anyone knows precisely where to draw it. Consider Germany in Hitler's time; with the information of the common person, filtered through the propaganda state, in what month of what year of the Nazi takeover would you change from "assassination wrong" to "ok"? I don't think any of us can draw that line. I certainly can't!
So I suppose I'm just saying that I empathize with the desperation of these people. If you think assassination in North Korea is OK, don't you feel the same way?
Sometimes you have no choice -- for instance, if I wouldn't drive in snow, I would literally never leave my house some weeks! And plenty of in-person jobs basically require employees to take on that risk (some fairly, like firefighters, some less so, like in-person office gigs). But I do generally agree that we underestimate the risk!