after the comments in my previous topic, I proceeded to try Notesnook and Joplin after having issues with Nextcloud Notes (that I have already documented in my previous post)

Notesnook ain't bad if it's your jam. I found it easy to use and quite nice U.I. the only dings against it (obviously subjective) is that it really isn't supportive of markdown in an easy way, you have to pay for it cause there's no self-hosting option and you have to pay for the ability to have more than 5 tags.

Joplin's only ding imo is just that it has no web browser interface, but beyond that, there's nothing else fuctionality-wise I can really count against it, the U.I. is rather dated but the functionality is so stable that I am more than willing to deal with a dated UI. and I can self-host using my nextcloud instance so that's a great plus in avoiding additional charge.

So I personally recommend Joplin if you don't care about a dated UI in order to avoid having to pay a subscription if you are willing to self-host.

In other news, by the time I finally imported all my Nextcloud notes to Joplin, the nextcloud Notes App had managed to wipe 60 of my notes empty. I love nextcloud and its let me do wonderful things but the notes app they have is incredibly buggy when combined with their android app and how they are trying to implement markdown support.

"Scavengers Reign" eluded me when it released last year, but I was made aware of it after MAX canceled the show in May (Netflix has since picked it up but may or may not put in for more, is how I understand the situation).

The trailer has been posted here but I wanted to check in and see how everyone else felt about it (keep it spoiler free!). Personally I was enthralled all the way through. It has such an interesting blend of Miyazaki-esque "creature-y" world building with more meditative displays of nature and the violence and balance that is integral to it. If that sounds at all interesting I would suggest watching the first of twelve episodes, you will probably know if you are interested or not after it's over.

Here's hoping Netflix green lights more, assuming the creators want to continue. It really could stand as-is with where they left it.

A little over a year ago I posed some questions on Tildes about used electrics.

Shortly after that topic, I went put and purchased a 2016 VW E-Golf. I think that my experiences might be useful for anyone that is considering an electric but struggles with range anxiety or just wonders how practical a car with low range would actually be. When looking at used car prices, I was shocked at how cheap a low range electric car was compared to longer range EVs. I picked mine up for $10,500 out the door.

For context, I live on the outside of a small city in the Midwest. It gets cold here. I am also in a two car household, the other being a hybrid. There are two adults and children in the house.

The Golf has a roughly 20 kWh battery. Over the year that I have driven it, I have averaged 4.5 miles per kWh. That sounds like a range of 90 miles, but that doesn't tell the whole story. On cold days when resistive heating has to be run, the mileage drops by around 30%. On a nice mild day, I can get it up to 6 mi/kWh on a trip if I am off of the highway.

I did not need to install any additional charging abilities in my garage. I have the charger plugged into a random 110V outlet in my garage. I was prepared to shell out a bit of money for an electrician if the 110 circuit didn't cut it, but over a year of use I have not actually run into a scenario where I needed to use more than the trickle charge.

I work a hybrid setup. Twice a week I need to drive into the office around 20 miles away. The office does have some electric charging stations on a 220 circuit but I have not felt the need to charge there on any occasion.

The shorter range does mean that some coordination is required between the two adults in the household. If one of us needs to travel out of town for work or something involving the kids, the other has to limit their travel. In practice for our house, this annoyance ends up being more a concern for which vehicle needs car seats than a concern for mileage. Exactly one occasion this year we have had to adjust plans to deal with having a limited range vehicle.

Overall, I really have been thoroughly happy with the low range EV choice as the primary vehicle in a two vehicle household with a backup for longer range trips.

I've been on a hunt for a new monitor for over a year now. Something that can be for personal use and WFH with these specs:

• 4k
• 144Hz
• MiniLED
• <=34" (no curve)
• Built-in KVM switch

Having briefly experienced the INNOCN 27M2V, I expected a "perfect" monitor on the horizon.

Soon after I stumbled into a blog post announcing BenQ's reveal of a monitor that featured all the specs I wanted. I've finally got my hands on that monitor today having waited ~6 months.

First impression was the size. This monitor is a thicc boi. Made me think of a television, but not as heavy as I expected. I mounted it on my monitor arm (VESA 100) without problems.

The OSD is nifty and easy to navigate. There are 5 "quick menus" (ALPHA, BRAVO, etc.) that let you customize settings for each and quickly switch between them. These menus can be customized to select 3 "favorite" settings (e.g. brightness) so that you don't have to dig through the entire menu.

• What you see when you initially open the OSD
• Customizing quick menu favorites

After tinkering a bit, I've fired up Prince of Persia The Lost Crown. I've set the display profile to use the per-configured "Fantasy" color mode (with mini-led enabled). Honestly I don't know what I'm doing these settings, so I don't know whether this monitor is calibrated at all, but it was gorgeous. I don't think any picture I take will demonstrate how good it looks.

I don't have much to say about the KVM yet. But I connected my keyboard+mouse to the monitor, then connected the USB to USB-C to my desktop. I also connected my work laptop (USB-C to USB-C). Everything works, but it'll take a couple of days of normal use to see if there are hiccups. I like switching between desktop (waking from sleep) and my work laptop then vise-versa. I'm curious to see if the "auto scan" works like I want it to.

Unfortunately, I've discovered 2 "stuck" sub-pixels. According to BenQ's dead pixel policy, this is "acceptable". One of the sub-pixels (green) is almost in the center of the screen and I zero in on it almost immediately. I'll reach out to their support regardless because I prefer not to have defects at this price ($1199.99). If I'm lucky I'll discover another stuck sub-pixel.

BenQ's Specs

Feel free to define lesser known how you like. Here's my list. Most of these have fewer than 100,000 subscribers. Some of them have fewer than 10,000 subs.

Al Brady (32k subs)

Has a nice mix of sweet and savoury food. Has a lot of videos below ten minutes - there's a rapid pacing here that avoids the problems of TikTok / YT Shorts cooking. Enough time to explain what he's doing, no useless padding.

Baking on a Budget (40k subs)

A reasonably new channel (only 33 videos as I post this). He has a method for pricing the recipes, and we can always argue about whether that makes sense or not, but at least it's consistent across his videos so viewers get an idea of relative costs. The recipes are simple. They're aimed at providing tasty filling food for cheap. The production values are low - no fancy lighting, no fancy camera, the kitchen table looks a bit rickety.

BoSFinesse (6k subs)

He's from Bristol (South West UK) and has the regional accent to prove it. He visits and reviews street food and cafés. I love videos like this - show-casing normal eateries. It's rough and ready - he sometimes includes swearing. And he's usually positive, or occasionally very mildly not positive. But I like that. He does a mix of shorts and long form - the long form does tend to be a bit calmer and explanatory.

Bread and Food (400 subs)

Features food, mostly street food or bread, from Iran. I like the "show don't tell" aspect of these videos. There are loads of street food videos and I watch quite a few. Lots of videos are presented by people that I don't enjoy watching.

YumTopia (5.5k subs)

Another street food channel, again from Iran. This is the video that I really like - street food often looks like it has been rapidly cooked, but there are examples of slow cooked food. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJowrQQisg

The Staff Canteen (152k)

At over 100k subs this probably doesn't belong here, but I think this fits here because many of their videos get fewer than 1000 views. Views are picking up recently. It's a great channel if you're interested in fine dining in the UK. There are a huge number of interviews with some very very good chefs here, and often they demonstrate one of their dishes.

Pete's Pans (9.5k subs)

He researches regional dishes from France, Spain, and Portugal and he claims to present traditional "authentic" versions of various dishes. I've only just started watching, and I'm not sure if I'll end up finding that he's not for me.