u/PhantomNomad

My earlier post was about my BBE and it's poor steaming. I know a dual boiler would be best but those prices are just out of my reach. So I ordered from idrinkcoffee a Quick Mill Pippa Espresso Machine. I maybe should have asked some questions before pulling the trigger, but what are others thoughts on this machine?

I have a BBE that is about 6 years old now. It still makes good espresso but the steam is really under powered (and always has been). It takes almost 2 minutes to get the milk to temp (about 60 to 65c). Compare that with my Casabrew that I bought for work which is much faster at 45 to 60 seconds. I've cleaned my BBE many times and I only use filtered water.

I have a separate grinder at home so I don't need the built in one of the BBE. I'm just wondering if there is something I can do to speed up my BBE or should I maybe look at getting a different machine? Is there a machine in the 750 to 1000 Canadian range I should consider? Or do I need to go higher? I've thought about one of those Chinese Meraki all in one but they are $2500 CAD. I would go for another Casabrew but it's not my favorite either. Just looking for better options.

Thanks for the help.

Just received this book today. Started reading the first chapter and I'm only 3 pages in to it. So far I really like the way he explains why white or black makes a certain move. I'm sure I've read and seen this on sites and youtube, but being able to read it and see the board state so far is really nice. Not sure how others feel about this book, but for me I think it's going to help a lot.

That's my quick and dirty book report for today.

I've got a UDM Pro and currently Port 9 is our primary ISP connection. Our ISP uses mac address to fix the IP address. As I've replaced routers over the years I've kept the same MAC addresses and just mac spoofing and it works fine on my UDM Pro. Recently I wanted to move a machine that is directly connected to my ISP with it's own Mac/IP to behind the UDM Pro. I spoofed the mac on the UDM Pro on to port 10, disconnected the cable from the old computer and plugged it in to port 10. The old computer isn't even on our internal network and only had that one ISP connection. As soon as I did this the UDM didn't get the IP it should have and everyone started losing connections to the internet. I thought it would eventually get the proper IP but never did after a few hours. I'm just wondering if I might be doing something wrong. I can't seem to find anything on google that helps. Any hints to try?

I updated my system and it of course updated to the latest version of nodejs. That means it broke audiobookshelf so it won't run any more. I need version 24 of nodejs but going back in to the package cache and installing nodejs-24.9.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst, audiobookshelf then complains about missing /usr/lib/libsimjson.so.29. Can anyone give me suggestions on how to get this working again?

I just got my Air 4 Pro. I've been successful at connecting them to my Samsung Flip 7 and using the flip screen as a mouse. Only problem I'm having is using Plex. Plex loads fine, but the interface is messed up. Just wondering if anyone has a fix for this?

I started reading "My System" last night. It my first book on chess. Im having issues following the moves when written. Not that I dont understand the notation, but I can't visualize it. I'm more of a audio/visual learner which doesnt help. So im thinking I need to break out the board to follow. Unless someone can suggest something else?

I bought 6 herb plants from CT this afternoon. I was going to plant them in this nice herb planter I have. It's 3 cups on a platter (I have two of them) and the plants fit perfectly from their cheap plastic pots from CT with no additional soil. A few of them already look like they might be getting root bound as the roots are circling the against the inside of the pot. I'm wondering if I should nix these ceramic ones I have and get bigger pots? Also should I replace the soil they came in with better potting soil?

Thanks for the help.

I've got an audio book that is 1 MP3 per CD and is 23 cd's long. The problem is it's only playing the first 3 or 4 minutes of the MP3 then moves to the next one. I've played the MP3's in other players and it works fine. I've also tried downloading the files to my phone through the download option in audiobookshelf and it still skips to the next track after a few minutes. Not sure why it would be doing this. Any suggestions?

Decided to stop buy my local small town coffee shop to try their espresso. Im sorry to report that it's very disappointing. It tastes way over roasted. Glad I spend the extra on my beans i get for home.

I have a MSI Claw (I guess you know that by the title) and I would like to play Nethack on it. I've got the tiled windows version and it works fine with the keyboard. But as you all know the Claw doesn't have a keyboard but it does have all the xbox controller controls, plus a couple of extra buttons on the back. I've got a trip coming up and would like to play while on the plane but don't want to use the keyboard. I've installed AntiMicroX and I've mapped most of the buttons and such, but was wondering if anyone might have a config file I could borrow that is a bit more refined.

Thanks.

About 5 years ago we tore up a 12x20' area in our back lawn to start a garden. Every year we battle the grass coming back. I spray it every spring with round up and that works for about a month. I don't want to spray after that as we are trying to grow food. I've tried putting landscape fabric down but it only works a little bit. I've also tried doing the no till gardening and used straw and that was even worse as nothing grew except the grass and weeds those two years. Am I just fighting a losing battle? What bothers me the most is the grass roots will grow right through my potatoes. Nothing like a "grass fed" potato!

Also I took the temp of my soil and it's sitting at about 9c. Probably still a bit cold to plant anything, correct?