u/thunderborg

We‘re about to have our second child so I’m looking for the best “bang for buck” saving tips In Queensland.

We’re got Solar and are running our appliances during the day where possible, like the pool pump and dryer our usage is 400-500KWh per month except in Summer when it’s 600-700 with AC. including electric hot water.

I’m just about to Churn our NBN for 6 months, I’m self hosting some services to cut down on subscriptions.

We’re Meal prepping hard at the moment for when baby comes too and only get takeout 1-2 times per week.

Hey folks,

Are there any small notebook style devices that are eink, for the extended battery life, the main purpose is digital note taking, the equivalent to a small notepad.

I'm toying with the Hisense A6 but the third party stylus doesn't feel quite right. Like I'm writing in a notepad with a giant novelty pencil.

Edit: for Clarity I'm looking for an eink device similar size to the ISO A6 paper size, around the size of a postcard or smaller for Pocketability

I used to be Android, now I’m iPhone, and I’m considering a Pebble.
The thing I loved about the Pebble was long battery life and filtered, silent notifications on my wrist and media playback.

Does it live up to my simple expectations?

Hey folks I have a Win4 with a 6800U and run Bazzite, it takes forever (1:15 to the bazzite video) t start up, hell it sits in a black screen for ages before it shows the Bazzite video and after that it’s pretty snappy. The longer boot time means I’m playing it less.

Its 2026 how can I speed up boot time, and if requires whats good for an OS that you’re running on a GPD Win?

I run Fedora on other computers, like the console experience of booting straight into big picture mode and occasionally use desktop mode what are my options now And is anyone actually running Steam OS Proper on the Win4?

My 2011 Macbook Pro on Fedora takes ~37 to the login screen. I assume bazzite is logging in and doing stuff while on a black screen.

My Soundcore Q30 headband broke in my backpack after 5 years of service. They’re currently taped up and are holding up well. I’m considering getting out the superglue and getting a 3d printed bracket to reinforce the superglue.

Its been a while since I’ve looked, what’s good?

I’m in Australia and haven’t got a budget other than under $500AUD, I would like to spend less, but if spare parts are available I’d consider spending more of the budget.

Basically what’s good with Active Noise Cancelling? either best bang for buck that’s not too heavy for commuter use or a more expensive with better build and parts availability are the two paths I’m considering.

edit: the Bluetooth Offerings from Audio Technica are enticing but I’m unsure if the lack of ANC is going to be a problem.

Hey Folks,

My wife has been interested in Mealie so I’ve spun it up and it’s great, however I think for her to adopt it properly the experience needs to be as frictionless as possible, so I’m looking for some recipe link to add into the mix to build out the ingredient database so she doesn’t have to add as many items to the ingredient database when adding a recipe

Hey Folks,

I’m ready to give Nextcloud a proper go again. I’ve been running some services self hosted for a couple of years now I tried next cloud ages ago and broke it and didn’t understand how to fix it. I have had some connectivity issues, some ISP related, some related to my kit and have been thinking about running it in a VPS. I won’t run Memories/Photos because I’m already running Immich, and have a few questions:

• For those of you running a VPS and have done it for a while (3+ years)- what cpu and ram are you running, and if you’ve been running it for 5+ years for a family and have you had to scale up your VPS?
• Has anyone successfully run it on a free tier with a large provider like AWS etc. long term? my planning is as a free tier you’re likely to get bumped.
• What’s the most resilient version long term? The last time I looked into it there was sentiment between an All in one image and an alternative and the most vocal members of the community seemed divided.

Thanks, a more experienced Nextcloud Noob.

EDIT: I plan to set it up self hosted and tinker before I build it on a VPS If that matters, and plan to work out migration from a backup.

Hey folks,

I’m looking for inspiration. I’m running the latest Fedora Workstation and I’m either looking for a rain meter style tool that puts text status in my desktop wallpaper, or I’m looking for desktop widgets- probably a mix of both

Can anyone suggest some tools or extensions for me?

Things I’m looking for:

date/time/Timezone

weather

Stocks/finance widget

rss feed

battery/Wifi status.

thanks.

Hi we’re expecting a baby in November and I’m looking for tips to help prep my 2 1/4 boy.

He says there’s a baby in mummy’s belly, so we think he understands.

I'm talking to him about what a baby is like, how at first it’ll be this tiny person who eats, poos, sleeps and cries, and how it’ll take a long time before they’re big enough and old enough to have Bluey & Bingo times. I show him pictures of the scans (and have shown him his scans previously). We also really liked the phrase “I love you no matter what” and have been saying that for a while too.

Have you got any other talking points or tips?

I’ve got the kit I just haven’t decided what to put it in, something like an Esky, that’s useful in its own right but ideally more portable.

Like it’s something you would conceivably take with you, but it’s got a Bluetooth speaker built in.

Spotify Hasn’t been paying fair royalties to musicians for as long as it’s existed, remember when Taylor Swift pulled her music because the measurable money lost in sales was not being replaced by streaming, Daft Punk’s song at its height brought in $10,000 of revenue, and the scourge of AI music ending up in Spotify playlists.

I don’t want to be chicken little over hear but I really think more people should consider buying music if you can afford it, the world is expensive and I get it. I quit Spotify and have been spending that money on music purchases from Qobuz and Bandcamp both of which have streaming built into their apps.

If we don’t support the music industry financially I shudder to think what will be left.

I’m dating at the W hotel looking at the Sky Needle and wondering when it last shone.

I know it’s surrounded by apartments and it would blast the west end apartments, but I can’t remember when it last shone.

I do remember a couple of years ago Zach and Dom on 97.3 trying to get it fired up again.

I have a Switch OLED and CRKD Nitro Deck and absolutely love it. It pains me I can’t use it on my playthrough of Let’s Go Pikachu.
I’m planning to get a Switch 2 before the Price increase in September, and was wondering if I should keep or sell my OLED, the Nitro Deck is the biggest reason I’m thinking of keeping, at least until a grip/similar thing comes out and had a few questions:

Did you play on the Switch or did it just gather dust If you kept it?

Hows the Cloud save cross device stuff work for the games that support it in 2026? I know I’ll need NSO

What’s the most comfortable grip/case you’ve found, or does the Switch 2 not need it?

For those who keeps using the Switch 1 in conjunction with the switch 2- what are you playing and what has your Switch 1 become?

Indiana jones, 007 First light, MGS Master Collection Vol 2. Are the big reasons I want to go Switch 2 I’m also keen for Pokemon Legends ZA but have set myself the task of finishing every Pokemon game I own on switch first, unless I see a wild deal on it used.

Edit: I like the idea of the OLED becoming my “On-the-go” Switch unless I’m playing a Switch 2 Exclusive and Switch 2 for longer gaming sessions, probably at home.
might also be a good excuse for a fresh Animal Crossing Island

I’m interested in running llms locally but of course everything is so expensive right now, I don’t own a graphics card, and my homelab is running on Mini PCs and SFF towers so adding a GPU isn’t an easy task.

I am looking to buy something but I'm not sure what. My llm use is generally, writing email structures (I then take the format and write it in one hit, vibe coding productivity tools for one, my hope is to plan and refine locally if I can’t build locally ask a cloud llm to do it.

I’m also running sub/wave and would like to host that locally but it’s quite happy running Ollama cloud model.

I want the most ”bang for buck” options. I’ve Not got the deepest pockets, and was thinking along the lines of a used M series Mac Mini But wanted to know how Many other options there are.

One thing that’s really beginning to bother me, I’ve noticed but I feel like it’s gotten worse, is websites that have a poor experienc, bugs etc, to nudge you to download the app that is, the exact same interface. Like the “app“ is just a web wrapper.

Rant over.

Hey folks,

Im seriously considering going back to pebble. its been ~8 years since my pebble died and I bought a box of broken pebbles before the announcement to fix (it’s still in my project pile) and have realised I almost have what I want already, but is what I want what I need?

I’m currently running an Amazfit Neo and my main gripes are that it only has a piezo for notifications no vibration motor and the notification is an icon with no further info (on iOS) the battery lasts for over a week and I’ve turned off everything except the pedometer.

The two things I loved about my pebble was triaging notifications and music playback controls.

Hi Folks,

Can anyone recommend a blocklist? My primary goal is to only block malicious ads, and tracking. For example I don’t want to block ads on news websites unless they’re malicious.