Maybe if you have a bad bank, I’ve checked mine and it’s competitive. April 17 I did a Bandcamp transaction in GBP, charged my Chase card and got <1% difference in USD compared to the mid-market exchange rate on that date. It’s $90.21 on my statement, $89.92 when I calculate it, so +0.3% off the mid-market rate.

If you’re getting anything worse than this, you’ve got a shady bank, and there’s no lack of competition.

It’s not hard to find a bank that only charges a 1% fee on the spot exchange rate. You shouldn’t be using a debit card (“cash in the account”) almost anywhere. Credit is so much better.

How often are you spending >$500 vs <$500 on a single transaction in a foreign currency?

Don’t use a bank that charges $5 for currency conversion. If it’s anything more than an additional 1% it’s a shit bank. Always charge things in the local currency and let your bank do the conversion for +1%. Need cash? Hit a real bank ATM (not a shady kiosk one) with a debit card that refunds ATM fees and withdraw local currency for +1%. Currency conversion any other way is a complete ripoff, aside from ordering money from the bank before you leave.

240V vs 120V. For an equivalent amount of current, 240V supplies twice the amount of power to the heating element.

Robot vacuum. My floors are spotless except for some areas you’d never walk on and I only need to do some spot cleaning every month or two.

Dishwashers are awesome too, watch Technology Connections’ video on YouTube if you think your dishwasher doesn’t do a good job. It’s likely just how you’re using it. Priming the hot water before running, using powder detergent instead of liquid or packs (booo), and using the pre-wash and rinse aid will have even the gnarliest dishes coming out spotless.

Been using Voyager since it was called Wefwef for both mobile and desktop Lemmy, love it.

This is a list of games from which Denuvo was removed. That makes them potentially worth playing. You’re outright dismissing the entire list of games because they had Denuvo at one time.

I’m not even suggesting you support the developers, pirate away. Some of these games are good now that Denuvo was removed.

there are a lot of games on here that are neither AAA or big piles of shit… you’re just not interested in them.

“Only the games I care about are good”

This isn’t any exaggeration: it has been demonstrated using statistical analysis

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.

Why not compare 720p 265 to 1080p 265? I don’t get anything in 264 these days, 265 support is ubiquitous and the performance is so much better.

Perhaps it’s a bit pedantic, but I’d consider that a road sensor not a weather sensor. Road condition and a webcam is related to weather but not one of the primary instruments like a barometer, anemometer, thermometer, rain gauge, etc.

I see what you’re saying though, it could be one of those road sensors.

Doesn’t look like any weather sensor is there to me.

Radio is the OG fediverse and I want to promote decentralization and self-sufficiency. Amateur radio is a lot easier and more accessible than you might think.

No worries! It’s a cool hobby. Getting licensed was a bucket list item, as nerdy as that sounds. Still gotta learn Morse code but I hope to one of these days. Seeing some old heads tapping away at a local HAM event was pretty damn cool.

I did - I’ve got my general license. Missed extra by 2 questions despite not studying for it whatsoever.

Honestly I’ve been doing this for like 2 years now and I’ve not really keyed up and transmitted in the amateur radio sense, just GMRS walkie talkie stuff with the homies. Still, it’s super cool being able to listen. Picking up satcom stuff is just neat. I also take it to the airport and listen to the pilots talk with tower/ground crew.

One of these days I’ll transmit for real, but I have no problem following the “LURK MOAR” guideline as applied to amateur radio as I learn the culture.

You can buy a cheap Chinese HT like a Quansheng UV-K6 for like $40. These have open firmware and there’s a bunch of custom options radio nerds have whipped up. Get the USB programming cable even if you’re not doing custom FW, makes programming frequencies and tweaking options much easier. You’ll also need a license and in the US, HamStudy.org has the exact questions from the test. There’s a ton of YouTube channels you can watch and books you can read for general purpose radio knowledge. Then it’s just a matter of getting a proper antenna and pointing it in the right place at the right time; there’s free resources online, paid apps, all that is out there and it’s just a matter of wanting to learn it. The actual hardware you need to get started is really cheap these days.

You’d be better served learning how to do it yourself. It’s not hard and it’s a pretty cool skill to have (amateur radio).