Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Zed Clampet]

Someone posted something that reminded me of a joke. I may have already posted this here, not sure.

My wife confronted me and said, "Two things: One, stop calling me a pirate, and, two, you never buy me flowers".
I said, "I didn't even know you sold flowers."

 

[Zed Clampet]

People are going to love me. I've been going around noting that all these amazing videos people are sharing are AI

 

[Colif]

next "step" is to make my legs match, I can walk on foot but my balance needs work
Shoes are more comfy to walk in than bare foot. After wearing the boot for 2 months i need padding lol
'

One leg thinner than other, that will be next

two more weeks of pool visits already scheduled. Really odd going to a pool and not getting wet hair. Its not a swimming pool as one end only 3 foot deep, and other might be 6... I can stand at far end with head out of water.

Pool visit made me more tired than normal

Walked to end of street and it felt twice as long as I remember it. Normally take bigger steps than I currently am, as smaller ones take more to cover the distance. Legs got used to doing nothing for two months.

 

[Pifanjr]

People are going to love me. I've been going around noting that all these amazing videos people are sharing are AI

I occasionally see someone posting a picture asking if it's AI and they've gotten significantly better over the past months/year, to the point where I often wouldn't be able to easily tell.

The last picture I saw depicted a kitchen in a snack bar and looked convincing to me. The major tells pointed out by other people is that there was too much clutter and that things were in the wrong space for a kitchen, something you wouldn't really know if you don't have any experience with working in one.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I occasionally see someone posting a picture asking if it's AI and they've gotten significantly better over the past months/year, to the point where I often wouldn't be able to easily tell.

The last picture I saw depicted a kitchen in a snack bar and looked convincing to me. The major tells pointed out by other people is that there was too much clutter and that things were in the wrong space for a kitchen, something you wouldn't really know if you don't have any experience with working in one.

Pictures require more examination. Videos are relatively easy. On 2/5/26, if the video shows something amazing and is under 10 seconds long, it's AI.

If the video seems plausible, watch anything in the video that moves. For instance, there was a video of a bear attacking a scary Halloween decoration, but as the bear moved, parts of him subtly changed shape. Somehow most people didn't notice it.

Also look for connections, where one thing meets another thing and there is movement. Also, look for impossible fluidity. AI is terrible at this. For instance, someone uploaded a video of a child who had fallen into a gorilla enclosure. The gorilla picked up the child and reached up and handed the child back to someone who was leaning over the wall. Picking up the child was far too smooth, and when the gorilla handed the child over, it actually wasn't holding the child at that point, and, again, it wasn't messy enough. From the moment the gorilla bent over the child, the child moved up and into the hands of the adult in one fluid motion.

 

[BeardyHat]

My friend sent a video recently that was AI, but clearly an attempt to disguise it. It was basically some "old timer" talking about modern things, but it was really cropped and had this filter over it that looked like it was filmed in maybe the early 80's, which made no sense. Soon as I noticed those things I started looking for those telltale AI video signs and sure enough, could see them in his hair.

I should have painted today (though I have plenty of time), but instead I installed Fedora Linux on my Surface Go 2 for some reason.

Playing Golden Idol on it via touch is actually significantly better than it was in Windows.

 

[Colif]

Our A/C keeps turning off. Mum had it serviced today and expected to be told we need a new unit.

She was right, 5k for a new A/C as its probably about 25 years old now. I don't exactly know when they bought it, I wasn't taking any notice. Price includes installation and they also putting a ceiling fan in the roof in her room.

New A/C and new insulation means next summer should be a little cooler.

Old one is approx 12 years old, I found its model number.
New one:

https://www.panasonic.com/au/hvac/products/air-conditioner/single-room-air-conditioning/premium-reverse-cycle-inverter-z-series-akr.html

knew it, wifi connected. And has an app.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Our A/C keeps turning off. Mum had it serviced today and expected to be told we need a new unit.

She was right, 5k for a new A/C as its probably about 25 years old now. I don't exactly know when they bought it, I wasn't taking any notice. Price includes installation and they also putting a ceiling fan in the roof in her room.

New A/C and new insulation means next summer should be a little cooler.

Old one is approx 12 years old, I found its model number.
New one:

https://www.panasonic.com/au/hvac/products/air-conditioner/single-room-air-conditioning/premium-reverse-cycle-inverter-z-series-akr.html

knew it, wifi connected. And has an app.

In the US, those are known as mini-splits, which are more efficient than what most Americans use. Because of the way houses used to be heated in the US, every house is basically built with a duct system, which makes Central HVAC very cheap to install.

The efficiency isn't a huge deal because American homes have always been built to retain temperature. Insulation levels are more than double in the US. Floors are insulated. Windows are typically triple pane, while Australian houses usually are single pane.

This is largely because in the US, almost every foot of earth is inhabitable, and only 40 percent of people live in coastal areas whereas it's over 80 percent in Australia. This makes temperature extremes greater in the US than in the average residential area in Australia.

For instance, summer highs in Sydney average 79f and average low in winter is 47f. Perth has the largest swing of the Australian cities I checked. It ranges from an average summer high of 89 to a low of 46. Meanwhile, Chicago goes from 84 to 18, Minneapolis from 84 to 9, Phoenix from 106 to 46. (Apparently a lot of people consider that habitable. I'm not in that group.)

The US and Australia have the largest home sizes in the world. I think Australia edges out the US by 4 square feet, so they are essentially identical. But US homes tend to be very compartmentalized. From what I understand about Australian homes, it's fairly common for the non-bedroom/bathroom areas to be one large area, which helps airflow, while in the US, all of those are individual rooms.

Apologies. I just got curious and did some research.

 

[Colif]

Most Australian houses don't have a basement. Under my house is just dirt. There is a crawl space but I never want to go into it.

we are getting dual glazing windows (2 layers thick) once we replace windows, mainly to reduce outside noise and insulation.

Temperature ranges here don't go so extreme. Most of our houses don't need to be built to deal with snow. More likely heat.
Not all of our houses are the same sizes, in my suburb many were built by the government and weren't that big. Most of those have been extended or replaced in the 60 years I have lived here. Our house is tiny compared to our neighbours, we never extended the house.
Newer houses likely are bigger.

 

[BeardyHat]

Honestly, the real question about Aussie homes: do you guys do the weird one faucet for hot, one faucet for cold like the British and the Kiwi's?

 

[neogunhero]

knew it, wifi connected. And has an app.

What's the MAC address? Just want to make sure you guys are keeping cool from afar.

Wifi connected appliances will be the bane of my existence.
My wife: Can we buy a bread mixer?
Me: Look it up on eBay and make sure it was made pre-2010.

No reason for my coffee maker to have an app, but that is where we're at. It is convenient... when I remember to use it. You can do all the same functions right on the device itself, the app does nothing different. You still have to remember to put coffee grounds and water in... if you're already doing that then how would you forget to set the scheduled start time??

 

[Colif]

• no reason for my fridge to have a camera in it or on front. Ours has threatened to die a few times but so far its lived. Its approx 16 years old this year.
• Our heater is only 10 years old but not internet connected... must have just missed it.
• Dishwasher is dumb as far as I know. never looked.
• Oven/hot top is dumb (its same age as fridge, Kitchen was all upgraded in 2010)
• TV is smart... its only 1 year old after all.
• Our washing machine can be attached to wifi... never did.

The A/C will be useful, mum can use her Apple Tablet to control it. I will put app on my android phone so I am the contact number for 2 step authentication.

nothing else in house I can think of. Mum is generally resistant to change unless it breaks.

 

[BeardyHat]

• no reason for my fridge to have a camera in it or on front. Ours has threatened to die a few times but so far its lived. Its approx 16 years old this year.
• Our heater is only 10 years old but not internet connected... must have just missed it.
• Dishwasher is dumb as far as I know. never looked.
• Oven/hot top is dumb (its same age as fridge, Kitchen was all upgraded in 2010)
• TV is smart... its only 1 year old after all.
• Our washing machine can be attached to wifi... never did.

The A/C will be useful, mum can use her Apple Tablet to control it. I will put app on my android phone so I am the contact number for 2 step authentication.

nothing else in house I can think of. Mum is generally resistant to change unless it breaks.

You still haven't mentioned if you have separate taps for hot and cold in your sink...you're starting to make me think your whole country is also a part of the conspiracy and has been kept from the secrets of hydrological temperature regulation. Or maybe your Civ just hasn't researched it yet...

When we got our whole house fan about 8 years ago, they gave us a Smart Switch. I thought I'd be able to control it via my phone, as well as have the regular switch on the wall to turn it off and on, but nope, it was phone only. I had them come back and give me a regular old switch, because I don't need that stuff in my life. The only smart thing I can think of that we own is the TV and I've blocked it off from the internet so it serves only as a monitor for the PC it's connected to.

Also, Fedora on my Surface Go didn't last. I was hoping things would feel a little faster on Linux with that old machine, but they actually ended-up feeling a bit slower over all, as well as having some graphical glitches. But the final straw was how it unmounted the SDcard after a reboot, which I had to mount in a special way in order to get Steam to recognize and use. Soon as I saw it missing, it was about 9pm and I just didn't feel like messing with it anymore, so I reinstalled Windows and decided to be done with it. I'm sure I could have written a script or something to automount it, but I just was tired of futzing and gave up.

 

[Frindis]

When you put hot water in the coffee glass holder, then forget to pour out hot water and you start brewing the coffee... that's really FUN! 🔥

 

[Zed Clampet]

You still haven't mentioned if you have separate taps for hot and cold in your sink...you're starting to make me think your whole country is also a part of the conspiracy and has been kept from the secrets of hydrological temperature regulation. Or maybe your Civ just hasn't researched it yet...

When we got our whole house fan about 8 years ago, they gave us a Smart Switch. I thought I'd be able to control it via my phone, as well as have the regular switch on the wall to turn it off and on, but nope, it was phone only. I had them come back and give me a regular old switch, because I don't need that stuff in my life. The only smart thing I can think of that we own is the TV and I've blocked it off from the internet so it serves only as a monitor for the PC it's connected to.

Also, Fedora on my Surface Go didn't last. I was hoping things would feel a little faster on Linux with that old machine, but they actually ended-up feeling a bit slower over all, as well as having some graphical glitches. But the final straw was how it unmounted the SDcard after a reboot, which I had to mount in a special way in order to get Steam to recognize and use. Soon as I saw it missing, it was about 9pm and I just didn't feel like messing with it anymore, so I reinstalled Windows and decided to be done with it. I'm sure I could have written a script or something to automount it, but I just was tired of futzing and gave up.

Maybe this is the same thing you are talking about with the whole house fan. We had a fan that was in the upstairs ceiling that brought air in from the windows and blew it into the attic. Had to remember to open a window or you could have a catastrophic decompression (or at least it sounded like that was about to happen).

 

[neogunhero]

• TV is smart... its only 1 year old after all.
• Our washing machine can be attached to wifi... never did.

As long as you can operate it without needing to be connected to Wifi then I'm fine with it. Just don't force me to have to connect or lock certain features behind an app, or worse yet, a subscription. I hear horror stories of this sort of thing all over the internet and I'm glad I haven't ran into anything that would make me seriously consider a class action lawsuit. However, I can learn from these stories and realize to stay away from Wifi-enabled appliances as much as I can. The coffee maker was a Christmas present a few years ago.

The only other wifi-enabled devices I have are a few lightbulbs and honestly they work great. I forget which kind specifically, they're Sylvania brand, and they only connect to Bluetooth. The app is a bit janky, but I typically just set a single color and never change it again besides brightness. I do wish for the brightness there could be a physical knob on the lamp to adjust it rather than have to launch an app that takes a good 20 seconds to boot up. I could have just got a bulb with the daylight color I wanted, but then I can't adjust dimness, so that was the only reason why I got these.

Unfortunately it's near impossible to buy a dumb TV these days. Ars Technica put out a good article a few months back about how to break free from smart TV BS, and in the section talking about dumb TVs, the choices are very slim these days.

 

[BeardyHat]

Maybe this is the same thing you are talking about with the whole house fan. We had a fan that was in the upstairs ceiling that brought air in from the windows and blew it into the attic. Had to remember to open a window or you could have a catastrophic decompression (or at least it sounded like that was about to happen).

Yeah, exactly. We had one installed in our first house we bought and after we sold that one and moved, we loved it so much we needed another.

Works great during the summer without the high bill AC can bring. Though after having our solar panels installed a few years ago, we can run our 3 window AC units 24/7 and not incur a bill. Unfortunately, can't say the same for our portable electric heaters.