anotherandrew

There's more than this required to build anything that'd be needed to survive in an automotive environment, and considerably more if you are hoping to have an open source/FOSS design that would be accepted as a suitable replacement for something proprietary, although I don't think that was your aim (but it does sound like OP's). I'm all for grassroots/homebrew stuff but we're talking about a thousand kilos+ of steel and plastic being hurled down a road carrying people, in and around other people in similar contraptions. This isn't something I'd exactly condone throwing a hackerspace's resources and some Arduinos at.

Last year I drove my parent’s car which is equipped with one of these cameras that determine if the driver is distracted or dozing. And I can say for certain that it works.

I rented two different modern (2015-2016) Mercedes SUVs. They both had systems that detected tired/inattentive driving. I was neither but after several hours on the road both vehicles would alert that it was time to take a break with a nice little coffee icon. I was conversing with a passenger, driving fine, not wandering between lanes/etc.. The first time I kind of doubted myself but subsequent notifications both the passenger and myself were agreeing that we had no idea what it was upset about.

The newer car had another sensor that would get upset if your grip on the steering wheel got too light. That was kind of neat to see how much leeway it'd give you before it got antsy.

With no return of your privileges once convicted.

All that does is create the problem of driving unlicensed, so now you imprison nonviolent offenders (assuming they aren't convicted of vehicular homicide type of charges).

I understand the sentiment, but the law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head here very quickly.

Bird-brained investors?

I just spent the week assembling furniture. IKEA’s instructions and overall build quality have fallen from the last time I did this. The instructions have gotten less detailed (as in, do I use the board that has six holes in pattern A or pattern B? The boards aren’t labeled and the patterns are very similar). Also, the hardware has gotten even cheaper than before. The cams that capture the hidden screw heads have always been fairly easy to strip if you’re not careful and they seem even moreso now. I didn’t have any trouble because I came into the task knowing this, but it was still a bit of a let down.

The store experience itself was about the same, with less employees milling around which is good for the showroom but bad for the warehouse. Overall the experience was slightly more negative than previously, especially since the prices have jumped for what IKEA offers which is, let’s face it, assemble it yourself junk furniture.

I don’t do full disk encryption on my backups. I use duplicity and encrypt the backups with three gpg keys: one that is for the IT department with a known passphrase, one for the business with a different known passphrase, and my personal key.

I’m a one man show but I set this up with the future in mind. Different data might not have all three keys, but this arrangement allows me to spin off bits of the data management as needed. The passphrases can be changed as/when needed without invalidating old backups.

Combined with ssh certificates it helps organize my IT needs.

Big Hero 6

My favourite little bird, the lowly barn swallow. Incredibly social, they gather on the power lines and twitter at each other when a storm is coming. Lightning fast, and voracious mosquito eaters, and they keep their nests incredibly clean, carrying out their droppings from the building.

I love barn swallows.

I’ve got one of those KeepConnect smart plugs which monitors a few different external servers and their own cloud, and automatically power cycles its outlet if things don’t work. They’ve damn near doubled in price since I’ve bought mine but it does work very well for me. Annual fee is reasonable too.

I could build something similar but I have too many projects as it is, and I feel I’d be fiddling with it endlessly just because I can. This is literally set and forget and in the last 2y it’s cycled the outlet 48 times, most of them in the middle of the night, presumably with my cable provider maintenance windows.

I’ve always felt that Quebec has been on the right side of these kinds of issues. They get heat for anti-Islam rhetoric but they apply the rules to all religions, which IMO is the right approach.

Exactly this. I use Shelly relays in the switch boxes and use the physical switch as an input to the Shelly relay. I have a couple AliExpress zigbee relays too that work well.

The trick is with three/four way switches where the smart relay needs continuous power and to be physically located at the end of the chain where power is actually switched to the light or outlet. Took me a while to figure that out but an SPDT relay with 120V coil solves that. The problem is space: fitting the relay to provide continuous power to the smart relay and the smart relay itself into a standard junction box with a physical switch and all the usual mess of wiring is not easy.

… not equipped to handle what, exactly?

Sexual assault is a pretty serious charge, and it appears in this case that the alleged victim seriously damaged her own credibility on several claims. I fully admit to not knowing a lot of this specific case but it sure seems like the justice system prevailed in upholding justice given the facts we have.