Yikes! Our all in price for fiber (1000/1000 to the house, 10Gbs shared across 40 houses), including local phone is $10/month. Granted we are in Sweden, but there is no subsidy here. Just a competitive environment.

I have about 10 of them spread throughout the house. Hereâ(TM)s why they (currently) donâ(TM)t have any alternatives (at least in Europe).
- heads up before going off. Allows me to silence them when I burn the toast or eggs
- every uni has a name and when they go off, it tells me which unit is responsible. Before this, I had interconnected ones (that kept triggering from dust). Last thing you want at 3am is all of your alarms going off and not knowing which one is responsible
- App notifications let me know that one is going off when I am not home (which triggers a call to the kids to understand what the problem is) or if one is going off when we are on holiday (previous detectors due to dust).
- battery Alerts that do not go off at 3am
- night path lighting

Yes, they are ridiculously expensive but since getting them, I havenâ(TM)t had a single false alert, compared to cheaper models that routinely ruined my sleep.

She clearly need to watch Johnny English strikes again. The writers seem to have predicted the future quite wellâ¦

Yea, I saw one of those in a Best Buy when I was visiting the US and thought that it was a great piece of tech. Just hate the whole Facebook aspect of itâ¦

Edit: "mini wants a single volume) and cds on top of that". --> minio wants a single volume) and XFS on top of that.

Seems ios autocorrect doesn't like unix utility names.

I use Arq backup which supports Amazon S3 as a client on all of my machines. I am running a raspberry pi 4 with a couple of attached disks running LVM to span the volumes (mini wants a single volume) and cds on top of that.

I also have another disk attached to the same server that provides local target for Time Machine backups.

I have two of these- in at my house, one at my parents. My arq client backs up to their server and their arq clients backup to mine. My Macâ(TM)s backup to the local Time Machine disk, and theirs to their local Time Machine disk.

Functionally, this gives us both two copies of all data at different locations and using different backup software.

Backups are protected via encryption within arq. Only hole into the network is an open port for Minio. Remote ssh is handled using Tailscale.

Advantage to this setup is also that the are backups work globally- no need to be on the local network.

Only downside to this is that the OneDrive and arq clients on Mac donâ(TM)t play nicely together (OneDrive doesnâ(TM)t always materialize all files), so I have goodsync running on one Mac that keeps a local copy of my OneDrive folder on a dedicated ssd. That syncs hourly.

I was in Mexico City a few weeks back and had a pizza type dish that was loaded with nicely fried crickets. Among the more tasty (and filling) meals I have had in quite awhile.

Spot on!

Yes, having a single player would result in the most efficient design... Imagine if we only had a single mail/parcel supplier, or a single airline - they could design their network to cover all of the needs of all people in the most efficient manner. Do we really need three planes flying every hour by three different companies on the same route, or would it make more sense to fly a single large plane once per hour that can carry all of the people?

But with that comes the costs of monopoly - the ability to extort outsized prices. This is why monopolies are regulated (thing your local water/power network - they are allowed a fixed return on assets) or prevented from using their power in one industry to take over another industry.

Sweden is a horrible country from a mobile standpoint, theoretically. Our population density is 50% lower than the US (23 vs 35 people/km2). With Cell phone plans that cost 50% of the US equivalent (and keep in mind, the headline numbers on the Swedish websites are all-in, including 25% VAT), compared to the US where taxes and fees are on top of the headline prices). Yet somehow my phone here is far more reliable than in the USA. While the costs are low, the operators need to invest in their networks to keep their customers - this is what happens when you have choice.

Compare this to greyhound bus service in the USA... Yes, I know it is a different industry, but the comparison fits... Most people who take greyhound have no real options for interstate transit services. They are a captive audience. And greyhound knows this. Look at how greyhound treats their customers - as there is no real competition, greyhound treats their customers like total crap (just look on youtube for people trying to make cross-country greyhound trips). Competition drives innovation and investment. Lack of competition drives high prices and lack of investment.

I find the examples comical. We pay circa 12 USD/month for 1000/1000 internet and home phone service. My wife and kids pay circa 9 USD per month for 10GB data and unlimited calling (and they can double it for an extra 5 USD/month) using 5G.

Only when we get out to the countryside do we start to see any real differences in the network strengths, and even then, only when we are inside houses. Compare this to the US, where I was visting my parents and standing outside a shopping mall in Florida trying to download the JCPenny app from the app store, and was getting like half a megabit/second.

In all of my travels around Europe, I can't remember the last time that I didn't have a reliable cell phone signal with good data speeds. When I visit the USA, I can't say the same.

Even Starlink has had to reduce their prices here (Sweden) because they can't compete with the local networks.

Or look at the cost of air travel... All of the mergers that the US have allowed has turned the US into a high cost flight country... We can routinely still find 50 USD round trip fares from Copenhagen to London, a flying time of about 90 minutes.

Concentration of players almost invariably leads to higher prices.

Maybe code is different in the UK. The ones here work quite well⦠speaking from experience

As mentioned, we also have whole house GFCI breakers- if the flow on the positive doesnâ(TM)t match the flow on the neutral, the power stops (same as you have in the US on bathroom sockets- but we have it at the house level- much safer). You get a jolt and your fingers tingle for a few minutes, but life saving.

I have two children. But most sockets are live in most houses anyway. And here in Europe, all of our new outlets have safety shutters that will only disengage when you put things in both holes at the same time. We also have whole house GFCI breakers.

I just finished rewiring my house. Getting rid of switch wires made it a lot easier - just run +, neutral and ground to every socket and every switch location. Decide as time goes on which switch(es) should control which sockets. Adds a lot of flexibility- want the switch by the door to turn off ALL lights in the house, but only turn on the hall light? No problem. Having dedicated switch wires in the walls really limits flexibility.