Just keep in mind that the upper limit of what you can mount onto plasterboard is the strength of the actual plasterboard itself more than it is the wall plug once you get to the correct plug for your wall type. Plasterboard gives up quite quickly, its around 30kg per square meter, something like tile backer board is like 200kg per square meter.

The most important thing is that its snug and does not wiggle. This means you have to cut a clean hole that is the correct size for the plug, any good plug is marked with the correct size. A wonky hole or one that is too big or too small will cause no end of problems and you have to start again.

If its anything heavy you should be going into the stud or adding in a baton to do it properly. Mounting something like a TV to walls in the UK I will go into the breeze block behind and use ferrules/baton to support the bolt in the gap to the plasterboard.

Good, if older video from Project Farm on different types of rawl plugs, shows both sides of the plug so you get a better idea of whats going on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHb-Tcvkn7M

I agree it has some value, but the problem is that value doesn’t seem to align with the cost of Western AI.

If you look at what Altman said about how much OpenAI was losing despite charging an arm and a leg for its premium subscription, no one will pay for that for low value items such as transcription or scaffolding code.

Unless it can actually replace high value jobs long term rather than short term pretend replace as with Klarana then its doomed with the current models.

Well I did say I was being pedantic, which is absolutely the best way to watch fast and furious with friends

You almost had me charging? You never had me charging - you never had your car charging, it had tripped the socket

Pedantic but: 7kw isn’t three phase in the UK, just 30A. Three phase electric can give you up to 22kw in the UK for charging, obviously not every EV can charge that fast, most only go up to 11kw AC. I would kill for that extra charging speed but I can’t justify the extra cost and effort to get it fitted by the electric company

We have a granny charger that came with one of our EVs that we use as a backup and with our caravan to charge on sites that allow it. As I am UK it tops out at 2.4kw (10A @ 240v) and its annoyingly slow even charging for more than 12 hours at a time.

Our main home charger is 7kw, and as we get cheap electric every night for 7p a KwH for 5 hours, we can charge about 40kwh in that time period. Means even our largest battery is fully charged in two nights from completely empty. If we tried that with the granny charger it would cost significantly more, as it would be up to 40p a KwH outside of the main hours and take 40 hours to charge the same amount.

Now if you doing only a few miles a day, less than 40 miles (4 miles per KwH, charge for the 5 cheap hours using the cars charging timer, charge 10 KwH), it might work out ok for you, but then charging every day cannot be good for the battery? I know it would get annoying quite quickly. It would also get pretty painful if you have more than one EV, we have three between us and the kids, so its not remotely practical.

Yeah I am the same, I would rather pay more for a better device, and preferably not one from Amazon if I can help it. Its only a matter of time before they start cracking down even more on side loading as they are in the process of removing backing up your own books already. They were only ever cheap in the first place because Amazon wanted to dominate the market and close up shop around their own bookstore so they heavily subsidised the price and turned a blind eye to piracy.

I upgraded my ancient paperwhite for a PocketBook InkPad Color 3 because I wanted colour and a larger screen to read comics but also something that was more responsive. Sure its never going to beat a good tablet for colour depth or responsiveness, its still eink after all, but its so much nicer to use than my old paperwhite.

For something that I use for at least an hour a day, every day (I had a near 600 week streak on my kindle), I do not see the money spent as a bad investment when they lasting a near decade. I could have just replaced my battery in my paperwhite and carried on using it, but the upsides of a nicer ereader that is away from Amazon was a big pull for me.

Interestingly the AI stories are voiced by real people, ractors. That would now be one of the first things cut, see James Earl Jones

Nothing wrong with chocs, I have a low profile Zinc with choc jades that I swapped the click bar for my usual stronger click bar on and some stiffer springs. They were an absolute nightmare to mod compared to MX switches but worth it.

Old photo of it:

Best of luck with your search for the perfect switch!

I didn’t think Alps made any switches directly anymore but I might be wrong. Its a risk with any retooled or continuation line such as with the Matias that they aren’t as good. Even with a long running line like actual Cherry switches they quality went off as the molds got older, hence the (unwarranted) obsession from some quarters for vintage blacks.

Clickly switches are almost always tactile, especially the buckling spring. The feel that you describe as desirable is a (very nice) tactile bump, it just happens to be wrapped up in the click event as with most clicky switches. You have to get a good linear to completely avoid that bump, or dial it out with something softer. Buckling is known for being aggressive/strong, its what makes them feel like they do. MX you can turn up the tactile simply by changing the spring for a stiffer spring most of the time.

I hear you with Alps, they are painful to get hold of good ones. MX at least you can turn almost any board into hotswap by soldering mill-max hotswap sockets into the pins (as long as it is not too low profile), I have done it a few times and its pretty easy, easier than SMD by far. I know you wouldn’t want to solder yourself, but it would be cheap enough to find someone to do it for to online.

That Piantor Pro looks similar to the Corne, not sure if thats close enough to do what you need for testing. They are pretty cheap with a 3D printed base plate and can come ready soldered with kalih hotswap sockets already on them for you.

They are just retooled Alps Blues, and because of this are very similar to Alps Blues. I would rate them as worse than the very best reclaimed Alps Blues but the Matias give you a way to get 80% of the way there without having to go through the hassle of finding and cleaning a full keyboards worth of top quality switches from donor boards or paying a premium for someone else to get them for you. I do not rate either as an exact match for buckling.

If you aren’t trying to replicate the sound then I would just go down the tactile route rather than clicky switches. Having to add a click mechanism (leaf or bar or something else) introduces areas for rattle, scratch and other problems. Granted a good and strong click mechanism can be a tactile moment in itself, you can get very similar from a good tactile switch without a lot of the potential problems caused by the click mechanism.

Have you considered that your RSI might be caused by the buckling springs? They are pretty heavy to type on all day every day and I switch to a keyboard that is lighter spring weight than I would normally use when I have a day of document writing to avoid such pain in my fingers, my preference is for my 40% topre board as that’s still really tactile. My normal preference is pretty heavy progressive spring (as labeled by Spirt, its not a true progressive, more like a cliff face) with weights around 60 to 80g. I like higher weights as it means more tactility from the switch. Just a thought.

Alps (and Matias Alps) are painful to get and test in a working state because as you say you need a full board that has to be soldered in. There is the the added pain that the alps might not even be in good condition. MX obviously you can use a hot swap board and it super easy to get hold of brand new switches, make frankenswitches, and so on. Only real answer I have for this is to try and get to keyboard meet ups, not going to work for everyone but otherwise you pretty stuck unless you can buy with a good return policy.

MX Blues better than most what? They are objectively terrible switches, only better than cheap rubber domes or the very worst MX clones.

Yeah if you really want buckling just get them, nothing else is exactly the same.

I used to default to box jades but switched to a stiffer click bar from Spirt as my default but now I prefer clickies. I am not sure if you can still get the bars from Spirt as its been a minute since I last ordered from them and I know they had a few issues with fulfillment.

I find box switches with the click bars at the stiffer end to be a more sharp tactile bump than alps and louder, more tactile than anything under the ambers, which they are about the same as. If thats what you are after they are a decent choice but I prefer clickies as I mentioned. Neither are exactly the same as the alps switches and I prefer the sound of the alps, although they can be scratchy.

If you want buckling springs I would just get those and put up with the layout, as you say, nothing else is going to be exactly the same. I find alps and mx switches more predictable typing experience but lack the same feel and are just not as loud in the same way.

Blue or Amber Alps would be my pick if you can find a board in the layout you want that supports Alps. I strongly recommend trying them before you invest, whites used to be cheaper than blues, so if you might get lucky with preferring whites and save some cash.

Zeal Clickiez are probably the closest to what you are going to get out of MX that I have tried, although I had to spring swap to get the feel how I prefer. They are not cheap especially when you add in new springs.

You can always ball bearing mod the MX switches to add in some extra thocc.

Simplest way is a Windows VM and screen capture in the OS running the VM. Obviously next step for Microsoft is to detect and block Windows VMs, good luck to them with that.

Blues aren’t even good clickies and I’m surprised such a man of culture hasn’t gone for alps

So these costs do not appear to include the often massive marketing costs that can run into tens if not hundreds of millions for big blockbusters? Unless I am missing something.

The problem is that the battery is usually half the cost of manufacturing the car, larger batteries still means more expense, at least until whatever replaces the current battery tech is mainstream.

Britians cheapest brand new EV that isnt limited to 28mph top speed is the Dacia Spring at £11k. $17k is about £13k. UK average commuting distance is a round trip of about 40 miles. In an ICE car thats costing about £6 a day, vs. 70p in an EV that can charge at home overnight. My kids basically get brand new (small) EVs for free vs. running an older ICE that I would gift them just on the fuel saving.

Obviously not everyone can change at home, but this will change the more people push for it.

Born to be a creeper

It wont be allowed to be marked as either from the US or chlorinated if it ever does come over. The people paying Trump to push this know that if the UK public can spot it they wont buy it so any deal would mandate that it doesn’t have to be stamped.

Only touch screen controls for important controls are a safety hazard, and the upcoming safety standards in the EU will withhold the top ratings because of this: https://etsc.eu/cars-will-need-buttons-not-just-touchscreens-to-get-a-5-star-euro-ncap-safety-rating/

Controls for things like the radio or cruise control are fine on the wheel as buttons. Indicators absolutely aren’t, and are the example I used for good reason. Honestly I have no words if you cant see that they are an actual safety hazard on something like a roundabout, particularly one you would navigate at speed.

Simple left or right turns at say traffic lights or other junction aren’t the problem, trying to activate them while the wheel can be at some random orientation is difficult, so you end up not bothering.

Not signalling when at a round about is an offense in the UK. Its rarely enforced due to lack of traffic police, but its enough that its an actual offense that the car should be designed not to make it considerably harder to use them. In the event of an accident serious enough for the police to get involved if you didn’t indicate then that’s going to count against you.