Paul Braren, TinkerTry.com

Member Spotlight: Paul Braren | BuildGreenCT

Finally, there's BuildGreenCT's new Member Spotlight:
buildgreenct.org/member-spotl...

Insights That'll Help You and Your Contractor Plan for Comfort PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency, and more.

And my technical article to go with it:
Insights That'll Help You and Your Contractor Plan for Comfort
After 4 New England Winters Living With Just Heat Pumps
tinkertry.com/planning-for...

Heat Pump Comparison & Paul Braren Interview PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency, and more.

Next, there's:
Heat Pump Comparison & Paul Braren Interview
Featured on Still TBD Podcast
tinkertry.com/heat-pump-co...

Geothermal vs Air Source Heat Pump: Which is Worth It? PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency, and more.

I'm happy to announce the publication of a new content series about electrification, thank you @mattferrell.bsky.social!

First up:
Geothermal vs Air Source Heat Pump: Which is Worth It?
Featured on Undecided with Matt Ferrell
tinkertry.com/geothermal-v...

@chrisnelder.bsky.social @volts.wtf

I've long held this same peeve about iOS Mail app, as an east coaster trying to help elderly. While revealing the actual email address sure would be grand, showing the actual date and time would be even grander, rather than just "Yesterday" until you tap it. So many have begged for this, for years.

Good article.

OpenAI vs Anthropic: A Subjective comparison

Here's his funny and interesting "OpenAI vs Anthropic: A Subjective comparison" table.

Super Bowl Matchup: Anthropic vs OpenAI You don’t have to be a football fan to enjoy the ads

Check out @garymarcus.bsky.social take on all this:
garymarcus.substack.com/p/super-bowl...
"As you can see, the two big private LLM companies, although superficially similar, are actually quite different."

#anthropic #openai

Celebrate Ionna's 2 Year Anniverary With Me In Boston! YouTube video by The Ioniq Guy

@ioniqguy.bsky.social, so nice of you to give Connecticut a shout-out in your promo clip!
youtu.be/c4UN1vr5LFI?...

Thought about attending virtualization user groups? Here's a virtual tour of some of my recent positive experiences. PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency, and more.

Yeah, I've been heading over there a bit more often lately too, thank you for the encouragement!
tinkertry.com/virtualizati...

Power+ Dual port charger Simultaneously charge two EGO batteries of any size.

Since it was 8°F (-13°C), 6-battery-mower charger wouldn’t start (red warning light), had to warm it to >32°F 1st. Charger for 2 batteries at once indoors would be better. Hope this helps, wanting to do a write-up sometime.
egopowerplus.com/dual-port-ch...
More info:
www.linkedin.com/posts/paulbr...

It did a good job, but for a 25’ by 65’ driveway, it did need 2 sets of 2 batteries (from my mower) for each 5” removal. Also, with snow coming down fast, it took 3 rough snow clearings every few hours (15” in ~15 hours). So charging all 4 batteries at once in <1 hr with mower was very helpful. But…

My charging shelf, in an indoor closet.

Skid-flip complete.

Spare sheer pin and skids

12 to 17 inches.

As ready as I can be for snow storm #Fern. My 4th not-much-snow winter with my #EGO POWER+ Self Propelled 2-Stage Snow Blower. It hasn’t been challenged yet, this will be interesting.

@johnocfii.bsky.social and @bujhjjkk.bsky.social, I really appreciate the feedback, it means a lot to me. Hopefully your kind words will be helpful to some of my readers too!
tinkertry.com/testimonials...

Thanks Lon, can't wait to watch it!

Glad I received my “Framie” my Framework Desktop last year, phew! Also relieved I maxed out the AMD Ryzen™ AI Max+ 395 with those (soldered) 128 Gigs of DDR5 RAM goodness:
tinkertry.com/tinkertry-20...

@mattferrell.bsky.social
@pcper.com.web.brid.gy

TinkerTry's 2025 Home Tech Refresh PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency, and more.

It’s happening faster than I thought, will be interesting to see what happens to my 6 Verizon lines + Frontier 5 Gig total cost over time.
TinkerTry.com/tinkertry-20...

Same issue here in Hartford Connecticut area right now:
bsky.app/profile/paul...

Good article @techradar.com. I’ve got this “SOS instead of signal bars” issue too, with 1 of 2 eSIMs on my iPhone 17 Pro Max for ~1hr, on just my primary line, strange.

Same issue even after several reboots or cell off/on toggles.

(my 2nd number
www.verizon.com/products-per...
doesn’t have data)

Is your original SuperServer now running Proxmox, and how is that going overall?

Home PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency, and more.

I appreciate you saying that, thank you for your many years of readership! I was hoping a few readers/viewers (especially those who appreciate details) would stick with me through tech transition.

Feel free to leave comments/feedback below any TinkerTry.com articles of interest, no login required!

U.S. petroleum consumption by sector 2024| Statista The transportation sector is the greatest consumer of petroleum in the United States.

Another
www.statista.com/statistics/2...
@statistacharts.bsky.social

Visualizing the Products and Fuels Made from Crude Oil Oil is a building block that makes modern life possible. This graphic looks at the proportion of finished products that are created from crude oil.

A visual that I find helpful:
elements.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-...

Intel's 'Serpent Lake' CPU leaks, its first chip developed in collaboration with Nvidia Meanwhile, Razer Lake, Hammer Lake and Titan Lake take the fight to AMD.

Intel's 'Serpent Lake' CPU leaks, its first chip developed in collaboration with Nvidia
www.pcgamer.com/hardware/pro...
“Intel's first joint-venture chip with Nvidia, plus several next-gen CPUs, reportedly with a big boost to per-core performance, plus a return to a unified CPU core architecture.”

Happy New Years Day!
In case you missed this post late yesterday. Feedback always appreciated - reply here, or comment below the article where no login is required.

See also just-published:
bsky.app/profile/paul...
@techconnectify.bsky.social

TinkerTry's 2025 Home Tech Refresh PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency, and more.

TinkerTry's 2025 Home Tech Refresh
tinkertry.com/tinkertry-20...

With many aging tech things starting to break on me 2025, it was time for major tech overhauls.

This article covers many of the tech successes, enjoy!

Oh yeah, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

@frame.work @home-assistant.io
@ubiquiti.bsky.social

I agree!

2 EWC Controls UZC4 Universal Zone Control System
ewccontrols.com/acrobat/uzc4...
www.supplyhouse.com/EWC-UZC-4-UZ...
Also, two Bosch IDS 2.0 Heat Pumps & Air handlers, 6 ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium.

There have been challenges.

Oh yeah, a screenshot from the article above. I’ve been a long time fan of your work, and am thankful for it!

Rheem heat pump water heater 3-year ownership summary, as featured on Undecided with Matt Ferrell PCs, EVs, home tech, efficiency, and more.

See also
TinkerTry.com/three-year-h...