The drum stops rotating while cycled is paused

I’m not sure you can even buy top loaders in the uk.

Front loaders can go into kitchens which is usually where washing machine is located. They can be ‘built into’ cupboards etc.

Mines in my garage and I have a separate drier which sits on top of the washing machine..

So it’s probably largely space and location concerns.

It depends what you mean by ‘listening’. If you look at how this actually works - it’s basically only ever looking for a certain waveform

‘Listening’ sort of implies intelligence is paying attention to what is said. It’s more ‘hearing’ than ‘listening’

There are documents on how these activation words work

To look for a certain waveform, wouldn't you need to obtain all of the mic data at all times? I think that's what's implied by "listening" here, but semantics are rarely an interesting discussion.

Yeah, I can see maaaany layers to have to differentiate between when discussing. E.g., for just a few random examples:

- The microphone always vibrates from the sound waves

- The microphone is powered in a way that the sound waves change electrical readings in some way

- The electrical readings are sent to another component reading them

- A component receiving the data does some kind of unbuffered processing related to triggered actions (e.g. a clapper or a activation wave)

- Some component temporarily uses a buffer of the data but not for permanent storage (e.g. live, unstored transcription for the deaf or a 'nevermind' after a triggered activation)

- Some component stores or sends data generated by the sound, but not necessarily the original audio or even any attributions of who (e.g. voice trigger web search sends the search query as text)

- Some component generates a stored copy of the transcription with attribution of who

- Some component stores the actual audio in a way that can be later replayed

I'd say this "sounds" like a mess to deal with, but then I'd be worried about falling into a category ;).

A Clapper[0] from the 80s "looked for a certain waveform", but definitely didn't "listen".

What the smart speakers and devices do with the keyword is closer to the clapper than an actual transcription.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clapper

Tipping was a pain while travelling in the USA. The main cost was charged to card on purchase straight away but tips would come out later. Made splitting charges between two people a right pain.

I don’t mind tipping for good service but not when someone did the bare minimum with a face like a slapped arse the whole time

Also, restaurant staff only earn $2 an hour!? I didn’t realise wages were that low..! Maybe I should be tipping every time.

Depends on the state. Iirc, my state requires tipped workers make at least minimum wage.

Rather than tipping more, have you considered not visiting third world hell holes? Canada's real close, but they have a civilized nation up there.

All states require tipped workers to make at least minimum wage, that's what a minimum wage is. However, usually they can make part of that wage in tips. In theory, if they make less then minimum wage in tips plus hourly wage, the employer is supposed to make up the difference. In practice, that doesn't always happen.

Canada is not a third world hell hole, but our tipping culture is just as bad as the US. Perhaps even worse.

Get a soldering iron and fix! I did. It’s sort of fun in a way. Shouldn’t have to do it, sure, but it saves you buying more and more. You could fix the fleet!

In the last couple of years in the uk, address forms ask for you street address and the rest will autocomplete from there - city, postcode. Makes things a lot easier in the way the author suggests

I’ve only managed to get halfway through this. I don’t tend to read ‘AI BAD’ but this was really insightful and thoughtful.

A lot of modern games ‘feel’ the same to me now. Same sort of lighting, blur.. even the texture loading and pop in. They all sort of blend into one mess.

I liked when games all felt very distinctly different and I feel like part of that was that they all varied on ‘engine’

That's the Unity / Unreal look. I can see why that might be a problem, but I actually really like the Unreal 4 look and think fondly about many games using that engine that I like. The way it handles lighting, fog effects and color in general makes me feel "I'm home".

This is why I am impressed by the works of Enhance Games. Their titles Tetris effect, Rez Infinte (UE4), Humanity and Lumines Arise (Unity) dont show any of the usual traits of those engines. They have done a great job of avoiding the defaults of these engines and crafting something new with the engines as the base foundation.

But I suspect that when you have multiple years to build Tetris, you can spend a lot of time crafting your own style.

that's because fundamentally, they are the same. Different assets and scripts, same internals / foundation.

Going back to some old machines with this hardware and they feel rapid compared to now. Instant UI response

That's because you're more likely than not using the best (or close to the best) hardware that generation had to offer. Try using a mid-end or a low-end machine and doing more than one thing at a time, it gets ugly real quick.