Carlos Benitez

Focused on value

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

I'd rather keep the hose coiled by the spigot than stretched across the driveway.

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

how many settings are just sitting in the nvidia app waiting to give you free frames huh

[Synez - PC Tweaker @SynezOS]

NVIDIA added a GPU setting most people haven’t touched.

NVIDIA App → System → Advanced → GPU App Prioritization

Default: 80% foreground / 20% background
Set it to: 90% / 10%

The Finals, 4K max settings, max ray tracing:
Avg FPS → 78.0 to 81.7 (+4.7%)
1% lows → 74.3 to 78.4 (+5.6%)
0.2% lows → 69.5 to 76.4 (+10%) ⚡

One slider. 10% better frames.

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

pressure washers make it very easy to find another thing that needs cleaning

[Craig Allen Dulles, BBQ, CGE. Grocery Whisperer @GettingCooked]

I bought a pressure washer this spring , when it was super duper on sale, but I'm just breaking it in today. Let me tell you, I've no idea why I waited so long to purchase one; we've lived on damp Vancouver Island going on two decades. Oh, yeah, I've always borrowed my neighbours.

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

why does a smartwatch tell you to stand up when you're already standing

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

the power tool battery idea is so good. a backpack 3d printer sounds genuinely useful

[Ethan Gao @ga0_lab]

This is a 3D printer that is small enough to fit in a backpack.

Unfolded it can print up to 175x180x200mm. Folded it’s about 300x300x80mm. 87% of its physical size becomes build volume. For reference, most fixed frame machines hover around 10-25%.
Think this is compact? What if I told you P2 squeezes an ENTIRE FILAMENT SPOOL inside? Oh, and it’s gonna be fully enclosed and armored, and it can run off power tool batteries.
Sure, other portable printers like the Positron exist, but their power supply and filament spool are carried separately. You have to unfold them, set them up and plug everything in before you can print.
@JamesMakes29 and I will get P2 done before the end of the year. It also adds a heated bed, which alongside the enclosure can print ABS and simila`r materials, and it will have armor that covers the fragile scissors.
I’m done playing around with 3D printed toy builds. This is by far the most challenging thing I’ve ever attempted. P2 has to be built by January before I have to start working, and the aluminum and PPA parts are adding up. If you want to help fund it, my DMs are open.

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

the acoustic delay line is so cool. old computers had such wonderfully weird ideas for how to make things work.

[Tommi @tommithetechie]

Monday I asked if y'all would trust this thing with Moon math. (Jury's still out.)

Okay, the full story on the Olivetti Programma 101.

It was shown at the 1964 New York World's Fair and went on sale in 1965 for about $3,200.

Engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto led the team. Mario Bellini gave it that gorgeous industrial design.

And the hardware was wonderfully weird by today's standards:

No integrated circuits, just discrete transistors.

About 35.5 kg. It is NOT a lap machine.

Memory used an acoustic delay line (basically sound pulses traveling through a coil of wire.)

Programs could be stored on magnetic cards.

It wasn't the very first programmable desktop machine, but it was one of the earliest, and, yes, one of the prettiest. I checked. I'm biased.

And more about those magnetic cards:

HP's later HP 9100 used a similar program-storage approach, and HP eventually paid Olivetti royalties over technology used in the machine.

Magnetic-card program storage then became a familiar feature of HP programmable calculators like the HP-65, HP-67/97, and others.

But one thing the Programma 101 did NOT directly inspire was the HP-48.

By the time the HP-48 arrived in 1990, it was using onboard electronic memory and plug-in expansion cards, not magnetic program cards.

So the family tree is more like:

Programma 101 → early HP programmable calculators → decades of programmable-calculator evolution

...rather than Programma 101 → HP-48 directly.

The more I dig into this machine, the more impressive it gets.

WHO wants one?

#RetroTech #VintageComputing

[Liz Ann Sonders @LizAnnSonders]

September’s 5.5% decrease in private residential construction spending was driven by a 13.0% drop in home improvement activity, the largest m/m decline on record

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

AI helping with house repairs is honestly one of the most useful things it can do.

[Nomad_RN @mybuddyBuck]

I have a love/hate relationship w/ AI.

Hate the AI generated texts / posts, pictures and videos.

Love that I used grok to trouble shoot our heating system this morning and make the required repair w/o a $100+ HVAC service call.

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

anyone with a Framework laptop replaced the battery yet? was it as easy as it looks?

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

I would be thinking about this every time I saw a can of Diet Coke for the rest of my life

[Oh @leola_gg]

Accidentally spilt diet coke on my dad’s four thousand dollar computer

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

november 2027 is so far away, i don't trust that version of me to remember the air filter

[Attitude with a side of freckles @HazeyDaisey17]

I feel so adult adding to my calendar to change an air filter in November 2027.

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

moving the trash bins off the driveway after pickup is worth the hassle, that little bit of empty space looks so much better

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

@ESLCS @NiKoCS_ @ZOWIE_EU 600hz and I'd still be missing every shot

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

heating oil bills are insane, winter is expensive enough already.

[Affordability Crisis @trackingcosts]

Your winter heating forecast, per the government's Energy Information Administration:

Heating oil: $2,115 for the season, up 21%. Bundle up, New England.

Propane: $1,246, down 3%.

Electric heat: $1,196, up 4%.

Natural gas: $640, down 9%.

Same winter. The oil-heated house pays 3.3 times what the gas-heated house pays.

Your thermostat doesn't decide your bill. Your street does.

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

the five-device bundle makes the Duo price look completely unhinged honestly

[Apple Cycle @theapplecycle]

iPhone Duo vs. 5 devices:

• iPhone Duo: $1,999
• iPhone 17 + iPad + Apple Watch SE 3 + AirPods Pro 3 + HomePod mini: $1,995

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

i'd rather read on an e-reader than my phone at night because one notification and i'm scrolling

[Sean Cleary @SeanDCleary]

I do hate to interrupt election X, but with the time change, it’s a good reminder to change your furnace filter as part of your regular home maintenance

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

@DJIGlobal the tiny repair crew is making this drone look like a building lol

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

running windows 11 on 128 mb is a deeply unnecessary achievement and i respect it

[NTDEV @NTDEV_]

I got Windows 11 26H2 running on just 128 MB of RAM.
Explorer opens. The Start menu works. Even classic Notepad makes an appearance. Somehow we can even multitask!
It is INSANELY slow. But I got it running :)

[Carlos Benitez @_carlosben_]

one hardware store trip and no returns? this is elite home improvement behavior

[SquatchXXL @Squatch_XXL]

I just installed a water heater with ONE trip to the hardware store.....when I picked up the heater and all the other doodads. Nothing needs returned. Every part was used as intended.

Clap for me.