Panq

You’re right in that running HA just for a WoL timer would be silly, but (presumably) it’s already running for other, less silly purposes.

I’d say the main benefit is when the machine requires regular (as in daily) reboots, or if it’s something you don’t trust is fully private and want to be powered off outside work hours. Not useful for me, but I can see why it would be handy.

I remember seeing someone combine the two and had Home Assistant pull the photograph from USPS and attaches it to the notification when the mailbox sensor is triggered.

I’m mildly surprised OP’s laptop keeps the bluetooth radio powered up while asleep, but I would be a lot more surprised to find one that doesn’t work with USB HID.

Node Red by far gave me the best automation for numerous lights. X minutes after sunrise, it iterates every light that is on and calls turn off with a fairly long (2 min?) transition time, so the lights all gradually fade off.

It’s been running for years without me needing to touch anything, it doesn’t care if you replace/rename any lights, and the slow fade when it’s still getting brighter outside makes the change invisible.

I’ll bet you could do the same thing without Node Red, but nowhere near as easily.

Pipe dream, but I really wish we would make it illegal to use the terms “Buy” or “Own” for digital goods that can at some point not exist outside of your control.

I give you a dollar and get a DRM-free video file? That is buying.

I give you a dollar and can watch a video file an unlimited number of times in your app? That is not buying, and it should be fraud to claim that it is.

I had to pay for a static IP just this week because it turns out the new ISP uses CG-NAT.

It’s not quite that bad (yet…) - it has reasonably clearly labelled subscription and non-subscription cartridges. So when you cancel the subscription, you just throw the non-subscription cartridge back in.

If you’re printing quite a lot, but not enough to justify a laser printer, then they can work out okay. The vast majority of people would indeed be wasting money though.