Networkable combo alarms

We live in an old wooden house with two floors and three fireplaces in each floor. Some rooms have smoke alarms, some also have carbon monoxide (CO) alarms. Some rooms have alarms but no fireplaces, some have fireplaces but no alarms. All our alarms are stan­da­lone devices running on 9V alka­line batte­ries.

I’ve been thin­king about moder­nizing the setup for a long time, but last weekend I finally got into inves­ti­ga­ting the options and even placing an order — which, on Monday morning, was cancelled by the vendor. (”We are sorry to inform you that [X-Sense model] XP01-W only has American stan­dard and not Euro­pean stan­dard.”)

There weren’t any details in the email about which ”Euro­pean stan­dard” the device I had ordered six of was missing, but it wasn’t missing any of the features I’m after: mini­ma­listic design with a big button for muting and no LCD displays, 10-year (lithium) battery life, and connec­ti­vity to other alarms through custo­mizable networks — I want only one paired device in another floor to co-respond to a detec­tion, not a deafe­ning sextett to sound off.

After some digging I found First Alert and Kidde offe­ring devices similar in func­tion (networ­kable combi­na­tion alarms, that is) but uglier. But just like X-Sense, they only ship within the US, and not even to all states. It would be mildly inte­res­ting to know what the presu­mably compliance-related issue behind that limi­ta­tion is.

The only two brands left to choose between were Google and Xindum. The choice was fairly easy, given I didn’t want devices that speak (or expect me to), devices that rely on Wi-Fi, nor devices that cost over €120 each. Let’s see whether the obscure Chinese brand even exists when the time comes to replace the first of the six alarms I ordered, but then again, I know way more products discon­ti­nued by Google than by Xindum.

WACK

After buying flights to Warsaw yesterday and regis­te­ring as a non-compe­titor at this year’s worlds, I’ve been strea­ming an endless series of memo­ries related to footbag events and friends. The sport is one of the two random big things in my life without which I would be some­body else.

This picture by @etienneruggeri is my all-time favo­rite on-the-court shot, taken 2011 in Paris. WACK is what you can hear Frankie say when he loses that net battle against a guy shorter than him and so unflexible he has to round­house kick ass-first to reach the other side.

Interlingual homography

Homo­graphs are words of iden­tical appea­rance but of diffe­rent meaning and etymo­logy. Bear, the verb, and bear, the animal, are examples of English homo­graphs, while kuusi, the number six, and kuusi, the spruce, are often-cited Finnish ones. The words listed below are homo­graphs across these two languages. The trans­la­tions here are minimal; many of the words have other meanings in one or both languages, which the Wiktio­nary articles linked to will detail.

Jatka artik­ke­liin Inter­lin­gual homo­graphy

homo­graph trans­la­tion into English trans­la­tion into Finnish
peloton fear­less pääjoukko (kilpa­pyö­räi­lyssä)
pimento dark­ness kirsik­ka­paprika
helmet pearls kypärä
manner conti­nent tapa
marina grumble vene­sa­tama
murein tende­rest mureiini
pellet clowns pelletti
peruke (fishing) leader peruukki
rabbit rabbis kani
tanner ground parkit­sija
turbot turboc­har­gers piik­ki­kam­pela
vinous oblique­ness viini­mäinen

Open doubles net final

For the first time since 2011, tonight Matti Pohjola​ and I will play in the open doubles net final of the IFPA World Footbag Cham­pionship tour­na­ment. If you are not in Copen­hagen to cheer for us in Nørre­bro­hallen, tune in at 6 pm (Danish time) for live cove­rage of the event at http://​www​.ustream​.tv/​c​h​a​n​n​e​l​/​w​o​r​l​d​s2015!