It is a few weeks that I have noticed and increasing loss of water pressure. Everything started three weeks ago, when I decided to stop the heating of the house since it was getting warmer and warmer. In that occasion I discovered that the pressure was lower of almost 0.5 bar.
I have already spoken with the plumber but he is not too sure about the reason why our heating system is loosing so much water in such a short time without leaving any kind of traces on walls, floor, whatever.
Now I have filled the system again in order to reach a pressure of about 2 bar. I’ll keep observing the manometer and see how fast it declines.
Before adding water pressure is about 1.5 bar
After, pressure is about 2.0 bar
I’m starting to think that the expansion vessel might be not working correctly anymore. The name of the make is Pneumatex, while the model is Statico SD80.3. Here some further specifcations.
Many weeks later I decided to try to solve the issue: have a look at the follow up!
Past weekend I was walking through Lugano and while looking at the shop windows I saw that Marinella is closing. Until the end of March they will still be opened and they are liquidating their inventory and you might find some interesting.
The aim of this post is not really to publicise Marinella’s shop, but is more related to the devolution of Lugano. I have been reporting, on a more general scale about this phenomenon already in the past: What future for Ticino?
Marinella is not the only luxury brand which has left Lugano, Bulgari left almost one year and half earlier. What about the other luxury brands, will they have interest in staying in Via Nassa?
What intrigues me is what may come next, who will be interested in taking the spaces which are going to be left empty after Marinella closes?
Recently I have bought a tiny home for bees. The idea came from our gardener and when I understood the peculiarities of the Beehome idea I decided to go for it. Here is the homepage if you want to have a look at it: Wild biene und Partner. I decided to go for it for multiple reasons, here a short recap:
I love bees
This specific kind of bees don’t require particular care as they don’t produce any honey
They have a very little and soft stinger which they don’t use unless severely mishandled
The whole project is a spin off of the ETHZ and works incredibly well as in regard to organisation: when you place your order you can decide when to receive the bees: in my case it worked as planned. When you open the package you don’t have to worry as the bees still need to develop therefore they won’t attack you as soon as you set them free. On the contrary, as you open, everything will seem pretty silent.
Knowing that inside of the small house there are living organisms I decided to take it outside as soon as possible so that the bees could start breathing fresh air again.
And now, after one week of having them, I have already seen the first bee coming out one of the small holes and flying around on some kind of orientation flight.
As for the moment being it seems to be just one of the 25 that you receive I didn’t want to go to near and disturb it while on his orientation flight therefore I don’t have pictures yet: still the bee is pretty hairy, mid-sized, and makes a decent buzz while flying… I’m so in love!
This it the Beehome I installed on our balcony
A few hours later I was able to record a very short video.
Although I thought of knowing how to open ports on a firewall I was proven wrong when I had to open the ports for the videogame For Honor. Therefore I have asked help to Zyxel which has been very kind and their answer successfully solved the issue. Downbelow how they suggested to proceed.
Network configuration
The network I was working on is configured as follows:
As the gaming computer is connected through a wireless connection first of all it is necessary to check if the WLAN is sending the data on the right network, which in our case was LAN1. In order to do that proceed as follows.
Add the WLAN to the right zone:
Configuration> Object> AP Profile> SSID
Select the desired SSID and click on “Edit”.
Under “Local VAP Settings”, select “Off” for VLAN Support.
As an “Outgoing Interface”, select the zone to which the WLAN should connect to the Internet, eg: lan1.
VLAN support is turned off and the outgoing interface is LAN1
Assign a static IP address to the gaming PC
Next, you assign a static DHCP address to your game PC on the interface using the WLAN as an “outgoing interface”.
(Network> Interface> Ethernet)
Double click on “lan1”, activate the “Advanced settings” and scroll down until you find “Enable IP/MAC binding”. Activate the checkbox and in the “Static DHCP table” click on “Add”. Assign an IP address to the MAC address of the wireless or ethernet card of the Gaming PC.
Create an address object under Object> Address / Geo IP for your game PC with the Static DHCP address.
Adding 192.168.0.52 as an IP address to the Gaming PC
Creating ports and assigning to a service group
Under Object> Services> Services, create all ports that you do not already have.
In order to recongnize the port I have decided to name it ForHonor_13000: that way I understand that the port is dedicated to the game ForHonor and that the port is number 13000.
With the same procedure create the objects for the following ports:
A list of the ports that should be opened for PC, PS4 and XBOX is found at this link.
Please note, however, that opening these ports will result in a significant security risk.
For later use it is very convenient to create a “Service Group” with the ports created before. In Object –> Service Group tab add
Give a name to the group and then select from the list on the left all the ports that we have created before. Once selected make them member of the new group you created by moving them to the right. The picture shows the already completed transfer, I’m now ready to press “OK” in order to proceed with the group creation.
Creating a new Virtual Server object
Under Network> NAT, create a new Virtual Server object
Original IP: Any
Mapped IP: Game PC
Port Mapping Type: Service Group
Original Service Group: Game Service Group
Adding a NAT Rule called “ForHonor”
Once added the table should look like this:
In the table the rule FH which stands for “For Honor”. Because of privay concerns I was asked to grey out the other data.
Creating a security policy
Go to Security Policy> Policy Control and create a rule
From WAN To LAN1
Source: Any
IPv4 Destination: Game PC
Service: Game service group
Action: Allow
Adding a security policy. Please note that when selecting the service you’ll have to look for the group we have created before: in order to do that you’ll have to scroll down almost the whole list, as the single objects (ports) are listed before of the groups.
Finally “For Honor” is displaying a green NAT Open.
I didn’t undestand why, but even if the game works and shows NAT Type open if the ports are tested with the site: www.canyouseeme.org the results are negative for each of the ports.
It is a recurring question. It is, because economical conditions are worsening since the bank sector is reducing it’s importance in the whole of Switzerland. But for Ticino, which is a small territory and the bank sector was the main driver, this has even worse consequences. And, as if this wasn’t difficult enough there is a big neighbour, Italy, which has an even worse economical situation: there are almost 60’000 commuters coming from Italy every day, which are now working in Ticino, taking qualified jobs for a fraction of the Swiss cost. Still, since the Italian cost for living is lower, for Italians also a fraction of the Swiss salary is a decent alternative to staying home unemployed. For locals it is difficult to compete: therefore politics has taken some actions in order to reduce the phenomenon. Nevertheless I believe that protectionism, even though it is a natural reaction, it won’t solve the issue. Also because, I would like to remember, commuters is not the main issue: Ticino’s biggest business sector, banks, has taken a major hit. With what should we replace it?
Tourism could be an answer, although the strength of the Swiss franc doesn’t help.
It should be mentioned though that the few times I have visited some hotels in Lugano, either they are really expensive, or if you try something more accessible it is depressing: many are still from the sixties and never refurbished. Decadence all over the place! It is true though that some new hotels have been built in Lugano: I believe one is an Ibis hotel, which being very near to the motorway exit, is very convenient, but is not going to be the choice for someone who would like to stay a bit longer than one night.
I’m afraid that some new ideas should be found in order to promote Ticino and make it more interesting for companies, of course companies bringing value and not only warehouses, as it has happened in the past. Maybe companies of the technological sector?
I mean Ticino already has many things which are interesting for companies. Being in Switzerland there is a stable government, taxes shouldn’t be that high, infrastructure is available, bureaucracy is not as heavy as in other countries, … probably the main issue is that salaries are so expensive. Still, they are cheaper than in the rest of Switzerland, I would say! 🙂
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