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Weekend Open Thread
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CaptainRR
Premium Member
join:2006-04-21
Blue Rock, OH

CaptainRR

Premium Member

It's the weekend again!

Have a nice weekend all. I hope I don't get hit with really bad storms this weekend.

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

Duramax08

Premium Member

Re: It's the weekend again!

We had a lightning storm last week at night, lit up the night sky for hours. After that, my ubiquiti radio started acting up with lost packets and time outs. Finally, everything is back to normal. Hope it lasts for a good while, I dont feel like paying for a new radio.

ruthlessPC
@98.144.100.x

ruthlessPC to CaptainRR

Anon

to CaptainRR
Okay. Here goes my rant. Why in the world did Microsoft pull a Google and allow carrier mods to their ROMs?

I have a Nokia Lumia 925 from T-Mobile and the Lumia Cyan updates is currently under testing status.

I have to give props to Apple. Once a new iOS comes out, there is no carrier waiting.
78036364 (banned)
join:2014-05-06
USA

1 recommendation

78036364 (banned)

Member

Re: It's the weekend again!

said by ruthlessPC :

I have to give props to Apple. Once a new iOS comes out, there is no carrier waiting.

Actually Apple's insistence of being all inclusive is why I will enever buy one of their products ever.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

rradina

Member

Re: It's the weekend again!

What does that mean? You can jailbreak iOS and install software that hasn't passed Apple's litmus test. This allows many customizations to your phone that would otherwise not be possible. I haven't found anything similar for Windows and it seems just as locked down as iOS.
AmericanMan
Premium Member
join:2013-12-28
united state

AmericanMan to ruthlessPC

Premium Member

to ruthlessPC
Aw man, that's bad news...didn't Microsoft see that fragmentation has made Android such a hot mess? Why do they want to wade into that just to please a few manufacturers?

My brother is still waiting on the Windows 8 update, but at least we're fairly certain it's coming. With Android phones you might as well count on there not being an update.

FureverFurry
RIP Daphne: 3/12/05 - 6/19/12
Premium Member
join:2012-02-20
49xxx

FureverFurry to CaptainRR

Premium Member

to CaptainRR
Stay safe ! I'm still freaked out about bad storms after my area had a pop-up, NO NOTICE tornado (F1) a couple of weeks ago. Missed our home by literally a block and a half.

PlusOne
@66.249.83.x

PlusOne

Anon

Amazon Fire Phone review and iFixit teardown

The new Amazon Fire Phone getting mixed reviews.

Review:
»www.businessinsider.com/ ··· w-2014-7

iFixit teardown:
»www.ifixit.com/Teardown/ ··· ht%20now
Nanaki (banned)
aka novaflare. pull punches? Na
join:2002-01-24
Akron, OH

Nanaki (banned)

Member

Re: Amazon Fire Phone review and iFixit teardown

Sense i repair phones for a living ill be seeing this phone soon. Based on ifixits teardown run down i may have to turn them away. As for me theres to many negitives for the fire phone the 2 biggest the tear-down (fixability) and there lame launcher. It is a android device give us a android launcher not this branded trash.

I buy phones etc based on how easy i can fix them. If i break a lcd jack or the like on my phone i want to be able to fix it as cheap as possible. This will reduce my cost of ownership. I do glass only repairs on samsung phones near daily some weeks. I can do them with allot of reliability 3 fails out of 300+ samsungs.

Now the good news while the fire phone does not look like glass only can be done the lcd assembly is only 125 usd range. Where as most other phones are 150 to 190 range with most hitting 160 170. Meaning a repair by me will run about 175 usd.

Again personally i say you all can have it. Ill stick with samsungs and motorollas

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

still no posts by...

...firephoto See Profile this week (but he visited sometime today)
I know his town is mostly without power (some generators) and no internet (mainlines gone when the power poles burned) which will take a while to fix.
300 homes gone but only 1 know fatality so far (hopefully total) but a long way to go with more heat expected next week.
Hope he is doing ok and can find time to share his story/photos.

firephoto
Truth and reality matters
Premium Member
join:2003-03-18
Brewster, WA

2 recommendations

firephoto

Premium Member

Re: still no posts by...

I'm fine, we melted some plastic off a few fire trucks, cussed out a fair number of out of the area team commanders in pickups with no firefighting equipment that kept running away from the fire while commanding us to stop what we were doing (preventing someones house from burning to the ground) all while we had been attempting to save a couple of dozen houses from burning up for the previous 12 hours with no help from anyone except our fire district people on a fire that had state mobilization status for a while already and had started on monday afternoon!

The answer is simple too. Resources who's primary goal is to make money, profit, prosper, from others losses... will never be what is best for dealing with these fires. All they can do is show up after the damage is done yet they are the ones where most of the firefighting costs go. Then when they stay longer, when the fire gets bigger, when the fire destroys more they make more money. Is that the incentive we want to give out to stop or prevent these tragedies? And it's not just contractors doing this. There are countless fire departments that supplement their payrolls and costs by chasing these fires every summer and they come from places where they won't have even 1 call a year to provide initial attack on a wildfire. These are not the people that should be doing this job unless the public wants these big fires to continue happening.

So in my fire district we lost a lot, probably more than 100 square miles of it burned to dust, we have the highest losses of primary residences of the entire fire area. It started burning in our fire district late wednesday night. All of thursday from sunrise till sunset we had no air support. In the late morning we finally saw some other fire trucks. It didn't matter how many times we said structures were burning, it didn't matter how many communities were in the path of the fire, what mattered was that important people from the upper methow valley could see smoke and that meant they also needed to see planes and helicopters and fire trucks. Political firefighting for people who want to just see fire trucks and flashing red lights to feel better. People who expect that they are more important than other people and demand special treatment at the cost of others.

Here's a video of thursday afternoon. You'll see a house burning and a big tree by the house. Just in front of the tree is 2 fire trucks that we had to leave there till the fire burned pass because the road in was cut off. There was a 3rd bigger truck parked behind the house from this view. The house, all the cars, all the outbuildings, the semi tractor, the farm trucks, all the tires and junk, everything except our 3 trucks on that hill burned to dust. We got a ride back in there an hour or two later, fetched the trucks, got back into Pateros area about an hour or two before it started burning homes there.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· UY7MEXOU


Some photos from thursday 17th July here.

»plus.google.com/photos/1 ··· 3?sort=1

And tshirt See Profile I appreciate your concern, it's just by chance I read the comments in this topic and saw your post. The internet has been up and down, all the phones up and down, 911 down for almost a full day, I never lost power but lost my irrigation water for a few days but I wasn't home for more than 8 hours or so during those days. We were chasing real calls and smoke calls within the complex for 6 hours yesterday and this coming week will be 100 degrees or more everyday so there is still no end in sight till things move closer to normal. Most of the areas burned around here and without power will be another week before they see power. We've been leaving some water for people and livestock when we've been out in these areas and most are getting better and more assistance and information from the FEMA people that are out and about. There's been some looting and some looters arrested and we saw some national guard last night in the area keeping an eye on things. Best of all there are a lot of people appreciative of what we are doing but there are still a good number of people using this tragedy to try to further derail the government and anyone associated with it to further there own political, business, or personal agenda.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

Re: still no posts by...

I figured you be busy, and know it isn't over until there's a good snow layer.
this one will be a scar for many years, just as the fires around Chelan and Leavenworth maybe 20 years back the forest will recover as people do if they have the time(decades).
In the short term you're all they've got, but don't get overwhelmed, first responders need a hug now and then too.
layer4llc
join:2013-11-25
Greer, SC

layer4llc

Member

Daily News Roundup

Is it just me or does anyone else miss the daily need to know news links on the homepage each day?
Jim_in_VA (banned)
join:2004-07-11
Cobbs Creek, VA

Jim_in_VA (banned)

Member

Re: Daily News Roundup

yeah, I miss those too. Perhaps Karl is overworked
Expand your moderator at work

PlusOne
@66.249.83.x

PlusOne to Jim_in_VA

Anon

to Jim_in_VA

Re: Daily News Roundup

said by Jim_in_VA:

yeah, I miss those too. Perhaps Karl is overworked

Karl doesn't do the daily news roundup. those are/were done by Revcb.

»Revcb

He hasn't been around lately. Maybe he is on vacation.
Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT

Rekrul

Member

Re: Daily News Roundup

said by PlusOne :

Karl doesn't do the daily news roundup. those are/were done by Revcb.

»Revcb

He hasn't been around lately. Maybe he is on vacation.

Or maybe they decided to just eliminate them. I seem to recall that they used to be done twice a day, once in the morning and again at night. They were always the first and last posts of each week day. Then they dropped the nightly postings and only did the morning ones.

FureverFurry
RIP Daphne: 3/12/05 - 6/19/12
Premium Member
join:2012-02-20
49xxx
Zoom 5341J
ARRIS WBM760
Vonage VDV-21

FureverFurry

Premium Member

Recommendations for a PERS response system

Does anyone have experience with a NON land-line based PERS system? You know, the "Help, I've fallen" devices? I've googled til my head is about to go all 'splody.

I need to get one but it HAS to be one that does not require a landline. We tried one from MobileHelp Now: any comments will probably get me sued as they were that bad !

Anyone have personal experiences with them, please? I'd prefer to do all ordering online versus calling. Calling leaves one open to massive telemarketing in the future because you've expressed an interest in the product :-(.

THANKS.

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Re: Recommendations for a PERS response system

If the premises had an alarm system a pendant can usually be tied into the system.

radem
join:2001-05-31
Windermere, FL

radem to FureverFurry

Member

to FureverFurry
I am sure there are benefits to this type of product but I am not sure why anyone would want one of those rather than a cell phone. If an elderly person falls but is coherent enough to be able to press the "help" button, they should also be coherent enough to hit the special emergency button on a simple senior friendly cell phone such as »www.greatcall.com/cell-p ··· itterbug.

The additional benefit of a senior friendly cell phone with an emergency button is that it is also a cell phone and can make and receive telephone calls. I believe the monitoring service for those "help, I've fallen" devices has a monthly fee so you may want to apply that monthly fee toward something more useful. With a pre-paid calling plan, this cost of this can be very low or even free through some government plans.
elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray

Member

Re: Recommendations for a PERS response system

said by radem:

I am sure there are benefits to this type of product but I am not sure why anyone would want one of those rather than a cell phone. If an elderly person falls but is coherent enough to be able to press the "help" button, they should also be coherent enough to hit the special emergency button on a simple senior friendly cell phone such as »www.greatcall.com/cell-p ··· itterbug.

A cellphone is rather large device to carry about 24x7. The pendent is much less likely to be put aside, and isn't subject to marginal cellphone reception inside the residence.

In a time of crisis (fall off the bed in the middle of the night, can't see or hear, pinned down, can't move, falling in the bathroom, kitchen, overwhelmed by pain), confusion reigns and the extra buttons on a cellphone are a hindrance, even without pre-existing disabilities of varying degrees.

You have no way to predict how "coherent" the person is going to be when they slip/fall or for instance, have a stroke.

Better to err on the side of simplicity than presume competency.

Been there, done that too many times already.

Noah Vail
Oh God please no.
Premium Member
join:2004-12-10
SouthAmerica

1 recommendation

Noah Vail

Premium Member

this looks like a job for SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS

Sam and Max, Freelance Police
Ep1 The Think that wouldn't Stop It

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· whUcwbGc


The Tick
Ep? The Tick vs The Idea Men

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· ci6W3HyU

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Thinking of buying a new car stereo

I'm thinking of buying a new car stereo when I get paid (current one is having issues recognizing the iPhone). I want one that has the SiriusXM built in so it's either Alpine or Kenwood (that's what Best Buy has for SiriusXM compatible units).

Which is better.

They have an Alpine unit for $209 that includes the SiriusXM module.

hayabusa3303
Over 200 mph
Premium Member
join:2005-06-29
Florence, SC

hayabusa3303

Premium Member

Re: Thinking of buying a new car stereo

if your wanting to do a iphone headunit link via bluetooth alpine is the way to go...

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Re: Thinking of buying a new car stereo

And I was talking to someone at Best Buy today and they said the Alpine units are the low end and the Pioneer units are top notch.
slckusr
Premium Member
join:2003-03-17
Greenville, SC

slckusr

Premium Member

Re: Thinking of buying a new car stereo

Check out crutchfield.com too, prices are comparable but youll see a lot of real life product reviews.

workablob
join:2004-06-09
Houston, TX

workablob to IowaCowboy

Member

to IowaCowboy
I just inherited my mom's Cherry 1992 custom built Town Car. Everything is perfect. Rides like a luxury yaght. 180K on it but it got a new engine a few years ago.

But! The stereo is kaput so I too am going to be in the market for sound.

I know one thing; it will have an MP3 port on it for sure.

Blob
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd

Premium Member

Re: Thinking of buying a new car stereo

now that is unusual. usually the old trope is that the radio is the last thing to go in a car.

workablob
join:2004-06-09
Houston, TX

workablob

Member

Re: Thinking of buying a new car stereo

said by Kearnstd:

now that is unusual. usually the old trope is that the radio is the last thing to go in a car.

True Dat!
Paul in WA
join:2010-09-11
Centralia, WA

Paul in WA to workablob

Member

to workablob
Have you checked the tubes?

workablob
join:2004-06-09
Houston, TX

workablob

Member

Re: Thinking of buying a new car stereo

said by Paul in WA:

Have you checked the tubes?

It's solid state.

Need to check the fuse though.

Blob

amenite
The Soylent - It's People
Premium Member
join:2002-11-21
Ridgewood, NJ

amenite to IowaCowboy

Premium Member

to IowaCowboy
After my first experience years ago with aftermarket car stereo I will only deal with Crutchfield from now on. All specs are available, everything comes with a fitted installation kit, the size guide on their site is excellent, etc. All plug and play more or less.

As for the brand, each all seems to have a full range of models from basic to insane. For me FM sensitivity is important - I like terrestrial radio and like it to sound good. Other than that, if it will read a USB drive without a bunch of BS add-ons required and have an Aux jack that's about all I need.

chip89
Premium Member
join:2012-07-05
Columbia Station, OH

chip89

Premium Member

Re: Thinking of buying a new car stereo

That's one reson I like Ford Sync because It will read off music off USB drives and iphones,ipods.
verta
join:2007-05-29
Tallahassee, FL

1 recommendation

verta

Member

Cord trimming family

My mom just knocked $40 off her comcast bill, only a little coaching needed. Told her to tell them she wanted no tv just Internet and of course they offered up the Internet Plus for $50 with basic tv, 20 Mbps and HBO. No HGTV was almost a deal breaker but it's settling in well. It's really more bandwidth than she needs but if I can now glom onto HBO go, I will call it job well done.

Yah, still have the cord but saving some cash. The plan is to move within a year so the balloon will not be a problem. Thank you, DSL Reports!

From last October
»Source: Comcast Launching HBO Broadband Bundle Aimed at Netflix [57] comments
lawpdx
join:2014-04-16
Portland, OR

lawpdx

Member

Re: Cord trimming family

I love this review:

»Review of Comcast XFINITY by wchillman

YukonHawk
join:2001-01-07
Patterson, NY

YukonHawk

Member

Enjoy .....

The weekend everyone!
webcitynet
join:2004-12-21
Muncie, IN

webcitynet

Member

Its the weekend!

The weekend is off to a great start, just finished inspecting my brakes on both cars. Neither car needs new pads yet! Finished changing the oil in both. Finished weeding, and it isn't even 10:30. I think I earned a beer this afternoon!

hope you are all having a good weekend!

chip89
Premium Member
join:2012-07-05
Columbia Station, OH

chip89

Premium Member

Market basket

It looks like there has been a revolt at Market Basket! I'm for it if It might stop one more place from falling to corporate greed! »www.theguardian.com/worl ··· chusetts »www.bostonglobe.com/opin ··· ory.html

•••

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

Sprinkler project is complete (and plenty of stress)

I just finished the Sprinkler project in the yard. Topped it off with a second hydrangea in the front garden on our side.

I sprayed our weed infested lawn with Ortho Weed-B-Gone plus Crabgrass Control. Once that works I'll overseed the lawn.

I'm doing this work just get out of the house and relieve stress. Grandma is causing me a lot of stress right now, all she does is constantly complain and whine to the point I avoid her (my mother has to deal with her). Gardening is a hobby I've taken up. I'd also work on the car if I had better knowledge of them.

workablob
join:2004-06-09
Houston, TX

workablob

Member

Re: Sprinkler project is complete (and plenty of stress)

said by IowaCowboy:

I just finished the Sprinkler project in the yard. Topped it off with a second hydrangea in the front garden on our side.

I sprayed our weed infested lawn with Ortho Weed-B-Gone plus Crabgrass Control. Once that works I'll overseed the lawn.

I'm doing this work just get out of the house and relieve stress. Grandma is causing me a lot of stress right now, all she does is constantly complain and whine to the point I avoid her (my mother has to deal with her). Gardening is a hobby I've taken up. I'd also work on the car if I had better knowledge of them.

You are a REAL weekend warrior.

Kudos to you for all the hard work my friend.

Blob
nonymous (banned)
join:2003-09-08
Glendale, AZ

nonymous (banned) to IowaCowboy

Member

to IowaCowboy
This is the rental isnt it? Thought moving to owned grandma's house soon. That may have enough to do.

radem
join:2001-05-31
Windermere, FL

radem

Member

Automatic Chicken Coop door for my Dog

I installed an automatic Chicken Coop Door from »www.chickendoors.com/ for my dog a few days ago. I have a dog door with a flap permanently installed on my house but wanted the ability for it to automatically shut at night. I installed the automatic Chicken Coop door over the outside housing of the dog door. My dog can go freely between inside my house and my fenced-in yard whenever the dog door is open. We previously had to place a plastic cover over the dog door to keep the dog from going out at night.

The metal Chicken Coop door with electronics works perfectly for this. It is powered by a battery that can either be charged with a solar panel or with a plug-in trickle charger. It can open and shut the door based on its built-in timer or based on a light sensor. I am using the light sensor so it opens automatically about 30 minutes before the official sunrise of the day and closes automatically about 30 minutes after the official sunset of the day. Chicken coops often need to be closed up at night so that predators cannot get to them and to keep the heat in in colder climates.

I have many skunks near my house due to the open forest land nearby and my dog has been skunked at least one time each year for the past 5 years. It is getting worse each year and my dog got hit 3 times last year by skunks on days I was gone longer than I thought I would be and neglected to shut the dog door before I left or did not go an manually shut the dog door early enough in the evening. The skunks visit my house and my neighbors nearly every night looking for food. Yard fences do nothing to stop skunks. They can climb quite well. The smell of your house after a dog that has been skunked walks into your house through your open dog door while you are gone is terrible takes a long time and a lot of effort to get removed from the house.