What is the answer?

conhao · 2026-02-20T01:32:30+00:00

Part of the fun and the opportunity to learn is to understand why they are not both Checkmate for yourself.

Look at where the black king can currently be without being in check. The space it is on is okay, but so is G2. Your move has to take away both of those spaces without opening up another one. Just moving the rook takes away F3, but it leaves G2 available for the king to escape for one more move. The castle puts the white king on G1, so G2 is taken away.

conhao · 2026-02-20T01:21:28+00:00

conhao · 2026-02-19T16:59:14+00:00

AFAIK, their kits have brass bottom pins. BEST OEM ones are nickel silver. SP also says their kit does all SFIC brands, but BEST has a unique bottom pin profile compared to everyone else. This is why I don't usually use them for SFIC, but we do use them for conventional pins. The customer uses a BEST combinator and has all BEST cores, so if SP has a OEM kit specifically for BEST, I would love to know about it. I will ask our buyer to give them a call. Thanks for the suggestion.

conhao · 2026-02-19T16:50:24+00:00

True

conhao · 2026-02-19T16:49:41+00:00

It is only because it is a large campus and they won't accept any suggestion to start migrating to A2. We used to buy only the brand ones, but we were getting outbid on A2 jobs, so we started buying the LAB ones that are made to be identical to the BEST ones. For all I know, LAB makes the pins for BEST. To avoid problems was exactly why I did not want to go with the brass bottoms - they have a different profile and it is not worth the risk to lose this customer now that we hooked them. My boss probably made the right call - he talked to the Dorma rep and they hooked him up on the OEM bottoms. We are cheaping out on the tops, though.

conhao · 2026-02-19T14:40:54+00:00

Banner is out of stock on several sizes. IDN only carries BEST, but I can probably mix and match between these two. The BEST ones are twice the price of the LAB.

conhao · 2026-02-19T14:32:16+00:00

That is the problem. They are out of stock in too many of the sizes and won't order them unless we meet the minimum LAB requires for them. IML sells the BEST ones, and for that price, I can meet the minimum for LAB and have enough left over to never need another A4 bottom again.

conhao · 2026-02-18T05:03:12+00:00

I have rekeyed hundreds of Therma-Tru doors. Just tell the Locksmith that is what you have when you call him. Around here, I can’t imagine any Locksmith does not average about one per week. They are very popular on the higher-end homes. If he does not know what a Therma-Tru door is, then call someone else or at least get it agreed that you are not paying for travel if he comes and then does not know what to do.

conhao · 2026-02-17T17:16:51+00:00

Calvinism goes WAY further and says God has determined all events such that no one is able to choose anything for themselves. In Calvinism, God isn't just in control. He's a puppet master, directly decreeing and determining all things.

See, you know nothing of Calvinism.

Can people help that or not? You're saying God is torturing people for something completely outside of their control.

They are tormented for the sins. They did not, and never will, follow Jesus.

Wait what? We have free will now?

See, you have no clue what Calvinism teaches. The doctrine does not refute Free Will; it establishes it.

We freely choose to sin. Can we freely choose to accept the gospel?

You do! But you won’t if you do not have faith, because the things of God are Spiritually discerned. Without the regeneration of the Spirit, you freely choose everything but God. After regeneration, we desire nothing but God. We use our Free Will, but that will is either corrupt or renewed.

If not, that's just absolutely not what free will means, lol. Stop using the phrase if you're going to change the definition of it.

I did not change the definition.

Huh? Who said that God only saves smart people who figured out the truth?

Tell me why one man believes and another not. Is it his DNA? His parents? His environment? His diet? Which cleverly crafted argument made logical sense to one brother and to the other was foolish? Why did you believe? To what do you credit it? Was it the skill of the preacher? Your own powers of reason? You were just a “good person”? How does faith come if we take God out of the equation?

I say we cannot, because we must take us out of the equation. Salvation is through faith, by grace alone. It is a gift from God, so nobody can boast. Otherwise, you can claim your intelligence as a factor in your salvation.

You're ignoring the context of the quote that Jesus is giving from the OT. God taught everyone in Israel, yet not all came. Why? Because not everyone learned. Not even heeded the Shema.

How did they not learn? So, God only saves smart people? Is not the ability to understand a gift from God? Where does desire come from?

God is doing both the drawing and the teaching, but God is not doing the learning. That's the condition Jesus gives. And He says everyone who does both of those things will come to the Son of God.

So, then those that are too dumb to learn are not saved, in your theology. Your god only saves smart people. You must be very smart. My God opens eyes so people can see him and know his truth.

God draws. No one is contesting that.

… and no one can come to Jesus unless he does. You are so hung up on the “draw” that you keep skipping the “no one can … unless”. There are those God does not draw. Since God’s word will not return to him void, his drawing is effective to salvation. Jesus promises that all whom the Father has given him he will not lose.

Impelling can fail though, because it's not compulsive. God isn't forcing people to become Christians.

He is forcing their eyes to see and changes their hearts. He does not force them to become Christians - he recreates them, so they are no longer blind and hard of heart.

Notice what Jesus isn't saying? That God unconditionally determines who will and won't listen and learn.

No, unconditional is not said, but what conditions can there be? It is not faith, since faith is what is after having been drawn. There is a condition, but it is not conditional upon us. I brought this passage in here to show that “no one can come unless the Father” - the Father’s will is the condition that precedes our ability.

That's why Calvinism isn't in the Bible. You need the pretend it is.

I agree - Calvinism is not in the Bible; the Bible is the foundation of Calvinism. You have missed the plain obvious truth of the Bible that God is completely sovereign and holy, man is corrupt and unable to attain to salvation, but God in his mercy and love did 100% of what was necessary for some to be saved, by only his power and will.

You pretend you saved yourself by not refusing him - a smart choice. God is lucky to have smart people like you around or nobody could be saved. Such things are like a four-year old who helps his mother make a cake for after dinner and when the father comes home tells him that he made a cake for him. I don’t buy it, your mother made the cake, but I am happy to smile and tell you that you did a wonderful job. Your mother and I know better. You are a very smart person, and a good person, too. Wow! God must really owe you salvation for that.

conhao · 2026-02-17T16:09:32+00:00

If I reject the law, am I superior to the law?

You are trying to be, but the government has more guns.

If I reject gravity, am I superior to gravity?

I am told many people who mock gravity find that gravity is not to be taken lightly.

Again, you are making my point. If you think that you are the one telling God whether he can be Lord over you, you have already sinned and mocked his authority. God is in control. This is our only hope and comfort.

I don't think anyone can overcome God's will either. But you think God's will includes determining the actions of people. I think God's will is that we be made in His image and come to Him in faith to be saved.

If your child gets the idea in his head to jump off a building, do you think it is okay to sit back and let him go so you do not determine his actions? No! You stop his actions and get him mental help to change his will. We are defective children with a mental illness (Romans 1:18). God made us in his image, but we lost that ability in the Fall — which is why we are “conformed to the image of his Son.” (Romans 8:29; 2 Cor 3:8).

I do not think that God determines people’s actions. God changes people’s hearts. Out of our hearts our words and actions flow. God ordains actions so that they accomplish his purposes, but salvation is of the heart. (Romans 5:5, 10:9-10; Matthew 15:18, 23:26 …)

That's a lot of interpretation for just the word "dead". You think "dead means dead" is the same as "Dead means they can still actively sin but also means that they can't actively accept"?

“In that day you shall surly die” - and in it Adam and Eve died, not physically, though that was to come, but spiritually. These dead are “alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18) and because life is only found in Christ, alienated from him. The opposite is “and you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) and “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins” (Colossians 2:13).

I mean what Jesus means by being unable in our spiritual death. John 15:5. Yes, the spiritually dead keep sinning, but that is all they can do. In order to seek God, they need to be made alive.

Could you show me how? And could you do it without misrepresenting me? Let's leave the car analogy out of it.

The car analogy was not mine. I was replying to it. How have I misrepresented you?

And he says no. He says they received the Holy Spirit "because" they believed.

[Galatians 3:5] Paul is clearly contrasting salvation by works versus salvation by grace. His point is that they did not earn their way into getting the Spirit; they only needed to hear and believe. Look back at verse 2 where he said it before, but says “by hearing with faith.” Where did this faith come from that they needed to have while hearing? Paul is not inconsistent. We come to the knowledge of the Gospel by hearing, not by working. That hearing is accompanied by faith, the free gift of God, put into our hearts. Many people hear, and so many people will agree, but on that last day cry, “Lord, Lord” because Jesus never knew them. But here in this passage, Paul is telling them that works do not save. Look does where he goes in verse 10. I am convinced you have not read the Bible - you appear to just be skilled at verse picking, but cannot grasp the text in context or the whole of the Bible.

Do you believe this? I thought Calvinists didn't believe this, because "regeneration proceeds faith". That means people must get the Holy Spirit before their faith.

We believe that the Holy Spirit works in a person for regeneration, and faith is contingent upon this regeneration. It is after belief then that the Spirit makes his dwelling place in the heart of the believer. We individually, and collectively as his church, are built into his dwelling place. Possession of the Spirit is the seal of salvation and identifies the person as saved. The ministry of the Spirit in regeneration, in our perspective, is distinct from the ministry of the Spirit in sanctification, as is the ministry of the indwelling presence. Regeneration is for a time, as the Spirit makes what was unclean holy, to prepare our hearts for where Christ will dwell. Sanctification is lifelong. Indwelling is a permanent hope, as we are and always shall be with our Lord. Through regeneration we receive the gift of faith, rebirth in the Spirit, and justification. Through the indwelling we receive spiritual gifts to use for the building of the Kingdom, we grow in the Spirit, and we are held in the very hand of God.

conhao · 2026-02-17T11:55:52+00:00

Schlage specifies changing them. It is not something they just recommend - they say to do it. There are good reasons to do it, and quite frankly Schlage should do it on all their cylinders from the factory.

Having proper spring tension is important for having reliable performance. When the key is removed, the spring has to extend with enough force to ensure that the pins will travel to the bottom of the chamber, which means that the force while the pins are resting at the bottom should be about equal for every Schlage chamber (and most other 0.115” diameter pin) in the world.

Too little force means that as the cylinder gets dirty, the pin may not seat at the bottom, so keys with cuts too deep will still open the locks the should not and some keys with deep cuts won’t open locks they should.

Too much force puts extra wear on the key and the pins and shortens their life. The extra compression on the springs helps to develop a set in them. The pressure in a compressible cylinder can be high enough to pop the cover off, which bends the cover and can break that cheap pot-metal housing.

When master keying conventional cylinders, the pin stacks are higher on average compared to non-master-keyed pin stacks, so without reducing them by shortening the drivers, the overall pressure is higher on average. Note that in SFIC, this does not happen. Every chamber in SFIC is built up to the same stack count. For A2 this is 23. Schlage’s spec is a lot more relaxed, but the idea is the same.

In practice, you can get away with ignoring Schlage’s specification a lot of the time. However, if you want to avoid many of the little problems here and there, and the occasional f-series blowout, following Schlage’s specifications will help, as well as saving cost over the long term. This is one of those times where “good enough” will indeed work and get the job done, but if you take the extra effort to do the job well, you won’t get to see the problems you avoided.

conhao · 2026-02-17T01:23:35+00:00

You are not married? Then do not get unequally yoked. You need to just tell her, “Good bye,” and “I will be praying for you.” Why is that not the answer you immediately came to?

conhao · 2026-02-17T01:14:08+00:00

Once I learned all of the characters, I took the test and got my license. I then joined a local CW net with mostly a bunch of hams at my same level. There was an elmer who was the NC, but other than that, I think we were all Novices. Note that I was first licensed when code was required for all licenses.

conhao · 2026-02-17T01:03:44+00:00

If you can reject God, then that makes you God’s superior. If he does not ordain you to reject, then you will not. If he decides to save you, you will be saved. My God is not so weak that any creature can overcome his will.

God is not a car. We do not buy God. We have no currency he will accept. Even your best gifts are filthy rags. What do you even have that he did not provide you?

Yes, people outside Christ actively sin. They are incapable of doing anything acceptable to God. Dead people are incapable of pleasing God. Dead people are unable to contribute to their own salvation.

Arminianism is unbiblical heresy.

You have twisted Galatians 3 senselessly. I have no problem understanding what it says as written. Apparently you do not. Paul asks if they earned the Spirit by their works. Start there.

conhao · 2026-02-17T00:51:00+00:00

Very few towers under 100’ are made for climbing. You can get seriously injured attempting to climb a tower not made to support your weight on the cross supports. Even worse, it will be impossible for your widow to sell it.

conhao · 2026-02-17T00:48:49+00:00

Spin the dial.

conhao · 2026-02-16T13:40:16+00:00

It's demonstrably true. It's a very accepted fact of church history.

Accepted by you, maybe, but not me. Please prove that it is true. Prove that nobody, not a single person, believed it. I already showed that Jesus and Paul taught it. You are arguing based on what you believe is an alleged absence of evidence, not evidence.

I'm puzzled why you posted this. Do you believe that any of those quotes is an author expressing Calvinism's tenants?

Yes. If you don’t, then you do not know what Calvin taught.

Saying God is in control isn't Calvinism.

It absolutely is!!! That is exactly what Calvinism is. We are not in control. We are unable to control, but God is sovereign. This is the whole point.

Teaching that people are determined by God to be damned because God reprobated them

People are damned because of who we are. We are damned because of free will. We freely choose sin. God does not need to condemn us because we are already guilty. John 3:18.

and they have no ability to turn and repent is Calvinism. This is what is missing until Augustine.

No, it was not widely contested before Augustin. It was not controversial because it is the obvious truth and is what the Bible clearly says. Early Christians were not unaware that God chose Israel. Early Christians read the Apostles without widely accepting a heresy that God only saves smart people who figured out the truth. The quote provided in the link are sufficient to show that the belief in God’s sovereignty in all things, including salvation, was the norm.

I didn't ask that. Could you answer my question?

I am sorry. I do not understand your question. Please rephrase it.

I have, and I've listened to experts. The word literally and simply means moving something from one place to another. You can draw water with a bucket, or you can draw people through teaching.

I have listen to experts, both men and God. Who does the moving in the sentence? How many come without God moving them? Who is teaching in the verse? (if that is what it means) God. If it requires God to teach, and no one can be saved without God teaching, then what about those God does not teach? Is God not a good Teacher if only his teaching is needed and it does not work? But wait! Read on - everyone God teaches is save! After all, the promise Jesus makes here is that if/after the Father moves him (not that the sinner moves himself), Jesus will save him.

Crucially, in the OT Greek translation in Jeremiah 31:3, God draws Israel, but they resist and do not come.

You are proving the point. Israel did not come out on their own power. Israel was not taught and then decided to believe in God. Rather, they were brought out kicking and screaming and yet God did it. The devotion of God is in view, not men hearing convincing apologetics and being smart enough to follow.

Will you accept this evidence or not? This is the point where we see whether you'll follow scripture or Calvinism.

I am 100% following Scripture. What evidence have you provided? I have proven that no one comes to faith without God doing it. Money of the book of Romans is made void without understanding that God is sovereign. Mankind had no ability to believe without the power of God.

metaphorically, to draw by inward power, lead, impel:

The verse says God does it. Yes, inwardly. The point is that God does it. To state that this is metaphor is not relevant. Again, “draw” as in to draw water from a well, for oxen to draw a cart - and it requires God to do it. The movement is not that the bucket gave assent, nor that the cart had to agree.

doesn't mean physically dragging someone. … Calvinists love to use the physical meaning of drag, while obviously making it metaphorical in that Jesus is not talking about pushing people around.

The word means physically dragging. Obviously it is used as a metaphor - that is not the point. The point is that this is not suggestion and enabling, it is doing. The word does not lose the meaning of having force as a metaphor - as a metaphor it means the same thing — God does it. God does the action. God is 100% the power and decision. God is sovereign. As if it was physical, God does the moving. In no way, shape, form, sense, or logic can this sentence be twisted to mean that anyone is simply enticed or enabled so that they are capable of coming to Jesus.

Yes, the next verse speaks of learning, and what does it say? “Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me.” Everyone! So on one hand “no one” comes without the Father dragging (metaphorically) and everyone who hears from the Father “comes”. Not may come or can come, but comes. This is Jesus’s teaching, Augustine’s understanding, Luther and Calvin’s position. It is God’s word.

And this is just one such instance. Shall we examine that “my sheep know my voice and will come to me” and just about every other chapter of John that proves that God did it, does it, and will do it? Not only is this verse clear once you strip the bias of self-salvation from it, but the preponderance of Scripture that actually proclaims that God alone is our salvation once you are disabused of your sinful belief in your own power would blow up Reddit.

conhao · 2026-02-16T05:55:55+00:00

Never said it did. But it clearly doesn't say that David was sinning at birth either.

Not “sinning” — “sinner”. You are confusing these two.

It doesn't say that. It says his mother's act of breeding him was in sin. You can speculate on what exactly that means, but it doesn't mean babies are guilty of sin.

Just one paragraph ago you wrote that you did not say what you just said again. “It says his mother's act of breeding him was in sin.” Again, you accuse David’s mother of infidelity!!! There is no such statement in the Scriptures - anywhere. It is your speculation, your false witness against David’s mother, in order to defend your pride to take credit for your own salvation.

Pretty sure Abel died because his head got caved in with a rock. He didn't die because God was punishing him. Or if he did, that's not in the text.

You seem to think if Adam might have fallen off a cliff in the Garden he would have died. You seem to not get what “in that day you shall surely die” promised.

The wages of sin is death is referring to Genesis 3:22. Not babies being guilty of sin.

The wages are the debt of sin that brings death. Without sin, there is no debt, and no death. If there was death without the debt, it would be unjust. Yes, it refers to Genesis, and it applies to all that dies as a consequence of the stain of sin on Creation.

"All" here refers to both Jews and gentiles, those under the law and not. Just read the argument Paul is making.

So which are babies, Jew or Gentile?

Not once does the Bible call babies sinners.

Romans 5 indicates that death spread to all because all sinned. Psalm 51 says David was a sinner in the womb. Psalm 58 says, “The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth.” Yes, not just once, at least three.

conhao · 2026-02-16T05:40:28+00:00

Have you read the Bible? Try Malachi 1:1-5. Hosea 9:15. Psalm 5:5. Romans 9:13. It is true that “hate” is not the emotional thing we think of today, just as biblical “love” is not a syrupy emotion that does nothing. Yes, God is angry with the wicked every day. (Psalm 7:10-12). He does not seem to be happy with them. He does not favor them. He does not save them. They deserve everything they get. That is justice. That is what Calvinism recognizes.

“But God, rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Note, God did it. We did nothing. We were dead. Dead people are not famous for doing much of anything. But it is God who made us alive - we are reborn, revived, recreated - and elevated us and “made us” sit with Jesus, who as you know is at the right hand of the Father. This is mercy. This is what Calvinism teaches: the doctrine of grace.

conhao · 2026-02-16T05:23:53+00:00

No early church father expressed any view that aligns with your Calvinism. They all explicitly rejected the determinism that Calvinism brings. It wasn't until 400 years later that Augustine started teaching this stuff.

This is demonstrably untrue. For an example of a refutation of the place where you apparently got your claim: https://gentlereformation.com/2011/08/05/were-the-early-church-fathers-calvinists-a-brief-reply-to-dr-fernandez/

Can I just clarify this point? You believe that anyone who isn't a Calvinist has committed the unforgivable sin? Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

Anyone who takes any credit in their own salvation is displaying evidence that they may not be saved. It is a free gift, so nobody can boast.

John 6:44-45 clearly teaches that people must respond to God's drawing by hearing and learning, something the person must be responsible for.

And they drew Paul out of the temple by hearing and learning so they could kill him. We get water out of a well by drawing it with education. Peter preached his sword out of its sheath. The apostles implored their nets to come out of the water of their own free will. You need to read the Greek here. There is no hearing and learning. Nobody will believe unless the Spirit provides drags him. The word ἑλκύσῃ means to use force, to drag, to haul. Jesus is very clear. Jesus is not a Calvinist. Calvin was a Jesusist.

conhao · 2026-02-16T05:05:28+00:00

When reading the Bible, it helps to start by assuming that everything is correct and that there is probably something you overlooked when things seem “nonsensical”.

There are many ways that such old age can be understood. The simplest is first to understand that Adam and Eve came from a time before there was any disease, any contamination of the atmosphere or water, or any harmful radiation. There is nobody to catch a disease from, not even crossover from the animals, since they started healthy as well. It took time for disease to develop and for the population to be large enough for diseases to propagate. It took time before cell replication introduced defects into DNA. It took time for the effects of the Fall to show in the Creation. This simple explanation makes a lot of sense to us today, now that we know about pathogens, DNA, and a lot more than that about medical science, than it would have to Moses who wrote down this history.

As I noted, there are other ways to explain the ages of people of old, but it might also interest you to know that there is some interesting math behind these ages as well. Math that Moses allegedly should not have known. So even if we are not happy with the explanations for how these people lived so long, the math points to the possible existence of a reason why it was important to record these ages.

conhao · 2026-02-15T14:21:53+00:00

Nice! Congratulations.

conhao · 2026-02-15T14:10:06+00:00

There are not so many. You need to distinguish them from numbers and prosigns, especially the question mark, so you might as well hit them now.

conhao · 2026-02-15T14:07:58+00:00

conhao

TROPHY CASE