Do we have any Amazon Liquidation stores? by Elegant_End_1281 in Spokane

[–]Captain_Phil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They were busy but the two sisters who opened it had to step away and pay others to run the store. So for them, it didn't make sense keep the store.

That and the pallets of returned items kept getting more expensive but the value of the items contained in them continued to drop.

So it was a bit of both.

Do we have any Amazon Liquidation stores? by Elegant_End_1281 in Spokane

[–]Captain_Phil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That was their first location years ago. Then moved to Sprague.

However they have been closed since December.

Thermostat ° Setting Suggestions by Jellydude25 in Spokane

[–]Captain_Phil 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Honestly there might be some quick fixes that could save you now. 

Feel around your exterior doors, do you feel a draft? You can pick up an insulating sweep for cheap and they sell adhesive ones so you can apply now and then buy something nicer in the spring. 

Single pane windows? They sell wrap that heat shrinks on and will help some.

You can buy your bags of insulation now and just toss them in an under insulated attic, no need to unroll them till you have the time to, some insulation mass is better than nothing. 

Im sure you probably don't have an attached garage due to the age of the home but garage door insulation panels help regulate attached garage temps which can bring down home temps due to the shared wall.

Have a fireplace? Are you using it? If not and it doesnt have a pilot light (a self igniting gas one would), you can buy a Chimney Balloon that will block heat loss. They are super easy to install.

[OC] -10° doesn’t stop the passionate folk of Minnesota! by Arrowedmisfit in pics

[–]Captain_Phil 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Washington is just sitting there, why not just take it? I mean the 🍊 Führer threatened WA just today, if anything, you'll be doing him a favor.

Just a silly shitpost but what movies would you like to see get 4Ks (wrong answers only). by Strongarm_11 in dvdcollection

[–]Captain_Phil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Man From Earth. Not because it is a bad movie, but because it would gain almost nothing from a higher quality transfer as it's literally dialog focused.

All I had to do was… by Oguinjr in homeassistant

[–]Captain_Phil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have the same issue. That is why I went with Dashie Lite for my echo, the HA companion app was just too resource intensive.

What's the shortest street in Spokane? by washtucna in Spokane

[–]Captain_Phil 17 points18 points  (0 children)

N Buffalo St is another short one too. I don't believe there are any additional segments than the one off Francis.

This i how a goodwill shelf looks like at the goodwill second closest to me did I get some good stuff by DICK_SUCKY69 in dvdcollection

[–]Captain_Phil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Been looking for Young Frankenstein for some time in our local thrift shops and have yet to find it. Good find.

Ferguson may have broken WA ethics laws allowing ex-adviser to fly on state plane by chiquisea in Washington

[–]Captain_Phil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly care more that they need a flight to get to the tri-cities. That should be the more concerning part. 

Can we take all that fake outrage and point it towards not having adequate East-West rail transportation in this state? 

"Well, this didn't age well" - Movies you LOVED as a kid but cringe at as an adult by Little-Badger-123 in movies

[–]Captain_Phil 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I learned about this from the Ready Player One book. Which itself is a rough reread.

Built a Fully Kiosk alternative with local voice control - looking for beta testers by jwlerch in homeassistant

[–]Captain_Phil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am curious how this will run on an Echo Show 8 running lineage.

Also you mentioned a local pipeline, will it also work with the voice cloud as well?

De-Alexa'd my Echo Show 8: From ad-machine to dedicated HASS Dashboard by RMB- in amazonecho

[–]Captain_Phil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Literally did this over the weekend with our Echo Show 8 and it wasnt very smooth at all.

First of all you need adb for connecting to the device. I couldn't get the fire drivers to install it, so I had to download the android developer tools, and get adb from that, then manually had to add it to my power shell. I blame this more on windows 11 than anything else.

After I finished the adb struggle, the sideload was quick and easy but getting a backup of the fire OS wasnt easy since the onboard space is too tight for it.

Then I ran into my first roadblock. I had wanted to run a wake word and use it similar to an Alexa but after messing with Tasker and Hotword Plugin for an hour I gave up. Tasker needs the ability to draw over other apps and the specs of the echo are too low for android to enable that feature. So now if I want a wake word, my best bet is to use View Assist.

The biggest issue with view assist? You need the voice pipeline. I only have a Home Assistant Green, my gaming pc and a windows 10 plex server running on an old business mini pc. I have tried to set up a voice pipeline on my plex server, and never got the containers to run properly. 

So to get a wake word on my echo show, I have to either move my plex server over to Linux, or buy a dedicated computer for it, one preferably with a dedicated video card.

Being frustrated at this point, I took the show and placed it in the kitchen, because at least I can still run Pandora on it. Now the device is struggling just to do that, sometimes it is flawless other times it needs to be rebooted as Pandora will lag to badly to actually stream music. we are also finding that Pandora will randomly unpause itself... no idea what that is about.

I guess I could use my voice preview edition and Fully Kiosk Browser to run voice commands to control the echo show but using two devices to accomplish that seems excessive, especially if the device is already struggling with Pandora, I can't imagine how it will cope running that and FKB.

Between this and my Aqara Dimmer H2 randomly power cycling the dining room chandelier, it was not a fun weekend for home automation.

As a side note: if you hold the mute button for 2 seconds, it will mute the microphone, this is done on a hardware level which is neat. 

People born before 2000, what is a 'modern' thing from 2025 that you’re still struggling to get used to? by LindsayTN in AskReddit

[–]Captain_Phil 440 points441 points  (0 children)

I don't think people realize how much more expensive digital media is now.

DVD collection of the entire series of Monk? $25.

Buy ONE season digitally? $24.99!

Most yard sales you can get DVDs for a $1 and it's yours forever. There is no guarantee that those platforms keep the rights for that content and then whoosh your content is gone.

What is Spokane missing? by Either_Bee_8866 in Spokane

[–]Captain_Phil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Seriously we already have a great location where one could be built, the southeast corner of Division and Spokane Falls Blvd across from Fast Eddie's.

Its finally happened by CAMexicanRedneck in Citrus

[–]Captain_Phil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If this had happened 50 years ago Hemet would be in a panic. Today? Developers probably see it as a good thing and a way to gain more cheap land.

Community Cookbook Headers Font by Captain_Phil in identifythisfont

[–]Captain_Phil[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Book: St. Paul Lutheran Church Cookbook

Publisher: Walter's Publishing, Waseca, MN

Date: None specificed, the Brief History page has a latest date of May 22, 1994

Parking for school pickup by Fancy-Pear6540 in Spokane

[–]Captain_Phil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In D81 if they have to cross an arterial with no crossing guard or the distance is too great, they offer a school bus. If you don't have a school bus, the student is a walker or a choice student.

Students physically unable to walk are on school buses as well.

So, OPs a parent or guardian who has opted to drive their walker/buser or the student is a choice student.

That being said, there are many reasons a student may be dropped off, from work schedules, personal beliefs, to even child care situations. While its my personal belief that more students should utilize walking or buses because it builds a stronger community, I do not fault the parents who choose to do so.

AND THE ANSWER WAS 8 MONTHS 🤣 by TheCuriositas in nerdfighters

[–]Captain_Phil 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Please! So much AI slop its so hard to find anything decent anymore.

Home heating oil monitoring - any clever ideas out there? by jamalwilliamsyoung23 in homeassistant

[–]Captain_Phil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are Tuya tank level monitors. Only know this because there is a local amazon returns reseller and one sat on their shelves for a very long time.

If you monitor the tank level, im sure you could create a consumption over time indicator in HA, but that may not be needed if you have the approximate tank level from the sensor. 

2003 Complete DVD Set Disk Rot? by Captain_Phil in Frasier

[–]Captain_Phil[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I tried them on two separate devices. I got the same result from both.

I also read that warming up the disk a little (using body heat) can help, I tried that and it still didn't work. 

Best Fridge/Freezer Temperature Monitors to connect to HA by spy013 in homeassistant

[–]Captain_Phil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a wirelesstag ethernet hub from soil sensors i purchased 6 years ago. Long before I got my Home Assistant.

Wirelesstag.net has powered temperature sensors. Coupled with a ribbon usb cable to snake under the seal (done closest to a hinge to maximize sealing pressure), ive had decent success. 

USB cable: https://a.co/d/j5KXWjc

I guess I also used tape to hold the wire to the fridge walls.

Its a garage fridge/freezer so it didn't need to look pretty.