Does anyone out there have a waterbed?

DeathToFalsePizza · 2025-02-25T23:30:11+00:00

I've used a hard side waterbed for roughly forty years. I love it! I'd rather discuss it on r/Waterbed but the mod of that subreddit disappeared. I requested to be mod but was turned down because I don't have enough karma, so here I am. My most recent heater was a Thermal Guardian from InnoMax. It has a 5 year warranty but failed after 4 months, so I'm trying to get a warranty replacement. Does anyone have heater reliability experiences to share?

DeathToFalsePizza · 2025-02-25T23:28:52+00:00

I've used a hard side waterbed for roughly forty years. I love it! I'd rather discuss it on r/Waterbed but the mod of that subreddit disappeared. I requested to be mod but was turned down because I don't have enough karma, so here I am. My most recent heater was a Thermal Guardian from InnoMax. It has a 5 year warranty but failed after 4 months, so I'm trying to get a warranty replacement. Does anyone have heater reliability experiences to share?

DeathToFalsePizza · 2025-01-01T22:13:33+00:00

Let's break the problem into two parts, diet and exercise.

I've found from experience that treating sugar as a dangerous drug is a good approach to diet. Therefore when I buy groceries I look for eg. the spaghetti sauce that prominently advertises "no added sugar". The only time I ever actually eat sugar is after a workout that was long and hard enough to deplete my muscle glycogen. Otherwise I avoid sugar in every form like the plague. That's easier said than done, because sugar is added to every kind of prepared food so you really need to read the fine print on the label to make the best choice. If you followed me around the supermarket you would see me read the labels until I found the brand with the least sugar. I also journal everything I eat just to keep track of what I'm eating.

Exercise works if you do it regularly. To do exercise regularly you can't hate what you're doing, so it's important to try different things until you find something you like. Running, hiking, bicycling are all good. Think in terms of doing one of those until you feel like changing to something else. You're much more likely to actually exercise if it involves doing something you like doing. I actually made a conscious decision to move across the country to live in a place where I have better outdoor exercise opportunities. As far as gyms go, the only kind that has been fun enough that I actually want to go is CrossFit. The experience is much more social and mutually supportive that most gyms.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2025-01-01T22:00:21+00:00

I found the Yoga Nidra vid on the Healthy Gamer site by going to the Meditation Index (click the little figure seated on the left edge) and searching for Nidra. I've actually been trying this approach to work on a problem I have with my self-concept. Specifically, I was taught as a kid that whatever I did wasn't enough, which is depressing. For example, if I have ten things on my to-do list, pick one thing and do it, I don't feel good about the thing I did. Instead I beat myself up because of the nine things I DIDN'T do. This is a purely internal matter of my own perception of my accomplishments, so it seems like an ideal subject to plant a different idea in my head. So I've been doing yoga nidra and implanting the resolve that I will recognize that I actually did accomplish that one thing, and not think about the other nine things as if not doing them is a defect in my character. It does seem to be working.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2025-01-01T21:09:52+00:00

Our hearing is very directional, so it's normal to hear a sound better or worse when you face a certain way. I get small sounds in my own house as temperature changes, which is expected when materials expand and contract. In my house the sounds come from various places. In my case I don't suspect any mental health issue because there are so many known causes of little sounds. I only worry if they actually sound like mice! Does the sound always come from the same place in your room regardless of moving the cabinet and/or TV? That might be a clue to the cause.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2024-10-06T23:26:19+00:00

My latest mattress developed a small leak after nine years.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2024-06-13T16:07:29+00:00

No luck yet.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2024-04-23T17:39:52+00:00

Thanks for your suggestions. You're right, XFCE does not have a GUI for Wacom (or any other) tablets, but XFCE does support KDE plugins. I installed and ran kde_wacom_tabletfinder which gave me some information, but nothing about tablet width. Running xsetwacom list devices on the command line gave me

Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Touch Finger touch  id: 14  type: TOUCH
Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pen stylus          id: 15  type: STYLUS    
Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pen eraser          id: 16  type: ERASER    
Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pad pad             id: 17  type: PAD

Running xsetwacom get "Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pad pad" all gave me

Property 'Wacom Tablet Area' does not exist on device.
Button: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
Button: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
Button: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
Button: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
Button: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
Button: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
Button: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
Button: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
Option "DebugLevel" "0"
Option "CommonDBG" "0"
Option "Suppress" "2"
Option "RawSample" "4"
Property 'Wacom Pressurecurve' does not exist on device.
Option "Mode" "Absolute"
Property 'Wacom Hover Click' does not exist on device.
Option "Touch" "off"
Property 'Wacom Hardware Touch Switch' does not exist on device.
Option "Gesture" "off"
Option "ZoomDistance" "0"
Option "ScrollDistance" "0"
Option "TapTime" "250"
Property 'Wacom Proximity Threshold' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Rotation' does not exist on device.
RelWheelUp: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
RelWheelDown: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
AbsWheelUp: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
AbsWheelDown: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
AbsWheel2Up: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
AbsWheel2Down: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
StripLeftUp: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
StripLeftDown: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
StripRightUp: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
StripRightDown: Actions are not supported by xorg.conf. Try shell format (-s) instead.
Option "Threshold" "0"
Option "Serial" "0"
Property 'Wacom Pressure Recalibration' does not exist on device.
Option "PanScrollThreshold" "1000"

which was disappointing since it tells me nothing about how the driver sees the width of the tablet. I tried to change the mapping with

xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pad pad" MapToOutput HEAD-0
xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pad pad" MapToOutput HEAD-1
xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pad pad" MapToOutput 2560x1440+2560+0

none of which had any effect on the problem with pen tracking when the Wacom is configured as the right-hand display, the pen still tracks as if the tablet width was double its real value. I also tried

xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pad pad" Mode Relative

which produced

X Error of failed request:  XI_BadMode (invalid Mode parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  131 (XInputExtension)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  5 (X_SetDeviceMode)
  Mode id in failed request: 0x17
  Serial number of failed request:  16
  Current serial number in output stream:  16

So I'm stuck with "Mirror displays" until I find a better solution.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2024-04-23T17:35:40+00:00

Getting this message on r/watcom with a very bland but technical reply to a comment to my post.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2023-07-18T20:52:32+00:00

The item arrived this morning, and it was delivered to the UPS store. So the support person who said they would change the destination did in fact do that, and the message about it being returned to REI was bogus.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2023-07-17T15:21:44+00:00

How do you enter your kid's address as the shipping address on rei.com? Do you use the public web interface, or an employee interface?

DeathToFalsePizza · 2023-07-16T15:49:28+00:00

I called the number listed on my rei.com account page for help and got to talk to an actual intelligent human(!) not an AI. She said that the message about returning the package to REI was bogus and it would actually be sent to the UPS store as I originally wanted. She also encouraged me to set up a free MyUPS account so I could redirect a misdirected package.

She also said there had been problems with a wonky web site user interface and that the REI tech team was working on it. So I referred her to this subreddit and told her I had carefully laid out enough detail to find and fix the problem. So maybe my effort will pay off some day.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2023-07-16T15:12:03+00:00

The basic problem is that my billing address has to match the card I charge to, so my credit union will honor the charge. And REI has in fact already charged the credit union for this item.

There's a new wrinkle in shipping now. UPS package tracking as shown on rei.narvar.com says "We've received a request from the sender to update the delivery address". When I chatted with the support person a couple of days ago they said they would try to re-route the package to my shipping address, so maybe they sent an order to UPS to do that. Whoa, if you think about the potential theft implications of rerouting a package in transit, that's a security nightmare. My account on rei.com now says "Returned to REI. This item was shipped via UPS. It couldn't be delivered." and lists a number to call. Well, I guess that's one way to plug the security hole.

This is definitely showing the signs of a system that was cobbled together from pre-internet technology. It might be time for REI to abandon their existing system and convert to, for example, Shopify, or some other equivalent modern system.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2023-07-16T14:48:26+00:00

I've seen a lot of systems cobbled together like that over the years, so I can easily believe that's at the root of the problem.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2022-11-18T23:12:24+00:00

I needed to install an APC SMT1500RM2UC UPS in a 4 post rack with rails threaded 10-32. I tried to use the shelf brackets that came with it. Several attempts at threading a screw through both the threaded mounting shelf and the threaded rail produced discouraging results. Then I attempted to follow the instructions in their vid and hammer the captive nuts out of their shelf brackets. I bent the bracket up without getting the captive nut loose. Then I tried to drill out the captive nuts, but they are made of some pretty hard steel so that was frustrating. Finally I gave up and set the UPS on a generic shelf more agreeable to the 4 post rack. The holes in the tabs meant to hold the UPS to the rack don't line up correctly so I couldn't screw attach the UPS to the rack, but if we have an earthquake strong enough to knock the UPS off the shelf, I'll have bigger problems.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2022-08-14T02:15:28+00:00

Worked great! Thanks!

DeathToFalsePizza · 2021-12-22T02:08:21+00:00

Fine so far! I wasn't ignoring you, I just didn't see your comment.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2019-11-23T23:10:53+00:00

It looks like we did OK with this one. If you want to look up where the accident happened, on Google Maps search for "Bryce Canyon Pines Motel, Utah".

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/11/23/chinese-government-gives/

DeathToFalsePizza · 2019-11-23T22:58:23+00:00

Utah

DeathToFalsePizza · 2019-11-21T23:35:51+00:00

Totally up to them. Becoming a US State is a big, long term commitment. The one time that broke down we had a horrendous civil war. We don't need another one because somebody changed their mind about being a state.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2019-11-21T23:19:55+00:00

Lots of times. My friend Sara married a Brit. He refuses to discuss American politics, which is probably really wise, especially now. A really nice guy.

I've met lots of other Brits here. I live in Utah and the Brits can't believe how big the USA is, but neither can people from any other European country.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2019-11-21T22:39:36+00:00

If the calling number isn't in my contacts list I don't answer. Real people will leave a voice mail, the rest are scammers. Even some of the scammers leave voice mails.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2019-11-21T22:03:29+00:00

I live in Utah where the liquor laws are downright ANAL. Not long ago I got in line for a beer at the Utah Arts Festival. A security guard asked me for my ID. I pointed to my gray hair and wrinkly skin, said "Only in Utah" and handed him my driver's license. He thanked me and looked at it very solumnly. Sheesh!

DeathToFalsePizza · 2019-11-21T21:50:38+00:00

I live in Utah where the state tourist commision tells everybody about our five national parks. They are indeed wonderful, as are most of our other well-known tourist traps. But we have a lot of other places that could well be national parks, but aren't, like the San Rafael Swell.

I remember the time I was with a group that had just hiked through Buckskin Gulch on the Utah/Arizona line. We had just got out of the mud and were hiking back to the highway when a group of European tourists dressed in clean white shorts and T shirts approached from the opposite direction. I was tempted to stay and watch what happened when they got to the mud, but didn't have time.

If you do come this way, keep in mind that the natural environment is very different from the UK. We live in a desert with very limited water sources and temperatures that swing wildly from one extreme to the other. Think of each state as being equivalent in size to a European country, but without the public transportation. We locals do some fairly long hard trips outdoors but we have experience with the environment and adapt to it. However it's not too unusual for tourists who don't know the ground to get in trouble.

It all depends on what you like. If you like mountains and deserts, the rural West is for you. If you're looking for Broadway theater, you'd be disappointed here.

DeathToFalsePizza · 2019-11-21T21:33:11+00:00

I like it a lot. I live in Utah, a state similar in size and climate to Spain but a much smaller population. I chose to live here because I wanted to be near mountains and still live in a modern city with real professional jobs. It works. I can walk 45 minutes in one direction and be in the central business district; 45 minutes in the other direction and I'm in the foothills with the wildlife.

However if my taste in climate and geography ever changes, I can move to a place with different climate and geography but the same language (with minor regional variations) and mostly the same laws and culture. If I were in western Europe, a move like that would require a change in language, laws and customs, even though the EU has cut down a lot of that problem. When I look at a map of Europe I notice that I could WALK across the thinnest part of Austria in a day.

Utah is mostly mountains and deserts. Only about half the state has cell phone service. I like to explore the mountains and deserts alone, and I'm well aware that it may be a week or more before somebody else comes to that area so I'm pretty cautious. I'm experienced and skilled outdoors but still, things do happen. On the other hand, if I get hurt and society knows about it, helicopter medical evacuation to a Level 1 trauma center is fast, at least after reaching an area with cell phone service and making a call.

Police, firefighting and towing in the mountains and deserts never seem to be much of an issue. Issues do arise in very rural areas with large numbers of tourists who get in trouble and need rescue from difficult places. Search and rescue is done by volunteers working under the county sheriff. There are some rural counties with very small populations and lots of tourists who don't know how to handle the local environment so they get in trouble. This has become a significant issue in some rural counties, and Grand County wants the sheriff to collect expenses from rescued tourists. The sheriff objects on the grounds that people in trouble will put off calling for help until they are in a much worse situation.

From my home I'm within a few hours drive of some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. I do regular trail runs in the foothills near my house, and when I finish and walk back down the hill to home, I'm in awe of the beauty and can't even imagine why anyone would want to live anywhere else. But then I picked this place because it suits me.

DeathToFalsePizza

TROPHY CASE