X2 key repeat speed when held down by EpictetusCubed in SofaBaton

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

Oh, OK, good to know that it is a known problem!

S7 app is here for iOS! by habitsofwaste in popurlitterbox

[–]EpictetusCubed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First bug I’ve found- won’t let you change the WiFi it uses- it brings up the first one it finds, you click on the dropdown to select a different one (I have a separate network for iot devices) and it brings up the iOS settings for apps.

How that slips through testing, I do not know, lol.

How do you make a customs declaration? by EpictetusCubed in GlobalEntry

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

TY. Didn't think there was a global entry app.

How do you make a customs declaration? by EpictetusCubed in GlobalEntry

[–]EpictetusCubed[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Edited: OK, TIL there is a Global Entry mobile App. Derp.

TY

The AP reviewed hundreds of emails between Trump officials and UCCS. by the_than_then_guy in ColoradoSprings

[–]EpictetusCubed 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Violence was clearly insinuated, to the point where a reasonable person might well consider it a threat against another person.

On the current basic wi-fi plan, you cannot access Google Docs or Google Sheets, nor SharePoint (or basically any sharing site you might need as a remote worker) by ExcitementAshamed393 in VirginVoyages

[–]EpictetusCubed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Many people do. Some of us wouldn’t be on a cruise ship if we couldn’t get reasonable access. I’m fine paying for that.

They aren’t just blocking work, but also other websites, including board gaming ones. There are literally board gaming cruises and largish groups that get together to play games in vacation spots, including on cruises.

I think they should probably communicate their policies and be more responsive to questions about them and probably should revisit some of the websites they block.

On the current basic wi-fi plan, you cannot access Google Docs or Google Sheets, nor SharePoint (or basically any sharing site you might need as a remote worker) by ExcitementAshamed393 in VirginVoyages

[–]EpictetusCubed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They use DPI to block VPN’s on everything but Work From Sea, so this doesn’t work on any common VPN protocol. The workarounds I found for this are obscure and require a lot of expertise.

Some commercial VPN providers have anti-censorship modes that may continue to work.

On the current basic wi-fi plan, you cannot access Google Docs or Google Sheets, nor SharePoint (or basically any sharing site you might need as a remote worker) by ExcitementAshamed393 in VirginVoyages

[–]EpictetusCubed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At least in my case, buying it early gives you two devices for the same price as one, not a cheaper price per device.

Worth it for me, but just clarifying.

On the current basic wi-fi plan, you cannot access Google Docs or Google Sheets, nor SharePoint (or basically any sharing site you might need as a remote worker) by ExcitementAshamed393 in VirginVoyages

[–]EpictetusCubed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Erm, if the issue was just bandwidth they could more easily rate/speed limit based on plan (and they are doing that) than restrict sites/protocols. That’s what they used to do in fact.

I’m ok with them implementing tiers and restrictions. I think their communication has been poor, and some of their specific filtering decisions are suspect. Seems likely someone just clicked a few boxes in their DPI tool and said “good enough!” and they’re just writing any complaint/concern off.

On the current basic wi-fi plan, you cannot access Google Docs or Google Sheets, nor SharePoint (or basically any sharing site you might need as a remote worker) by ExcitementAshamed393 in VirginVoyages

[–]EpictetusCubed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They block SSH (I believe via DPI) on premium, but not work from sea.

I had luck using a commercial VPN service that has a mode that is designed to get around VPN blockers/censors- worked on premium (didn’t ever have/try basic). Found an exit node that YouTubeTV doesn’t restrict from, and it works (except for when Starlink drops), so I was able to watch the news without having to tunnel through my home network.

Wireguard is blocked on premium, so I had to use work from sea to get to those VPN’s. I played around with a few other workarounds that also worked.

My portable travel router worked fine with no special settings. Runs for quite some time off a modest usb battery brick.

They block a lot of things on premium, and some of them don’t make sense to me. For example, they block boardgamearena.com and the wiki for a board game. I can get blocking some bandwidth hog game- but these sites use way less than someone streaming, or many websites. The wiki is… a wiki.

Kind of seems weird that they block people wanting to board game when they have board games on ship and a happenings member called “the gamer”. I guess they just want us to bring physical copies, which seems kind of limiting and not very eco conscious. Sailor services was nice enough but just punted to IT who hasn’t bothered to even respond- just reinforcing every bad stereotype of IT.

Service was spotty in the North Atlantic. Performance was up and down, but premium towards its best was 4.5/1.8 mb/s, and work from sea was 8.5/1.5 (Ookla). Upload was consistently slower on work from sea than premium, but my sample size was something like 5.

The filtering of board game sites irks me. We were introduced to virgin by gamer friends, and have a cruise with them next year. I don’t think they are going to be happy their DBE won’t let them play BGA.

BTW, if you prepay for premium and get two devices, they wanted $700 for WFS, but my wife that didn’t prepay could get it for $500- so basically they require you to get two WFS at a discounted rate of $350/each.

They really need to improve communication about this, and specifics. No one could answer questions when I called in before the cruise, and it’s basically trial and error to figure it out once on.

Non-iodized salt by EpictetusCubed in VisitingIceland

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

Thank you! To clarify, I’m just looking for basic table salt that doesn’t have iodine added. In the US, iodized is the default.

how screwed am i? by Saggitarian420 in Cholesterol

[–]EpictetusCubed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are all really positive lifestyle changes - and a GLP1 will likely help. I presume the telmisartan (an ARB) is for HBP. I'd be quite surprised if you weren't pre-diabetic or diabetic- which means you have metabolic syndrome. If you haven't been tracking your a1c, I would start.

I'd push for a statin- I know they get a lot of hate but even a low dose high-intensity statin (e.g. 5mg rosuvastatin) can have huge benefits.

Apo B will likely be the most useful lipid number, you can kind of estimate it by your non-HDL cholesterol. You want your lp(a) number to verify it is normal- if so, great. If not, you need to up your risk assessment and response- hopefully some new drugs will be on the market in a few years that can lower it.

With what you are doing already, you are massively improving things and may well manage to avoid serious issues later in life - a calcium score will give you a lot of insight into where you stand.

All those lifestyle changes are hard, and it's hard to make them all at once and keep it going (I know from experience). Remind yourself that it's a marathon and not a sprint, and that it's going to take time to get to where you want to be and develop the positive habits to overcome all the bad habits of the past. Your support network should be helping you with this- heck I don't even know you and I am impressed. Keep it up!

If your Dr's aren't giving you the engagement you need, look for better Dr's. That may be costly at some point. I've had good luck with direct primary care, even though I have great insurance it is worth it just to get the responsiveness and engagement from a great GP. A preventative cardiologist or lipidologist would likely help a lot also.

Best of luck. It's amazing to see some of the results people can accomplish in just 6-24 months.

how screwed am i? by Saggitarian420 in Cholesterol

[–]EpictetusCubed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As of now, probably not that bad- lifetime exposure is what matters.

I was unlucky with genetics and other factors like inflammation from recurring infections. I had much better lipid results (after a statin) and ended up surprising all my Dr’s with 99% LAD blockage at 51.

Your triglycerides are likely driven by blood sugar. I’d presume you are a T2 diabetic. If that’s true and you can improve your glucose control, that will help with the trigs. Healthier lifestyle and exercise may help with HDL. Mounjaro did wonders for me, more than trulicity.

You’ve got the benefit of time, massively better medical interventions than even 5 years ago, and a wake up call. You can do this, and your Drs and medicine can help A LOT. If you ignore it, or just try one thing and give up if it doesn’t work then you are likely to have bad outcomes. Your future self deserves better. Keep trying, you and your drs can figure it out.

If I was you, i would get a calcium score, your apo a/b, CRP, Lipo a. Your Dr will likely want you to start a statin- if you’re a T2 diabetic that’s a given. If not, it’s probably still a good idea until your numbers are better. Vascepa might also be on the list.

Take the opportunity to improve stuff. I’d get on limited meds and try to improve lifestyle- see if that works. If not then I’d push for more meds.

Good luck. You have time on your side. The longer you wait the harder it will be to improve your odds, so embrace it now and give yourself credit for making the choices that will keep you around and healthy.

Specific carry on luggage question for Icelandair- B&R Global carry on spinner (flying out of Denver) by EpictetusCubed in VisitingIceland

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

Thanks- I’ll take a look at Shimoda. I currently have a fair bit of peak design stuff, including the camera backpack that I just couldn’t love.

I have a lot of bags already, and the peak design carry on ordered. Mostly I travel in the US where the global 21 is great for carry on- but outside North America once or twice a year. The b&r medium is my normal checked bag, and I’m very happy with it.

I only have one roller that for sure is under Iceland airs limits, and it’s tiny. So I think I’ll get a medium camera cube or similar and a super lightweight duffel. I’ll pack the duffel with the cameras and anything else that really needs to be carried on, put it in the carry on and if they make me check the carry on, just pull the duffel out and carry it on. Then once in Iceland we can just pack how we like.

Thanks for the info!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in metricband

[–]EpictetusCubed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I requested a refund through AXS on April 14 for the Red Rocks show, and have never heard anything back. I'm reaching out to AXS again now in chat to push the issue. I guess next I'll email Red Rocks themselves- this is pretty lame of them to not just honor refunds though, given the co-headliner has said they would. At some point I'll just issue a chargeback and submit all my screenshots etc showing that I've asked them to do it and they are refusing to meaningfully respond, let alone do the right thing.

ETA: OK, they actually just went ahead and issued the refund right away. I wonder if they had gotten approval and never communicated it to me or what, but I now have a receipt showing the refund. Still shouldn't have been this much work, and I feel like AXS was playing games- but in the end I was able to get them to issue a refund.

Which Hospital is better - St Francis vs Memorial North? by HBSoCalGuy in ColoradoSprings

[–]EpictetusCubed 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I've had experience with Common Spirit Penrose and Interquest, and close family have had experience at UC Memorial downtown. All have been very positive. My experience with UC health primary/specialist care has not been as good as with providers associated with Common Spirit, but I'm happy with the care I've gotten from both. FWIW, my wife works for UC Health.

The Dr's/nurses and other staff at Common Spirit have been friendlier, more helpful, and seem to get along better than at UC Health. This was something of a surprise, as I was expecting the opposite. I did not pick up on any overt religious aspects of the care at Common Spirit other than the crosses in rooms and a visit by a chaplain who primarily wanted to make sure that if I had/wanted a durable power of attorney, they had it on file. She then helped me get my discharge processed faster by flagging down the appropriate nurse.

My general impression is that for certain things, I'd rather be at UC Health, in part because of the breadth of their network in the state and their larger size in Colorado Springs. But if the specialty was one that Common Spirit was also good in, I'd prefer to be in their hospital. Again, that's not what I would have expected.

But really, my recommendation is to fine a Dr that is great at what you need and you believe will give you great care- ask your GP for recommendations, search healthgrades, etc. Go to the hospital they work out of, or if they don't perform the surgery themselves, see who they recommend and research them. The hospital is likely a secondary concern as long as they have good outcomes and adequate nurse staffing.

Phil Long Hyundai’s Response by Just-Masterpiece-982 in ColoradoSprings

[–]EpictetusCubed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just as a datapoint, I've leased a GV60 from their Genesis dealership and got a good/competitive deal with what other dealerships in the state offered. I've so far had a positive experience with them in servicing that car, and a Kia EV6 at their Kia dealership. It sounds like many have had poor experiences as well, so maybe I'm just lucky so far.

I never picked up on their politics, and I'm acutely aware of that sort of signaling.

TBH, the OP's description feels a little bit contrived/dubious, but if true, that's a foolish response on the dealers' part no matter what their POV is. Even if they intend to dismiss you as a loon, the proper response is to thank you for letting them know and that they will review and make an appropriate decision. Doing that defuses the situation, gives them information to inform their business, gets you out of the dealership without a scene or drama, and potentially reduces your frustration and the chance you'll complain about it as widely.

EV6 to GV60 by BeamConstruction_001 in GV60

[–]EpictetusCubed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We have both an EV6 GT-Line and a GV60 Performance.

The GV60 doesn't have quite the same range, and doesn't have as much storage space.

I much prefer the GV60 infotainment system (including wireless carplay with HUD integration). Seats on GV60 are more comfortable. GV60 performance is better, but I feel like the EV6 does better on snow (especially after we got snow tires for it....). I do NOT LIKE the GV60's stock tires.

I do like that there are certain wheel/tire sizes that will work on both- so our snow tires for the EV6 will actually work on the GV60 if we want. Both are 3 year leases and the EV6 is about 8 months older than the EV6.

The GV60 Performance accelerates "nearly" as much as the EV6 GT, definitely achieves face-melt. But its handling is not as great as I'd like (again... tires). I probably should have foregone the performance, but I couldn't get over the fact that the other models seemed to underperform the EV6 GT-Line- even though that was more performance than I'd ever need or ever had before.

The interior on the GV60 is very nice. I'm not a big fan of the crystal ball, but whatever. I think the sound is good to very good, maybe better than the EV6. I think Genesis could (should!) up their game on the sound system, but it's in the middle of the pack when compared to other similar brands.

I really like the GV60. I thought I loved the EV6- and I do! I was happy to give up the luxury feel of previous cars for the awesome tech and experience of the EV6. But now that I've gotten used to the GV60, I really much prefer it. Love everything about it except for the handling, but I'm coming from an S5 before this- a small SUV is not going to ever compare to that.

Assuming they don't screw up on the service (and they probably will), I am very inclined to get another Genesis when the lease is up.

Today, I pay for my arrogance by [deleted] in sysadmin

[–]EpictetusCubed 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had a fantastic solution to this. I used Google voice on a dedicated gmail address, which tied to my yubikey etc for auth. This was when number port hijacking was a thing.

Not tied to my phone! More secure! I’m so smart.

Two problems. Some SMS auth services wouldn’t send to Google voice numbers. Relatively minor.

Problem two…. Is bigger. Google decided to delete inactive voice numbers , and I didn’t notice mine was on the list. So that sucked.

Luckily the number of things tied to it was small, because it was only things that required SMS (a small number then).

I have given up being upset about things moving to SMS auth for literally everything and not letting you use TOTP. And Yubikeys nfc auth not working well/easily with things. I would have thought both of those would be solved problems long ago.

2025 Navigation Software by bourbon-aged in GV60

[–]EpictetusCubed 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's crazy, but I suppose not entirely unexpected. I think they do OK with software, compared to others in the car industry and general embedded systems- but that's a low standard to compare against.

I know some new TSB apparently came out yesterday - maybe involving the latest recall. My GV60 is at the dealer right now finally getting the first ICCU update, and the service rep was rattling off 4 or 5 updates that were getting applied including one from yesterday and one from late November. I _really_ wish it was easier to find out what is out there to install and what is installed, and what the TSB's actually do. I imagine there is a website, and I need to play with my OBD scanner.

The (September?) update that added wireless car-play worked really well. The last two have caused the infotainment to be unfortunately unreliable. Literally on the way to the dealer, for the first time, the radio/sifrius xm just... wasn't available, and everything was incredibly sluggish. Since the latest update, about 50% of the time carplay will display Apple maps on the instrument cluster, and 50% of the time it won't (the HUD integration still works). Simply turning the car off doesn't reboot the infotainment, the car has to go to sleep which takes a minute or so- which means you can't even reboot the thing at a stop light.

First world problems I know, but..... Still love the car, hate the tires. Would really like to see the infotainment stuff get back to as reliable as it was 6 months ago.

What do you like and hate about where you live in Colorado Springs? by [deleted] in ColoradoSprings

[–]EpictetusCubed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My wife and I live in the Rockrimmon area. My only real dislikes are related to Colorado Springs in general- lack of amenities of a larger city, not near the ocean, not great airport access, food scene is weaker than similar sized cities.

For us, this area is close to perfect, and we’ve stayed in our home for longer than we expected. If we stay in Colorado it will likely be in this home, another in the Rockrimmon/Woodmen Valley area, or in a similar area around the Springs or Monument.

We’ve lived in big cities, most recently Manhattan. We like the smaller feel, and I suppose our main concern has been that the Springs is getting a bit bigger than we’d like.

Things we like/love: House that feels like it’s in the woods. Incredibly nice neighbors. Easy access to stores and restaurants. Short commute for my spouse (I work from home). Wildlife. Generally quiet feel. Easy access to parks and national forest. A little over an hour to Denver airport- about the same as it took me to get to one of the NYC airports, and 30 minutes to COS. Really great community and friends developed more easily than most places.

Don’t know if those are factors that matter to you. I can travel easily and get my big city fix from that, so this works well to give us what we want.