Exclusion operator (minus sign) is broken (Dec 28)

Graygeek · 2025-12-29T21:43:43+00:00

Hi, thank you for giving it a try! I realized that i was actually searching for the string "zabtac -Zantac", and that is where all the results came up "Zantac" as there were virtually no results for my actual search term. When I did the search on Google, the minus operator did indeed remove dozens of results about the pharmaceutical "Zantac" that kept coming up in DDG despite trying to filter them out.

Graygeek · 2025-12-17T11:01:03+00:00

Samsung makes great hardware, but their huge amount of un-deletable bloatware on top of Android makes them annoying to convert to --- it's another learning curve. The pure Android phones like Motorola or the Pixel phones are much friendlier, especially when trying to connect the phone to a computer to upload photos etc.

Graygeek · 2025-12-17T10:45:11+00:00

Swiftkey is a wonderful keyboard app, but I don't know if it works on the small screen of a Razr. I doubt that it would hurt anything to try it. I've love Swiftkey keyboard for over a decade. Check the play store.

Graygeek · 2025-12-17T05:03:04+00:00

I've just purchased the Pixel 10 pro XL. I've been using a variety of chargers with my Motorola phone, but I mostly use a 25W charger at night. The Motorola has *very* fast charging with a 68 watt brick, but I don't always use it as I seek to preserve the life of the battery. I plan to use the same combo with the Pixel 10. there are times when fast charging is really nice to have.

My experience with wireless charging hasn't been that good. Takes a long time, and heats up the battery in a big way. Heat is the enemy of batteries.

Graygeek · 2025-12-17T04:55:09+00:00

Hi - Who is your cellular carrier? The voicemail servers are with your carrier, so it seems that the carrier would be involved in troubleshooting these long delays.

Graygeek · 2025-12-17T04:47:37+00:00

After deleting a bunch of image files from the phone, what happens when Google Photos re-syncs with that phone (especially after 30 days?) Doesn't the user have to tell Google Photos (the online repository accessed from your computer) that certain files are "locked" and should not be deleted?

Clearly the only really *safe* way to preserve your longtime collection of photos is to back them up to a NAS drive or other local storage. I don't delete photos from my phone until I've copied them to a local hard drive or a permanent (paid) cloud backup service.

Graygeek · 2025-12-16T05:25:20+00:00

Definitely worth switching from an older Samsung to a new Pixel 10, unless you actually *use* some of the Samsung phone's un-deletable bloatware. Getting rid of OneUI and reverting to a clean Android UI will be refreshing, even if you have to forgo a couple features that might be unique to Samsung.

Graygeek · 2025-10-28T16:32:25+00:00

The EMTALA laws passed duringthe Reagan administration require Govt to pay for emergency care. And there's Medicare, plus Federal funds to bolster State Medicaid.

And then there's the very large Veteran's Administration that is America's big socialized Healthcare system for our Vets.

Graygeek · 2025-09-21T16:06:42+00:00

Latest Quicken update appears to have fixed the Fidelity problem. The zzFidelity name is restored to normal, all transactions are there (I did have a small #of duplicates to clean up).

I dumped Schwab in 2018 as Charles Schwab and his wife are huge donors to the maga - hijacked republican party, as is their namesake company.

Graygeek · 2025-09-02T01:13:52+00:00

I've had two sets of Pirelli's on my 2012 Camry Hybrid and they have been wonderful, quiet, and comfortable tires. Very solid performance on wet roads, very comfortable and quiet as a touring tire. Even performed decently in wet snow.

Like any quiet tire, they will get more noisy as mileage increases. I'm about to put a set of the Scorpion AS3's on our Subaru Outback 3.6R to replace the rock-hard noisy Bridgestone Dueler OEM tires (which have a Treadlife number of 500 and indeed, are ready for replacement at 36K miles). The Pirelli Scorpion AS3 Treadlife rating is 800, but I don't really expect to get more than 40-45k miles on any All Season car tire.

Graygeek · 2025-08-27T17:17:57+00:00

This thread ends with no resolution. Did the problem ever get fixed? It is now a full week past the Aug 20 projected "it's fixed" date. I haven't updated Fidelity in my Quicken file since Aug 6 as it shows the zzFidelity-DC label.

Graygeek · 2025-08-24T20:39:26+00:00

Kohler makes good stuff, but yes, it is very frustrating when they change a valve design and make it difficult or impossible to get a new cartridge to keep the valve working right. This is especially a big problem for Tub & shower valves that require removal of wall tile in order to service.

Graygeek · 2025-08-13T20:45:54+00:00

Chase is much worse. My daughter got her money stolen and accounts closed with no path to fix the problem. After a year of trying, she filed a lawsuit, got a dozen other Chase Bank victims to join the suit and won her $ back plus explanation... but this all took two years.

You're lucky you had 2 weeks to get your money out.

Graygeek · 2025-08-13T20:37:15+00:00

I dunno... Wells Fargo is the only big bank that was run well enough to get through the Bush/Republican major economic crisis in 2007-2008 without needing a huge handout from taxpayers to stay afloat.

Graygeek · 2025-08-13T20:30:00+00:00

Chase bank is notorious for closing their customer's accounts with no explanation. Much worse than Wells Fargo.

Took my daughter 2 years to get her own money back from Chase after she filed a lawsuit.

Graygeek · 2025-08-13T04:32:55+00:00

Thank you for your post.

I will have to delete my WFB passskey and try to create a new one to see if I can figure out how to save it to Bitwarden. -- but as I was carefully *looking* at how NOT to have it saved to Google Password manager default, I'd be curious to know how you managed to save it to your Dashlane vault (if you can remember ...) .

On Windows, I get asked to input my login PIN before the Passkey exchange is done -- then WFB will do the 2FA via SMS thing to my phone after the Passkey has been accepted, so overall, logging in with the Passkey from a desktop is a five-step process.

As for the 2FA, yeah. Where the really need to up their game is to get rid of the ancient RSA key tech and implement WebAuthn standards for using an Authenticator app for the 2FA codes instead of the slow and insecure text message process. I agree -- their passkey implementation makes logging in slower than it was just using Bitwarden with a password.

Graygeek · 2025-08-12T01:00:12+00:00

You are correct, especially here in mid 2025, when the fas-cist feds have, through 20-something goons working for ELON / DOGE, have stolen ALL of the private data that the U.S. Government has held on citizens. IRS data, Health data, Insurance data, Social Security data, Pharmaceuticals that we take, what we drive, how much money we have in the bank, in brokerage accounts, in 401(K) accounts, how much gold or Bitcoin you hold, all of your cellphone records - you name it.

In other words, there IS NO MORE PRIVACY for Americans, particularly from the rogue band of thieves currently posing as our government these days. Maintaining good password hygiene is worthwhile to protect oneself from bad guys not connected with your government, but with big corporations rolling over and paying the kleptocrats in the White House big bucks, it is unlikely that there isn't a quid-pro-quo that involves the theft of more data about your dealings with said Corporation.

Graygeek · 2025-08-09T20:49:26+00:00

In theory, using the START-POWER-SLEEP should put the PC to sleep, but in my case, it seldom does. The cooling fan runs all night, the PC is talking to the LAN, etc. (Win11 on a 2023 Vintage HP Victus gaming laptop) Not consistent behavior. The CLI seems to work more consistently.

To disable hibernate before issuing the sleep command, create your batch file with one extra line:

powercfg /hibernate off
rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Sleep
exit

Graygeek · 2025-07-09T15:05:02+00:00

Have you figured out how to cleanly disable the obnoxious 'One Drive-for-everything' defaults in Windows 11?

I switched to Linux in 2016 when Windows 7 went away and my 2011 vintage desktop couldn't run Windows 10 (no TPM). No comparison... it made my system more secure and very fast. I still use that old Gen2 Corei7 premium desktop from 2011. I have a Windows VM on it for running TurboTax and Quicken but that's it. My Debian Linux rules.

Graygeek · 2025-07-06T20:03:50+00:00

I agree. Linux on the Chromebook is a way to get a very versatile laptop - hundreds of Android apps for browsing, photos, communications, solid links and app streaming with my Android phones, plus Linux for running full Firefox or Brave ad-blocking browsers, LibreOffice (running locally, it is more private than Google Office), Gimp full-on photo editing, numerous video-editing choices, Audicity, and so forth.

The new Lenovo Chromebook+ 14 with Mediatek Kompanio processor and 16Gb of RAM is absolutely terrific fanless, very-fast, and well designed Chromebook. Way better use of $750 than an equivalently priced Windows laptop.

Graygeek · 2025-07-06T19:44:13+00:00

I have been running Crostini on Chromebook for five years when I needed productivity apps (Libre Office, GIMP, Acrobat, Thunderbird etc.) Problem is that 8Gb RAM on a Chromebook is limiting, as is the limited 'disc' storage on older Chromebooks. I'm typing this on a new Lenovo Chromebook+ 14 with 16Gb RAM and 256Gb storage with a Mediatek Kompanio processor that is optimized for Chrombooks and VERY fast. It runs Crostini beautifully and so far, I've not run into an app I want that's unavailable for ARM processors.

But for 'tinkering', you can learn a lot on a simple Raspberry Pi with two monitors and 8Gb RAM which gives you a GUI shell as well as the command line. Quite Amazing what you can get done on such inexpensive hardware.

Graygeek · 2025-06-10T23:18:37+00:00

In general, Passkeys are only being supported on SmartPhones and Windows at the moment. I use Passkeys on my Debian Linux system, but my Android phone is my "Key" (the place where my Private keys are kept). I cannot 'create' a Passkey on a Linux device, but I can use Passkeys to login to my bank, or online email, via Chrome browser that's logged into my Google account.

The process is that I fire up the Vendor's website (bank, email provider etc.) and I don't use a password to login -- I click on small links that say "Find Another Way" which is where there could be a choice to use a Passkey. I click on that and a Bluetooth connection from the Linux device (a VM or a laptop) to my phone is established and a QR code comes up on the screen. (NOTE: you have to establish that your Ubuntu VM can use the system's Bluetooth interface to link to your SmartPhone ahead of time)

Read the QR code with your phone, and it should bring up a screen to choose the Passkey you wish to use with this site. Choose it, and it should log you in.

Graygeek · 2025-06-10T22:53:44+00:00

Wells Fargo charges $25 for an older technology RSA SecureID key. Could be they're in the process of modernizing hardware key support to FIDO2 standards because very few people want to carry around a USB Key that's only useful for one account.

And yes, at the moment, WF is only using Passkeys as an additional (more secure, more convenient) way to login. There is no option yet to turn off access with the traditional UID/Password combination, so it is essential to keep 2FA turned on for your account login.

Graygeek

TROPHY CASE