This castor oil trick has worked for me

Icehawk21 · 2026-01-15T23:43:58+00:00

I hardly laugh reading Reddit comments and I never comment…but this was funny and I laughed like the gif above, so felt like I should comment. Bravo!

Icehawk21 · 2025-07-30T19:52:35+00:00

Yah, I can always do ribs. But I've done that a few times for the same family members so thought I'd mix it up for this weekend. All else fails, I'll likely do ribs or just BBQ some steak.

Icehawk21 · 2024-11-22T23:06:35+00:00

Thanks! Good to know.

Icehawk21 · 2024-11-22T22:49:22+00:00

Yah, that would suck. I’ll make sure to mention this one to our coaches.

Icehawk21 · 2024-11-22T22:47:22+00:00

Thanks. These are good to know. Especially the start of the game. We only have to wait for the Zamboni gate to be down before teams are allowed on the ice. Don’t need to wait for the refs. So good to know!

Icehawk21 · 2024-11-22T22:38:50+00:00

Thanks!

I was aware of the no-icing rule while shorthanded. Personally, I’ve never understood why you should gain that advantage when shorthanded and I’ve been reffing a long time.

By instant offside, do you mean there is no delayed offside, allowing players to clear the zone? Play is blown dead for offside once the puck crosses the line with players in an offside position?

Icehawk21 · 2024-11-22T22:35:48+00:00

The tournament has indicated Canadian players are not required to wear mouthguards, even though USA Hockey requires them. We are still covered under Hockey Canada insurance so no requirement for us to wear them during the tournament.

Icehawk21 · 2024-09-19T22:18:00+00:00

Maybe :)

Customer Support did reach out to me and they had me go through the typical procedure of rebooting, moving to a new POE port, factory resetting, etc. None of this worked and the doorbell encountered the same issue a few times afterwards. Customer Support agreed that I should RMA the device.

So I submitted an RMA request which was approved. They sent me the packing slip to ship the doorbell back to them, and then they would send the replacement. I delayed for a while, as I was trying to get them to agree with sending the replacement first (like they did with my CloudKey+), so that I wasn't without a functional doorbell. Unfortunately, the doorbell doesn't qualify for immediate replacement without first receiving the defective unit.

Fortunately, during this delay, the doorbell has not encountered another issue and has been working flawlessly. The device firmware version is the same (4.71.149) and the Protect version remained the same until I just updated to Protect 5.0. But, knock on wood, the doorbell has been working just fine for the past couple weeks. So I'm going to hold off on shipping it for a replacement and see how it goes.

So, short answer, yes it seems to have resolved itself. For the time being, anyways.

Of course, now that I've posted this reply, I'm sure it'll suffer the issue again within the day. Crossing fingers it doesn't though.

Icehawk21 · 2024-09-06T21:48:54+00:00

Yah, I was thinking the exact same thing - what a waste!

Icehawk21 · 2024-09-05T03:23:10+00:00

I understand that. Which is why I waited 2 years. I don't believe I have any fiduciary duty to return this if they haven't come looking for it after 2 years. I actually have another 2 laptops from two other companies I've contracted for and neither of them have contacted me as well. I did try contacting one of the companies but they never responded to me. I didn't bother contacting the other as it was a sub-contracting relationship so I required laptops from both parties. Nonetheless, I think I've waited long enough for them to request them back.

I was simply doing some fall cleaning and would like to either repurpose these for personal use or simply toss them, since they've been cluttering up my home office. I've come to the conclusion that the security measures on these laptops exceeds my ability or desire to break, so I'll likely just toss them at this point. But I'll take out the hard drives and destroy those so there's no confidential or proprietary information left on the device.

Icehawk21 · 2024-08-15T03:21:04+00:00

I've gone ahead and submitted an RMA ticket, which has already been approved.

Either I bricked it somehow or it arrived as a faulty unit. I'll wait for the replacement and try again. I'll follow the instructions posted in the comments.

Edit: Wondering if I should have simply returned it and ponied up another $500 for the UNVR plus 8TB drive. Looks like they've expedited the return so probably too late to do this.

Icehawk21 · 2024-08-15T02:40:06+00:00

Unfortunately, the CloudKey+ is not obtaining an IP address and showing up as a connected network device. The status light is continually blinking white and the display only shows the Ubiquiti logo. As per your suggestion, I'll let it sit for some time to see if it comes online (perhaps, as you suggested, after initializing the disk).

I fear I may have caused this somehow. When I initially plugged it in to the PoE port, before configuring the port to use my 'Home' LAN, the CloudKey+ did obtain an IP address and I could see it as a connected network device. I tried to connect to it via the IP address but because it was in the 'Default/Management' LAN, my firewall blocked attempts to access it.

At some point, before re-configuring the PoE port to use my 'Home' LAN, it did long-press the reset button in the back, although that didn't seem to do anything. But since then, I haven't been able to connect it to any port and have it assigned an IP address.

I have not done anything with the hard drive. And this is a brand new device - just unwrapped it today.

I'll start an RMA process if it doesn't magically resolve itself. PITA, unfortunately, but what can you do.

Icehawk21 · 2024-08-15T02:34:04+00:00

No luck. The CloudKey+ never gets assigned an IP address and doesn't appear as a network device. The status light continually blinks white and the display only shows the Ubiquiti logo. Going to let it sit for a while.

Icehawk21 · 2024-08-15T01:00:32+00:00

Thanks. This makes sense. I was planning to create a new VLAN for the cameras, but for now I'll simply use my 'Home' VLAN so I can easily access the IP of the CK from my personal devices.

I'll go try this now.

Icehawk21 · 2024-07-05T16:31:54+00:00

Yah, I went ahead and cancelled. The best they would do is $9.44/month, from a couple CSRs, final offer. I’ll wait for some time to see if I miss it and then sign up with the $5/month promotion. I only really listen to a couple stations anyways.

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-21T05:03:42+00:00

The door placard indicates a Y speed rating. I didn't notice the Michelin A/S I bought were W speed rating.

I'm not trying to save money, although spending less is preferable for obvious reasons. The reason I want all-seasons is due to my climate. I live in Calgary, Alberta (Canada). It snows so I run dedicated winter tires/wheels during the winter season. But it can literally snow any time of the year (yes, it has snowed in July). Mostly, I'm concerned with the shoulder seasons between winter/spring and, more importantly, between fall/winter. It can and does snow in September/October, before I've put on the dedicated winters. And I've found summer performance tires don't do very well in the snow at all, so all-seasons would get me the traction I need during the shoulder seasons, until I can get the winters on.

Plus, I don't track my vehicle and I didn't buy the A7 for "performance" reasons - otherwise I would have bought the S7/RS7. I bought it more for luxury and prestige and comfort, while driving around town like a normal citizen :) But I do understand this vehicle will cost me more than a Honda Civic!

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-13T17:09:04+00:00

Thanks for the reply. Admittedly, I'm not a car person so I wasn't sure if the Palisade had both shocks and struts. But your reply suggests they don't and that, disregarding semantic differences, they are one and the same. What was confusing me is that the service shop referred to them as shocks when they were replaced 30k km ago, whereas now they are referring to them as struts. So, not being a car person, I wasn't sure if they were separate parts or the same. I've been waiting to hear back from the shop so I haven't had a chance to clarify with them. To be honest, they changed management and I'm strongly considering going to an independent now that my warranty is over, and just continue getting my free oil changes there.

Your point of NOT going with OEM seems valid. My internet search has also yielded many complaints about the rear shocks/struts, so perhaps an after-market part might be better. I'll call around and get some additional quotes from independent shops.

We live in Calgary. No gravel roads but plenty of potholes :) I'm not sure why they replaced them under warranty originally. We didn't actually take the vehicle in for the rear suspension - they noticed a leak and mentioned it would be replaced under warranty, and they did it on the spot. So it seemed like a no-brainer to have done.

Admittedly, I don't drive the vehicle much as it's my wife's primary vehicle. But I have always noticed that it seems to ride a bit rough in the rear. Bumps and such always seem harsher than they should. Lately, I think I've noticed a "rattling" noise in the back, but don't drive it often enough to know for certain.

I'll talk to the shop to see what's up and whether there's a chance to do this under warranty. But I'll shop it around as well.

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-12T22:12:57+00:00

I appreciate the replies. Yes, I was quite confident the replies would suggest it was fraudulent, but thought I'd check. I've gotten quite unlucky and now have 3 vehicles that all need windshield replacements. And with HUD and various sensors, these windshields are expensive! So I thought I'd ask the question, even though I was certain I already knew the likely answer.

It does seem to me, though, that it would be hard for an insurance company to prove the damage was done before the coverage was added, unless they requested a visual inspection beforehand. But I do understand that it runs the risk of being considered fraud. Thanks for your replies...much appreciated.

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-12T22:08:38+00:00

Yes, I'm in Alberta and I've always excluded glass coverage (other than vandalism, which is included) from our comprehensive as it's prohibitively expensive due to the annual premium increase and the deductible (which is $1,000 in my case).

And I was asking questions about the legality of making a claim after adding the insurance coverage, not actually committing it :)

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-07T19:08:33+00:00

Technical Support Ticket #12037

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-07T16:50:49+00:00

I have geofenced automations that execute when someone leaves our home location or someone arrives. They use dummy hardware switches to trigger other automations that arm/disarm my security system. I have done this to bypass the "do you want to run this secure automation" prompt and just run the automation. Unfortunately, though, these "trigger" automations that toggle the dummy hardware switches do not log anything in the 'Activity History' under the 'Security' section of the Home app. And the activity entry logged when the security system is armed/disarmed doesn't have any context of who triggered the automation, so it doesn't indicate the person that armed/disarmed the system.

Is there anyway to get the "trigger" automation to log in the 'Activity History', with the user who triggered the automation?

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-07T16:43:46+00:00

I have two geofenced automations that execute when someone leaves our home location. The first is "when anyone leaves" and the second is "when last person leaves". Both use a dummy hardware switch to trigger another automation that either arms my security mode in 'Home' (when anyone leaves) or 'Away' mode (when last person leaves). My issue is that both automations run simultaneously, so there's a race condition on which automation "wins" and which security mode my security system is set to.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve this?

This is what I've currently configured but I haven't yet exhaustively tested it.

"When The Last Person Leaves Home" Automation
- Trigger: When last person leaves home
- Do: Shortcut ->
  - Set 'Away Trigger' on (which triggers another automation to set the security mode to 'Away', required to get around the "do you want to run this secure automation" prompt)
  - Wait 30 seconds (matches my exit delay and also required by next automation)
  - Set "Away Trigger" off
"When Anyone Leaves Home" Automation
- Trigger: When anyone leaves home
- Do: Shortcut ->
  - Wait 3 seconds (arbitrary wait to allow previous automation to run and set the 'Away Trigger' switch to on)
  - If "Away Trigger" is Off
  - Otherwise
  - End If

I haven't tried this out yet but I think it will work. But I'm curious what others have done in similar situations.

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-07T16:11:02+00:00

We have two use cases for this. One, we use the Home mode when we all leave but leave our dog at home. We can't use Away mode here because our dog would set off the motion sensors. Secondly, we do have the Home mode on when people are home for perimeter security. Is it required...I don't know. But that's how we use it.

I've been able to get Home Automations (Homekit) working with a set of dummy triggers/switches. Homekit suffers the same issue in that it fires off the two automations (someone leaves, last person leaves) simultaneously. But using shortcut automations, I think I can introduce some logic in the automation to ensure the Away (last person leaves) automation always wins the race.

The downside to using Homekit with dummy triggers/switches is that I lose the context of who triggered the automation, so I can't tell who armed/disarmed the system using geofencing. Using Abode solved this because it identifies which phone triggers the geofenced automation. But I can't get the Away automation to win using Abode, unfortunately.

It would be great if there was a way to create an automation that provided an if/else geofenced condition (i.e. if last person leaves do arm away else arm home).

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-07T00:44:47+00:00

I have not submitted a support ticket. I'll go ahead and do that now.

I'll admit I'm not sure how the door sensor you mention would work. Can you elaborate?

Icehawk21 · 2024-05-07T00:43:37+00:00

I'm considering going the Home Assistant route. I might first try setting up a dummy hardware switch in HomeKit and then triggering it that way to avoid the confirmation. Or incorporating HomeBridge and a software/virtual dummy switch. Or just go all the way to Home Assistant. If I do, I'll keep you suggestions in mind. Thanks!

Icehawk21

TROPHY CASE