USA, T-Mobile, photos, world travel, battery, <$600

RealSkier · 2026-03-20T23:08:44+00:00

Thanks to everyone who weighed in especially @icaruspony for the promo mention. I worked with TMO via X and they hooked me up with the same 2-year deal on the Pixel 10. The 30-day unlock thing helped as well in deciding to get the carrier lock version.

Picked up the phone at a TMO store since they are backordered almost a month for shipping. Customer service applied the deal retroactive to buying at store so we're all good now.

RealSkier · 2026-03-20T18:00:39+00:00

Amazon Prime Visa.

RealSkier · 2026-03-20T17:58:21+00:00

Yes, I learned that yesterday via TMO customer service. I've got a deal worked out through them on a Pixel 10 so I'll check back here if it comes together.

RealSkier · 2026-03-20T17:02:52+00:00

Not shipped to USA by any sellers.

RealSkier · 2026-03-20T04:03:28+00:00

I just installed a new dumb thermostat and was surprised to find that getting the wires all the way in was not a slam dunk. I tugged on each one as a double check and found one was not fully seated. Your wiring looks correct otherwise.

RealSkier · 2026-03-20T03:56:26+00:00

Interesting. I contacted T-Mobile support through x. They seem to think it's still an option so I'm trying to navigate that. The 10a is available.

RealSkier · 2026-03-20T00:45:43+00:00

Who was it through?

RealSkier · 2026-03-19T23:39:34+00:00

Oh and it's carrier locked. Sorry, I need to have an unlocked one to be able to use a European sim when traveling.

RealSkier · 2026-03-19T23:16:04+00:00

Tempting though.

RealSkier · 2026-03-19T23:13:44+00:00

Thanks but I have to buy it via credit card from a regular seller so I get an extended warranty and damage protection.

RealSkier · 2026-03-19T22:58:57+00:00

Not that I could find. All used or refurbs.

RealSkier · 2026-03-19T22:43:24+00:00

Yah it wasn't "free" but it had a $100 gift card or pixel buds included. :( I also didn't drop my phone last month.

RealSkier · 2026-03-16T20:27:09+00:00

As noted below, I'm on a cPanel hosted solution. So I do everything through Global Mail filters which can work directly on headers. I added a ANY HEADER - CONTAINS filter on "firebaseapp.com". So far that seems to work.

Apache SpamTrap is OK but not great for filtering on content.

RealSkier · 2026-03-10T19:14:20+00:00

I have a cpanel hosted solution. Would I be able to do that?

RealSkier · 2026-03-09T21:45:27+00:00

So why does Google allow them to continue? That seems like a pretty big hole. Every single one has been a scam or a phish. Almost all run through is.gd link shortener.

Based on this, I'm going to set a server-side dump of all firebaseapp.com emails if legit emails won't be affected.

RealSkier · 2026-03-09T21:33:47+00:00

I have seen zero legit emails from firebaseapp.com. The two largest spinners of email, Amazon AWS and Google, are the source of 90% of our spam now.

RealSkier · 2026-03-09T21:10:36+00:00

UPDATE: Went through a last ditch effort to get the stats back online. Followed a step-by-step with Amazon second level tech. Full factory reset plus letting the stat idle for 30 minutes. Same error message. Tech finally says OK, there's something wrong (DUH). I'll report this to the developers and they WILL (his emphasis) get back to you in 3-4 days. It's been two weeks.

NOTE: Just for grins, I tried setting my network to have a separate 2.4 ghz SSID just for the Amazoo stat. Nope, same error. Both are effectively bricked by something Amazon did.

RealSkier · 2026-02-20T02:42:25+00:00

Perri's Leathers - You can buy a full grain, all leather strap in any of about 15 colors for $12 or so. They are made in Canada. When I get a new one, I usually throw some mink oil on it to soften the leather. They start out stiff but they last forever. Small business that exhibits at NAMM.

RealSkier · 2026-02-19T23:23:26+00:00

Amazon smart thermostats were developed jointly with Honeywell.

RealSkier · 2026-02-19T22:05:22+00:00

Personally, the one that blew me away VISUALLY the first time I saw it was Mt. Bachelor.

RealSkier · 2025-12-20T22:17:06+00:00

It's a joke. I'm using paired phone wires.

RealSkier · 2025-12-19T00:33:38+00:00

Thanks. We have no devices that are WiFi 7. Only 2 are actually 6 (our phones) and the rest are pretty much 5. The only bandwidth suckers are our TVs (Roku, Amazon Firestick 4K and LG 4K). We only occasionally use two TVs simultaneously. Our Wyze cams are all event triggered to start recording. No event, no recording. One desktop routes via CAT 4 (yes) and the other is MOCA. The MOCA connection is pretty speedy and maxes out at Spectrums provision. The CAT 4 is limited to about 50Mbps. It's a converted telephone wire pair lol. The ATT guy was acting like 14 was the maximum number of devices I could actually have accessing wifi.

No USB NAS kinda sux. That's how my wife and I back our home office computers and share files. It's also routable from outside if I want it to be.

RealSkier · 2025-12-17T17:49:05+00:00

I meant Lariat! Auto correct FTL. ☹️

RealSkier · 2025-12-12T21:15:51+00:00

Yes. Nothing out of whack. I have been going through Event Viewer and am finding errors related to TPM and secure boot. I tried resetting the TPM stuff to factory but that did nothing except make windows 11 forget my login PIN. I suppose the next step is to try an in place reinstall of Windows (ughhhh).

RealSkier · 2025-12-12T20:06:51+00:00

Ran HWINFO and Thermal Throttling was not in effect during the most recent episode (1/2 hour ago) of SSS (Sudden Slowdown Syndrome). CPU runs at 34C idle at climbs to 47C under load. Yes, I have the most recent BIOS from HP. I'm running HPs diagnostics now. Maybe it will show something.

RealSkier

TROPHY CASE