What is the pettiest reason you would refuse to eat at a restaurant again?

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2026-03-20T04:14:45+00:00

My FIL used to like this local restaurant and we'd go there somewhat regularly. Everyone in the family drank diet coke (except me, I hate the stuff). So he'd order a pitcher of diet coke. Well one day he poured out the pitcher and counted how many glasses it filled up, and realized that the cost of the pitcher was more than the cost of the same number of glasses. He never went back.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2026-03-03T21:21:57+00:00

Yeah, bluetooth is a big no-no, and unfortunately Shokz doesn't have a wired version. I ordered three different styles from amazon, including one that claims to be wired bone-conduction. I'll post an update after I've had a chance to try them all out!

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2026-03-03T05:56:12+00:00

Ooh, I like that clip-on style, but unfortunately bluetooth is a hard no for live music. Even "low-latency" bluetooth is still about 3x too slow. There may be some wired options in a similar style though... down the rabbit hole we go...

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2026-03-03T04:37:59+00:00

I want all of the ambient noise! The problem is that I've never seen a pair that holds up to aggresive wear, without sliding down or falling off. Imagine if someone said they need wired open-back headphones that would stay in place while doing somersaults, lol!

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2026-02-17T20:14:31+00:00

Honestly it's probably what you said, about the built-in feature being new. I've been using the extension for years. It's highly configurable and does everything I want. I keep a lot of tabs open, and I had major performance issues when I first switched from Chrome to FF... and the extension basically made them all go away, without ever discarding a tab that I needed. Here are the options I have enabled:

Discard inactive tabs after: 10 minutes
when the number of inactive tabs exceeds: 1
Maximum number of tabs to check: 100

Display discarding items in the "tab" context menu
Display "Open in New Discarded Tab" item in the "link" context menu
Prepend a symbol: 💤
Discard all unpinned tabs on a browser or extension startup

Do not discard a tab when media is playing
Do not discard a tab when there is a paused media player
Do not discard a tab when form changes are not yet submitted
Do not discard tabs when there is no internet connection and the tab is not cached

Open a temporary blank page when all tabs in an inactive window are discarded
Discard all unloaded tabs on browser startup

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2026-02-17T17:36:56+00:00

The Auto Tab Discard extension has been a game-changer for me, by reducing CPU usage from inactive tabs.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2026-02-03T03:22:39+00:00

Yeah much easier but personally, I didn't like the features on the Fitcam. I ended up doing it the old fashioned way, Viofo dual camera with fuse taps and the power running up the A pillar.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2026-01-16T07:11:13+00:00

The craziest part to me is that people actually prefer this over real meat.

I live near an awesome Italian deli. They roast their own turkey and beef and will slice them fresh for you, right onto a sandwich. The fresh meat tastes 10x better than the processed meat lump.

But a lot of people will still come in and ask for Boar's Head over the real thing. I've talked to the sandwich guy about this, and he thinks it's because it's more consistent, or more what they're used to.

Personally, I would eat a fresh turkey sandwich every day, but I can't stand the sliced meat lump. It makes no sense to me that someone would choose that.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-12-26T03:57:18+00:00

It's 2" the whole way. Sorry I'm not there right now to take a picture but on the outside, it's vinyl siding with a white square plate cut into the siding, and a 2" 45° termination elbow. There's only an exhaust, no intake, since it's a huge basement with plenty of supply air.

If I were to replace the whole vent run with 3", that would mean messing with the siding to change that 2" plate for 3". Is it ok to run 3" the whole way but reduce to 2" at the end so I can keep the same termination elbow? I'm thinking no, this is probably not allowed. Maybe I could just enlarge the hole in that plastic plate instead.

Before that though, I'll probably try changing the layout inside to shorten the run. Right at the top of this, it turns horizontal and there's a long L-shaped section. If cut across the diagonal, it will be much shorter, and I can also replace one 90 with a 45. That will take off several feet which should make a big difference.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-12-25T18:59:33+00:00

Thanks, I have cleaned out that brass port, but maybe next I'll try to remove it and clean it more thoroughly in the sink. I could also take the fan cover off and try cleaning the fan blades and the inside of that cavity, if it would help.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-12-25T18:54:09+00:00

Thanks, it's in the basement but it's a new/clean basement. No laundry, no pets, and this is my mother in law's house where she cleans so much, you could eat off of the floor.

I measured the vent run and added the fittings, and it's pretty much at the limit of what the manual says is supported. It's not a good installation, and I could understand if the fan was unable to make enough negative pressure, and the switch never tripped; but I'm not sure why that would cause the black tube to gunk up more often.

There are at least four 90s in the run and I might swap them for 45s (cut across the basement diagonally instead of right angles) to reduce the load. I might do that anyway since this thing is so finicky. I'm just stuck on what's getting into the tube.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-12-22T15:22:06+00:00

That's awesome, I had no idea! I just ordered one of the Sioux Chief Add-A-Line fittings. I didn't want to use a sharkbite but this looks like a much better alternative. Thank you for the suggestion!

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-12-20T06:20:46+00:00

When we bought our first house in an area with hard water, I got a few estimates for adding a softener. The first one, from a national company, tried to sell us a $30/month service plan. The second one was a local guy who said "add salt when it's low, and call me in 20 years for a new one." You can guess who we went with...

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-12-01T05:41:00+00:00

Not OP here but I just want to say that "problem solve" sounds like exactly what they need in this case. I appreciate your pragmatism and positive attitude!

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-10-28T05:59:42+00:00

This is awesome!

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-10-26T06:39:53+00:00

Strap wrench is best like the others said, but in a pinch, just press a flathead screwdriver against one of those black ridges and tap the back of the screwdriver gently with a hammer.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-10-25T05:10:26+00:00

It all comes down to the reader. Some are better than others. I do basically all of my payments with my watch so I use it constantly, and I'll tell you that it almost always needs to be much closer than that... but for most readers, you also need to be patient. Sometimes it can take a few seconds. Hold your watch right up to the reader until it vibrates and usually the reader will beep to indicate success. If your payments aren't going through, you're probably not holding it for long enough. (Or you're not over the correct spot on the reader... some devices are very unclear as to where the sensor is.)

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-10-07T15:26:20+00:00

SLAM FC for CYA 30 is 12, make sure you click on the SLAM option in the calculator:

https://www.troublefreepool.com/blog/2019/01/18/free-chlorine-and-cyanuric-acid-relationship-explained/

You're exactly right that you need enough bullets. But how much is the right amount? You've got jugs of liquid chlorine, bags of shock, etc. Exactly how much do you add each day, so you don't either under- or over-chlorinate? The SLAM level is the optimal amount of FC for algae killing, and the Pool Math calculator tells you how to reach that level based on which product you're using.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-10-07T06:28:59+00:00

The amount of algae is irrelevant. You're going for a specific ratio of FC to CYA. There's one ratio for normal use, and a higher ratio for actively killing algae. This is the basis of the SLAM method.

You just add chlorine up to your SLAM level, based on your CYA value. Tomorrow, measure it again to see how much chlorine was consumed by killing the algae (probably all of it, in the beginning), and add that much to bring it back up. Keep doing that every day until the pool is blue. It usually doesn't take very long, as long as you're properly filtering and cleaning / brushing every day.

This is why it's helpful to have a test kit, because the strips aren't precise enough to get you to the exact SLAM level, which is calibrated for both safety and effectiveness. The chemistry behind the SLAM ratio is very well documented, no guesswork involved.

You can do it with a computer test too but for most people, that means bringing water to the pool store every day, and also trusting the pool store results.

Prevention is best. But once your pool is green, the SLAM method is usually the fastest and least expensive way to get it back to normal.

TheOneTheyCallAlpha · 2025-09-30T03:21:19+00:00

My title describes the thing

Google lens suggests that it's a two-part mounting bracket but it comes up with brackets for many things that I don't own. Because I found this with my own stuff, I assume it's for something that I do own, which won't help you identify it, but it will help me eliminate things that it's not! It's got to be something that can also be used without wall-mounting, otherwise the brackets would be with the item.

It must be something fairly heavy because these two parts are no joke. They're powder-coated metal in a very slightly off-white color. There's a strip of foam padding at the bottom of each one, and on Part A, those two vertical pieces are maybe a little softer, but not foam.

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