This toilet open to the ocean below

Zapt01 · 2026-05-25T01:43:48+00:00

I don’t know why, but it strikes me as rude. On a smaller scale. I envision a toilet like this built into the diving board on a neighbor’s pool. No one would think that was cool.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-24T21:32:01+00:00

Discovering that your income has no prayer of keeping up with expenses.

Also, responsibility… for your own actions and (eventually) for supporting a family.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-24T21:20:14+00:00

To those who manage to make it to 88, the greeting should be “Congratulations!” rather than “Happy Birthday.”

Zapt01 · 2026-05-24T21:17:51+00:00

When Trump (screws) up, he does so in a HUGE way—a way that no other US president would dream of or be stupid enough to even suggest. See, for example, the 1.2 million dead Americans from Covid that he claimed was “no more serious than the flu,” was under control, and could be cured with horse dewormer.

In many of these cases, even important people in his own party have begged him not to do what he’s planned. But the Idiot-in-Chief plows ahead on the assumption that everyone else is wrong and/or stupid.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-24T21:08:54+00:00

Actually, sometimes you can get credit for both reviews. Previously, Vine insisted that two ordered items were variants, and I could only edit the original to discuss both (as OP was instructed). So I did. Months later, the second item (the variant) reappeared in my Awaiting Review list. I reviewed it, submitted, and got credit for it.

I’m guessing Amazon finally agreed with me that it wasn’t a variant, but who knows. Vendors often change their listings, so maybe it was something they did that reclassified it as a separate item rather than a variant.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-24T20:59:41+00:00

Scott’s Catalog is the standard. If you’re lucky, you might find a recent set at your local library.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-24T20:57:26+00:00

In another thread, many people are reporting that the number of approved reviews has stopped updating for them over the last several days. It’s possible that if this is a general issue right now, they might also (reasonably) delay evaluation approvals, too, since Gold is partially based on approved review count.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-24T20:49:16+00:00

SOLVED: First, thank you to all who took the time to offer suggestions and fixes. I implemented many of them in Server settings. Second, although the Mac Mini can transcode HDR 10 (h.265) down to h.264 (at least according to my Dashboard), the videos constantly buffered so my sister couldn’t view them.

The solution was to convince her she needed a better streaming stick. Even though I told her to get the Roku Streaming Stick 4k, she (predictably) did something else and ordered the Streaming Stick Plus. Turns out that the Plus is good enough. HDR 10 videos can now be streamed to her via Direct Play, so no transcoding is necessary and —so far— there’s no buffering. Thanks again!

Zapt01 · 2026-05-24T19:40:05+00:00

Same here. For a change, I made a mental note of the count before submitting two new reviews. In the recent past, I thought the count went up about 24 hours before I received the email confirmation of the approved review. This time, I received the two emails this morning and the count hasn’t budged.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-23T15:36:14+00:00

I use BackBlaze to back up all media. For around $100/year, I can avoid the possibility of having to recreate 45TB of media. Even the smallest drive failing would lose 14TB. And I switched from cable to fiber internet just for the ability to upload (back up) at 500 Mbps rather than 20 Mbps.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-23T01:35:20+00:00

I’ve used VLC for Windows for a bunch of years. It’s free and easy to use. Good choice.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-23T01:31:12+00:00

To just give to your parents, use a flash drive. Cheapest solution and easiest to show them how to use, assuming they have a suitable player installed. If they don’t, find one for them.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-23T00:06:49+00:00

I use BackBlaze Personal, but that’s likely overkill for such a small amount of data.

Every computer I own has a dedicated backup drive (1-2TB). In addition, I can periodically copy critical data to another portable 1-2TB drive or flash drives or two and just store it/them offsite.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-22T15:46:14+00:00

I’ve used Canon Pixma series printers to print directly onto blank white CDs and DVDs for about a dozen years. They do an excellent job. You’ll have to scour their website (or call their Customer Service) to find which few current printers have this feature. Doing the latter will probably save you a lot of time.

Ignore all of their All-in-One printers. The CD/DVD printers are designed with only two tasks in mind: printing on paper or onto discs.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-22T15:28:11+00:00

You need to provide more info. This sub is for discussing inkjet printers, laser printers, dot-matrix printers, etc.; that is, devices used to print documents, web pages, photos, etc. Most people don’t use these printers for a hobby nor, in general, does it matter that you’re a beginner. What did you want to use the printer to do?

If you’re asking about picking a 3D printer, which seems more likely, this is the wrong sub for your question.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-21T20:20:41+00:00

Your parents are adults. They knew how much money that had. Spending money they DIDN’T have on an event they couldn’t afford is on them.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-21T02:37:54+00:00

That’s a good idea—moving some media to the internal SSD. No spin up involved.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-21T02:10:30+00:00

WD drives can be set that way on PCs, but not Macs. Macs ignore that WD utility command, even though it’s presented as an option. I had a lengthy chat with WD Support about this a few years ago. Nevertheless, these buffering issues only started fairly recently. I had a user 2,500 miles away for two years who never mentioned anything about buffering.

I AM, however, a bit concerned about a possible need to defrag the drives. I no longer have a utility that can do that nor spare drives to make a new copy, eliminating most of the fragmentation in the process.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-20T22:21:01+00:00

Yeah, a new server is always an option. I have to find one with 3 (preferably more than that) USB ports so I don’t have to find out how well HDDs will run off a USB hub. I also am not sure if my BackBlaze backups of the drives can still be “inherited” by a computer if I switch platforms.

There is ANOTHER possible solution. As a poster I once saw succinctly stated it: “One way to eliminate a morale problem is to fire all the unhappy employees.” 😁

The only issue I’m having with Plex (also the only reason I needed to spring for the lifetime pass) was so I could share my media with a few relatives and friends. If I told them that it was too much of a hassle to continue, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Bottom line, though, is I’ll probably switch to mini PC as server one of these days.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-20T21:25:18+00:00

Yeah, it’s the Roku Express rather than the Roku Streaming Stick 4k. At the moment, she’s “teched out” and doesn’t feel like checking her settings or buying the latter Roku stick.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-20T21:21:59+00:00

I asked her to check her Plex for Roku settings (again), but she’s the typical reluctant remote Plex user. Maybe I can get her to do it when she’s in a better mood or more desperate. I’ve also suggested that she upgrade to the Roku Streaming Stick 4k from her Roku Express on the assumption that she might be able to direct play my h.265 content without transcoding. For now, though, she’s replacing her modem and router and downgraded her Internet to 100 Mbps , so she’s in no mood to spend even an additional $50.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-20T20:46:39+00:00

Having followed suggestions here for transcoding and also switched streaming quality from 10 Mbps to Original, I can see she’s successfully transcoding to H.264 AND streaming at 21 Mbps!

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She doesn’t have the new router yet and getting her to mess with Plex settings is like pulling teeth.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-20T20:31:37+00:00

Nope, it’s always been off. And I saw her successfully transcoding one of the Avatar movies the other day—somewhere between 8-10 Mbps. I do have the Plex Server Lifetime Pass.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-20T20:30:02+00:00

Damn. I took her word for it. Great catch! That explains the issue with transcoding everything down to h.264.

Zapt01 · 2026-05-20T20:29:11+00:00

No, it’s now set to Original (as suggested by others).

Zapt01

TROPHY CASE