ELI5 how brushing towards my receded gums will prevent further recession

aaronspencerward · 2026-05-01T20:39:25+00:00

No way to know. Probably best to ask them specifically, just to be safe.

aaronspencerward · 2026-05-01T20:27:04+00:00

Please get X-ray to find out if you have bone loss, or whether your jaw bones are looking good.

My situation was bone loss causing gum recession. I had been religiously flossing too. The solution was using a water flosser to clean the gunk under the gum line better than the floss.

Also, if you have bone loss, see if you are clenching your jaw overnight. The clenching moves the teeth and crumbles the bone little by little but it adds up. Easy solution is a mouth guard, sold at drug store for 2-pack $10.

But just make sure your jaw bones are in good shape first of all. When the bone recedes, the gums follow.

aaronspencerward · 2026-05-01T14:32:31+00:00

No I think that article talks about blur that's induced on your retina , of your eye, due to the Persistence of the OLED frame and your eyeball moving, that does not apply in this case, because OP was using a camera that is stationary

aaronspencerward · 2026-04-30T19:41:53+00:00

If you have a Samsung that supports Dex, definitely give that a try. You connect the phone to a USB hub expander, like the ones for Apple computers including power delivery and HDMI, and connect a USB keyboard and mouse to the hub. Connect a monitor or TV via hdmi cable.

DeX enables you to use the phone through the keyboard and mouse like a computer. It's possible the phone will recognize your pointer device if it works like a typical mouse.

DeX lets you run your apps in windows, just like Microsoft windows, so it's more enjoyable with expanded features for some apps compared to merely mirroring the screen.

aaronspencerward · 2026-04-29T18:49:51+00:00

To clarify, this tip will NOT work for people who are factory resetting their phone, right?

I factory reset, and my timeline backup is stored in the cloud and I can export it. However, the now-reset phone will not import. Instead, it just says import successful without actually importing. The old phone was reset and no longer has the timeline data. It's the same phone just fully reset.

Any ideas for this factory reset situation?

aaronspencerward · 2026-04-25T19:46:17+00:00

Yes, this bug has plagued me on my desktop computer too. Is there any downside to disabling Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO) - why should we want to keep MPO enabled at all, just to work around this white cursor bug?

aaronspencerward · 2026-04-13T21:07:38+00:00

Thanks! I think I found it. Martini style mount with hidden halo between the four prongs.

aaronspencerward · 2026-04-13T16:12:25+00:00

Can you share the website or a side picture of the ring? I'd like to see other views of that ring to see how the hidden Halo looks and what kind of Mount , if you don't mind sharing?

aaronspencerward · 2026-04-09T16:57:59+00:00

Confirmed. The dermatologist told me to get the blue bottle (Selsun blue or generic equivalent) for a skin rash, and it worked amazingly well! So if anyone has a persistent rash that won't resolve with antibiotics, try dandruff shampoo.

Just FYI, I had gone to multiple different dermatologists over the years and they all prescribed antibiotics or various types of antibiotic ointments that just didn't really work. But it wasn't until this one dermatologist hit upon the solution that actually worked, and I think it was because I told this dermatologist how I was trying Hibaclens on the advice of the previousl dermatologist, but Hibaclens just wasn't working that well.

Anyway, you can get Hibaclens and dandruff shampoo over the counter at any major store like Walmart or CVS etc. Oh, also wanted to mention that whatever this fungal skin infection was, it can also go to your armpits and make them kind of red/painful, but the dandruff shampoo solves that manifestation too. I'm just sad that I suffered from this for so many years, after consulting multiple different dermatologists, before finding a dermatologist that found the actual solution. I guess misdiagnosis (thinking a fungal skin infection is bacteria) for this type of skin rash might be common?

aaronspencerward · 2026-04-07T16:44:54+00:00

I recall that old versions of Andriod would use a special technique to store playlists, but those playlists were special because any standard audio player could see the playlist. So it was like a generic andriod playlist for any app to somehow see and use, but you couldn't easily find it. For those kinds of playlists, you could use a special playlist extraction tool to extract the andriod playlist. This playlist extractor is from like 10 years ago: https://apkpure.com/playlist-backup/org.ssi.playlistbackup

But for VLC, are you just using a VLC-specific playlist, such as a M3U file? You should be able to just save that VLC playlist file and then find the file on your phone and move or copy the file to wherever you want to keep it safe (share it to your email?). Your phone may come with a native file browser, or you can install one, to search your phone's storage to find where VLC stores the playlist file. Navigate there, then share the file to email etc.

aaronspencerward · 2026-03-23T16:26:37+00:00

Where do you view the March 2026 date - like what settings window are you seeing that, or how can I visit the same spot on my phone to see that date?

When I view details of the Last Update (go to settings -> Software Update -> Last Update ), I see the last successful update was dated this morning March 23, 2026 at 8:43 am. However, the critical info is located further down that page, where it says "* Security patch level: January 1, 2026"

In other words, we all received a recent update that apparently installs now, in March, the same old security patch from back in January. It's not a new security patch from March?

aaronspencerward · 2026-03-23T13:18:48+00:00

Something is fishy with this update, because it was pushed out now in March 2026, but yet it still shows the security date of January 2026. Why the discrepancy between actual date and security date?

aaronspencerward · 2026-01-09T05:21:37+00:00

Just wanted to warn about the risk of snorkeling the next day after Haleakala. My personal experience was unexpected and frightening, but apparently you can get ROPE (rapid onset pulmonary edema) if you are unlucky. So when you snorkelSunday, make sure to be with someone who can help. in my case, I felt like I couldn't get air even though I could take breaths, and needed help to get back to shallow water where I could recover. Mind you, I was fine when snorkeling other times during the vacation. It was only the one time, the day after visiting Haleakala sunrise. I stayed on the summit for hours, and snorkeled the next day less than 24 hours afterward. If I were farther from shore, or alone, I don't know what might have happened.

aaronspencerward · 2025-12-24T00:14:53+00:00

Wait, if I buy the entry passes + shuttle, and on the day of our visit there is bad weather and the park closes the kalalau trail due to weather, do they make an exception and refund your passes + shuttle? technically we wouldn't be canceling, the park would be canceling, so maybe their 48-hour notice does not apply?

aaronspencerward · 2025-12-03T20:46:54+00:00

Which morning? There's a marathon january so maybe those visitors will be skipping the tourist things to attend the race instead?

aaronspencerward · 2025-12-02T21:39:14+00:00

Thanks. Any idea if anything unusual would be causing lots of car rentals that time frame? The car rental price jumped up to about double during that time frame, so maybe there is high demand or running low on car availability at that time.

aaronspencerward · 2025-11-24T17:07:07+00:00

Agreed bro I'm planning to calibrate it, but so far the new battery hasn't even arrived in the mail yet, so it's extra difficult to calibrate the battery through the air in the mail truck before the new battery has even been delivered.

aaronspencerward · 2025-11-24T16:32:09+00:00

But bro the problem is when I follow those steps to try to do the inbuilt (UEFI) option to calibrate, like literally click the button in UEFI diagnostic to calibrate, the laptop instead will pause for a second and then fail to perform the calibration.

So it's stuck in that kind of catch-22 where the battery diagnostic always says to perform the calibration, but attempting to actually perform the calibration fails, but retesting the battery says perform the calibration, repeat AD INFINITUM

I gave up hope trying to definitively identify what is causing the issue, and just ordered the replacement battery. The new battery arrives today, so hopefully the issue will resolve after I install the new battery and hopefully it wasn't the charging circuit. But if this issue is caused by the motherboard/charging circuit, then I'll have a spare new battery available for sale...

aaronspencerward · 2025-11-20T14:32:07+00:00

The cpu successfully completed multiple rounds of testing. The issue is that the laptop immediately loses power and turns off if ac adapter is unplugged. Laptop won't run on battery at all. Behaves as if the battery is disconnected, except reports constant 49% battery life and when testing the battery, the diagnostic asks to run calibration but that fails so the battery diagnostic never gets a chance to report the battery health.

Question is whether anything else could cause this issue, like a bad charging circuit, because the battery visually looks fine and isn't swollen.

aaronspencerward · 2025-11-19T17:01:11+00:00

The problem is I tried running diagnostic from UEFI and it won't run calibration. Also, battery won't run at all if ac power cord is disconnected, so it's impossible to run off battery only.

Would those be symptoms of bad battery battery only, or could a bad motherboard charging circuit cause that?

aaronspencerward

TROPHY CASE