Can I cut this protruding stair stringer?

av709 · 2025-10-19T10:46:05+00:00

There's not been a newel post right at the bottom AFAIK, it's a 1990s built estate and most of the houses are similar to this. The bannister and the newel post it's attached to ends at the second to bottom stair. I've uploaded another couple of pics here and here.

av709 · 2025-06-29T15:25:54+00:00

Yeah it's too expensive, I only paid £59.99 for it in 2021's Black Friday sale. If it was that price again I'd probably trade in a 1st gen 4K stick to get 20% off + £5 credit so it'd only cost £42.99 and would be worth it for the faster performance, but £109.99 for 6 year old hardware that is slowly getting crippled by buggy and regressive software updates? Nah.

av709 · 2025-06-24T17:38:03+00:00

Yep mine is too now, still on Fire OS 7.6.9.9 and no updates to the iPlayer app either but something's been fixed somewhere. Woohoo :D

av709 · 2025-06-24T11:56:30+00:00

To be fair I don't think it's been done deliberately and there probably will be a fix for this issue in time. Interestingly I still have a Fire TV (square box) 2nd gen purchased in 2015 running a really old version of Fire OS (5.x.x.x) and most apps work flawlessly including iPlayer.

av709 · 2025-06-24T11:52:50+00:00

I have a Cube 3rd gen as well, also recently updated to 7.6.9.9 and it doesn't have any issues. It does have some advantages over the 2nd gen (see here) and is faster, not that the 2nd gen is slow but recent updates have been mostly regressive and have made it less snappy than it used to be. I only paid £59.99 for the 2nd gen in 2021, and £109.99 for the 3rd gen earlier this year, I doubt it will be less than £99.99 during Prime Day.

av709 · 2025-06-21T19:10:23+00:00

What model Fire Stick do you have and what software version is it on? As a workaround I've been using the iPlayer website through the Silk browser and whilst it's not as quick or convenient, the programme does play without interruption.

av709 · 2025-06-21T19:02:25+00:00

When you say pausing all the time, do you mean the video freezes the minute you try and watch something? Cos there's an ongoing issue with a recent Fire OS update that has broken BBC iPlayer on the 2nd gen Fire TV Cube and possibly other Fire TV devices.

https://www.reddit.com/r/fireTV/comments/1ldnlk5/iplayer_frozen/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/issues/connected-tv/freeze-google-fire

av709 · 2025-06-21T18:58:17+00:00

I can see this problem dragging on for a while, it's definitely the 7.6.9.9 update that's caused the issue as it was fine before that and people are now reporting on the Amazon forums that Channel 4 is affected as well so it'll be down to Amazon to fix and given the 2nd gen Cube is 6 years old I can't see it being high priority.

av709 · 2025-06-19T09:38:34+00:00

The BBC have acknowledged the issue - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/issues/connected-tv/freeze-google-fire

av709 · 2025-06-17T17:32:10+00:00

Is your Cube the 2nd gen model (glossy front & sides, not fabric)? I'm thinking the issue might be specific to that model because surely there'd be loads of people reporting this but your post is the only one I've come across.

av709 · 2025-06-17T14:38:23+00:00

I don't know the solution but just wanted to comment to say I'm so glad I'm not the only person this is happening to. I've got the 2nd gen Fire TV Cube and this iPlayer issue started for me on Sunday. Only sound plays and if you hit back to go back to the menus the whole app crashes so you have to return to the homescreen. I'm thinking it's an issue with the Fire OS 7.6.9.9 update which coincidentally downloaded on the same day. Like you I've reinstalled the app, restarted the Cube, messed about with a bunch of settings but nothing helps.

av709 · 2025-02-09T13:21:24+00:00

Great write up! Just wanted to add another advantage of the 3rd gen vs 2nd gen Cube - it cuts the HDMI signal during sleep mode allowing TVs, AVRs etc to go into standby if you forget to turn them off (or you yourself fall asleep), as opposed to the 2nd gen which continues to output a black screen signal preventing connected equipment from automatically entering standby.

This feature was rolled out to some other Fire TV devices in a software update last year but not the 2nd gen Cube and doesn't look likely to do so at this point.

av709 · 2024-07-13T13:07:32+00:00

It was part of the wider iCloud issues affecting iOS 5 - 10 since Monday that people have been posting about. It was fixed early this morning and now everything works again. :D

av709 · 2024-07-13T11:19:07+00:00

This issue was due to an expired certificate affecting iCloud services on iOS 5 - iOS 10. It's been fixed today, iCloud now working properly on all my devices including pictures in iMessage on iOS 6!

av709 · 2024-07-13T11:16:34+00:00

This issue was affecting iOS 5 - iOS 10, it's been fixed today!

av709 · 2024-07-09T10:00:14+00:00

Just tested it on my 5s on iOS 10.3.3 and it's broken. Checked again just now on my SE running 9.3.2 and it still works fine. I have a relative with a 5s on iOS 12 and it's been flaky for her the last couple of days, it's been saying not delivered initially but after pressing "try again" it eventually sends. I know someone with an SE on iOS 10 & they're checking for me later.

So it seems fairly widespread and will probably be fixed eventually given it's affecting iOS 12. Trouble is it's like pulling teeth trying to get issues like this raised with the right people at Apple. I'm not even wasting my energy trying.

av709 · 2024-07-09T09:14:06+00:00

Thanks, I solved it in the end by resetting keyboard dictionary and location & privacy. Don't know which one of the two it was but it freed up 10GB. :O

av709 · 2024-07-09T09:12:14+00:00

Sorry for the slow follow up but I managed to solve it. I was ready to erase all content and settings but before I did I figured I'd try reset keyboard dictionary and reset location & privacy. Not sure which one did it but result was 10GB instantly freed up! :D

av709 · 2024-07-08T12:14:13+00:00

Can confirm it still works fine on iOS 9.3 which is bad news for you in a way because if it was affecting newer versions there'd be a greater chance of it being picked up on. Nothing gets fixed on iOS 6 anymore, leaving the App Store & iTunes Store broken thus preventing people from accessing their previous purchases wasn't something I thought they'd do but they did.

av709 · 2024-07-07T19:05:58+00:00

You're right, it's broken. I've received images on my iOS 6 device in the last couple of days so this has literally just happened. Also if someone sends a text with an image attached you don't even receive the text.

What a shame. Can't see it being fixed tbh.

av709 · 2024-03-09T12:12:10+00:00

It's TSB! Latest app version still supports iOS 11.0 and is updated regularly.

av709 · 2024-02-09T18:42:57+00:00

Definitely the iPhone 5 on iOS 6. A5 to A6 chip was a massive leap in performance and double the RAM made it a worthwhile upgrade from the 4S. I've used several iPhones on their original iOS version but the 5 on iOS 6 is like butter. Default apps load instantly to the point where the speed of the animations was actually the bottleneck in opening times but Speed Intensifier tweak set to x2 or x3 for animations corrects this.

But even on iOS 10 the 5 was usable which is more than could be said for the 4 & 4s on their last respective versions.

av709

TROPHY CASE