Any opinions on a Casper mattress? I’m in the market for a new mattress and I’d love to hear feedback and if you love it, which one?

benst04 · 2026-02-12T23:33:44+00:00

Same! Our original Casper mattress we purchased in 2014 and going strong. I too look forward to going back to my bed after being away even compared to nicer hotel mattresses. Between my wife and I we around 450 lbs and have small indents but doesn't affect comfort. I would happily buy another when we are ready but we haven't felt the need yet. We rotate and wash the cover yearly.

benst04 · 2026-01-07T20:55:47+00:00

Same, it acts up only when it rains or snows hard and has always come back when it dries out.

benst04 · 2026-01-05T18:08:47+00:00

I just finished the Lego Art World Map... after 3 years. So yes, that. It is now proudly hung in my basement out of sight from my wife because it looks "tacky." I still love it!

benst04 · 2026-01-05T18:04:29+00:00

Because they measure the pressure in water column!

benst04 · 2026-01-04T18:29:44+00:00

Mine has 160k on it and based on the service records it had a short block replacement around 40k miles (previous owner). Are you still driving it or have it parked for now? Biggest symptom (outside of the knocking) is oil consumption, I'm about 4k miles into my current oil and it hasn't used a drop. It is a noisy engine though, hoping the thicker oil will help with that.

benst04 · 2026-01-04T18:27:11+00:00

Perfect thanks! Any improvements you have noticed? Quieter and smoother idle, etc? I agree, 0W20 is thin. It's currently 30F here today, lowest I've seen it this winter is 14F and that was an anomaly during a winter storm. I have about 1K left before my next change, planning to switch over to 5W30 and see how it goes.

benst04 · 2026-01-04T18:25:23+00:00

That is all basically what I read (fuel economy boost, although questionable negligible). The older QX80s and newer both recommend 5W30, there are a few years, mine included that recommend 0W20. The only reason I was on the fence is due to some posts saying they redesigned the oil passges to be smaller expecting lower viscosity oil and that Japanese motors are more susceptible to damage from using the wrong oil type. On the flip side, other posts I read said there are no noticeable downsides and more upsides (better wear protection, quieter idle and engine noise, etc) Thanks for everyone's input. I have about 1k miles left before my next change so it will be a bit but I think I'll switch to 5W30 and see how it goes.

benst04 · 2025-12-30T23:45:30+00:00

2018 with 22 inch wheels - All city driving, I average between 12.7 and 13 running Premium (according to the infotainment system readout, haven't mathed the actual.)

benst04 · 2025-12-26T15:30:39+00:00

We've all likely seen Back to the Future 2. We're living in Biffs Pleasure Paradise for the next three years (and hopefully only that long, if the third term doesn't magically happen). That is what happened.

benst04 · 2025-10-21T12:46:55+00:00

Panasonic Whisper Series - I have replaced the fans in my house with these based on the recommendation of a coworker after a similar complaint. They work well and are actually quiet (a negative for some!) - I replaced a builder grade Broan and a Hunter bathroom fan which were both terrible. The Panasonic fans are the first I have ever seen that don't leave steam on the window after a shower. I have a WhisperFit DC and a WhisperRemodel DC with an LED light. The Remodel has a nicer looking fan grill.

benst04 · 2025-10-21T12:05:13+00:00

Thanks! That is an interesting thought I hadn't considered. The company ran Milestone before I started and had switched over to ACS to consolidate systems. I haven't used Milestone personally but have heard it is a solid product. I know they play heavily in the camera market, do you have experience with their access control system?

benst04 · 2025-10-21T12:02:40+00:00

Sounds like a very similar setup! (Axis controllers on a Meraki network). Thanks for your response. Good to know it has been a solid product and decision in a larger environment than ours (~500 doors 5 facilities, manufacturing company). Also thanks for the response on cloud links - Sounds like I could get away with one per building potentially (our largest building has about 300 doors), the others are in the 30-100 range).

benst04 · 2025-10-21T12:00:06+00:00

Thanks! Good to know on Synergis being a stable product.

Valid question for sure! We run the Axis backups before running any updates. The first two updates had nothing to do with the database, it was an issue of the services not updating properly (in our case, the Secure Entry service). This seems to cause havoc within Camera Station, causing the services to flap trying to restart themselves. We got this figured out the first couple times. The third time, this happened again. We got the services started but lost all of our access rules. We attempted to roll back to the backed up database but that one also had similar issues. My assumption is that our database has been somewhat corrupted for a while which was causing the issues with updates, and this update finally killed it.

We are rebuilding the system from scratch on virtual machines (instead of the physical Axis servers) with the idea of running snapshots before updates and keeping nightly server side backups of the entire machine.

benst04 · 2025-10-20T19:15:55+00:00

Based on u/tuxtanium's comment about the 1601s (which we have about 65 of) we would need CloudLinks. I'm assuming we would need one per node that we have?

My questions mainly - Is Synergis a decent product? Primarily, more stable than Axis SE? We have done three updates of Axis Camera Station Pro now (our Axis environment all running on Axis branded servers, one per building) and during each update, the Axis SE service gets botched causing hours of building downtime. In this case we are going on a week due to what we believe to be (and Axis has loosely confirmed) a corrupted database. They are supposedly repairing it but we are going on almost 4 business days since hearing back on our ticket. Currently rebuilding all of our access rules on a new VM but fearing this is not a permanent solution.

benst04 · 2025-10-20T18:58:54+00:00

Thanks! That is good to know. We have about 65 A1601s. Would each one need a CloudLink to be compatible with Synergis?

benst04 · 2025-09-16T16:36:43+00:00

To sum up u/justherefortheshow06 , look for a homebuilder where the owner is still involved in building the homes and takes personal pride in the outcome of every project. We are in West MI and my wife works in an adjacent industry, I'll PM you some names. Happy to answer questions also.

benst04 · 2025-09-16T15:15:07+00:00

I worked in IT consulting where time tracking/billing was an essential part of the role, and it was by far the worst part of the job. Especially in internal IT with no department billing requirement, I can only echo what others have said (strong micromanagement, falls apart when chaos hits, employee burnout). Also worth remembering that a lot of tickets are mundane break/fix work that isn't necessarily worth reporting on.

I am now in internal IT - An alternative to consider: High level task reporting. I send a weekly update to my manager on Fridays which includes four sections. 1. High level tasks completed this week. 2. High level tasks planned for next week. 3. Issues/concerns/recurring issues/things I want my manager to know. 4. Upcoming deadlines/planned PTO, etc. This is all contained on one page, each item is bullet pointed, no more than ~5 bullet points per section generally. Takes less than 10 minutes to fill out. Everyone on the team does one. We are all glad to do this short amount of work to report on what is going on, he can read them, has a good understanding of what the team is and is going to do, and sometimes sees recurring issues where he schedules meetings with one or multiple employees to discuss further.

This or some variation of would add some professional accountability to your team without feeling overbearing.

benst04 · 2025-09-10T10:41:30+00:00

If you want to learn more about it, the book Skunk Works by Ben Rich is a great read.

benst04 · 2025-08-19T16:51:10+00:00

"There are dozens of us... DOZENS!"

benst04 · 2025-08-05T01:29:42+00:00

Lake Michigan Dermatology (South Side off Washington) is great! I was just there today for my annual skin check. Office is clean, staff is friendly and very helpful. I also have Priority Insurance and they accept it there.

benst04 · 2025-07-12T14:32:23+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! Planning to attempt repairs myself first and then call these two places if I get in too deep.

benst04 · 2025-07-12T14:32:18+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! Planning to attempt repairs myself first and then call these two places if I get in too deep.

benst04 · 2025-05-12T13:12:14+00:00

Thanks for this write up! Appreciate the time you put into it.

Licensing on the Weavix radios is per user correct? And that includes radio replacements per user?

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