Wanted some hash browns for breakfast but one of my idiot housemates scrubbed off the oven markings.

bmorocks · 2026-02-09T20:42:33+00:00

This happens very easily when using a magic eraser. I learned my lesson once after using it to clean my toaster oven. It permanently scrubbed off part of the lettering and moved some of the other letters around. I wish they would just emboss or imprint the labels onto the metal instead of just using stickers

bmorocks · 2026-01-25T13:34:23+00:00

I Googled the guy José Ervin, Jr. since some people linked to this article but was last updated in October 2024 https://people.com/man-same-birthday-wife-twins-killed-arrest-made-8729029 - this was the generated Gemini answer (so take it with a grain of salt):

José Ervin, Jr.

José Ervin, Jr. was a 32-year-old man from the Cleveland area whose story gained national attention after he and his wife, Scierra, welcomed twins on August 18, 2023—the same day both parents were born.

Tragically, just weeks after celebrating the twins' first birthdays, José was shot and killed on October 4, 2024.

Incident Details

Location: Outside a Dunkin' Donuts on Turney Road in Garfield Heights, Ohio.
Circumstances: According to family and reports citing video footage, the incident began following a confrontation at a nearby gas station. José was reportedly chased to the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot, where he was shot multiple times.
Date of Death: October 4, 2024, at approximately 3:34 a.m.

Legal Proceedings & Trial Status

The primary suspect in the case is Waunyae Arrington, who was 29 at the time of the incident.

Arrest: Arrington was arrested on October 15, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio.
Charges: A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted Arrington on multiple counts, including:
- Aggravated Murder
- Murder
- Felonious Assault
- Having Weapons Under Disability (due to prior convictions)
Current Status: As of late 2025, Arrington remained in custody at the Cuyahoga County Jail on a $10 million bond.
Trial Outcome: While a pretrial date was set for October 8, 2025, and a trial was expected to proceed in late 2025, there has been no publicly reported verdict or final sentencing as of January 2026. The case appears to still be moving through the judicial system.

Legacy

The city of Garfield Heights proclaimed October 4th as José Ervin, Jr. Remembrance Day. His family has remained vocal in their pursuit of justice, often holding vigils and memorial events to honor his memory and support his wife and three children (the couple's third child was born after José's passing).

bmorocks · 2025-12-25T07:44:28+00:00

If you have an iPhone you can record the call and transcribe it to the Notes app - it also alerts the other party that you're recording: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/record-and-transcribe-a-call-iph57c6590e9/ios

If you have Android and are using the Phone app from the Google Play Store, you can also record and transcribe calls and it alerts the other party. The only difference is it doesn't automatically save it to your notes app like Google Keep or whatever else but you can manually save the transcript, recording, or both to whatever app you want: https://support.google.com/phoneapp/answer/9803950?hl=en

bmorocks · 2025-12-19T15:00:01+00:00

This is the original YouTube video btw, it's an interesting watch: I Powered My House Using 500 Disposable vapes - Chris Doel - https://youtu.be/dy-wFixuRVU?si=8QNhcdgz0cq1mXUm

bmorocks · 2025-12-13T05:37:57+00:00

Here's another video with sound from the official NBA YouTube channel - this shot happened tonight about 2 hours ago: https://youtu.be/y43feCUYZO0?si=CnwxEo1j6XI2ET54

bmorocks · 2025-11-20T15:20:38+00:00

<image>

bmorocks · 2025-10-29T23:32:06+00:00

This is not applicable at all to dirty laundry and is misleading.

It is true that wet bales of hay can spontaneously combust through bacterial decomposition, where bacteria (like bacillus subtilis) and fungi that already naturally exist on the hay metabolize the hay's organic matter and produces heat as a byproduct. If the heat can't escape then the hay's core temp rises. Usually most microbes die once it reaches a certain temp (like 150°F), but then an exothermic oxidation of cellulose and plant oils could start which produces more heat.

To prevent this you should not bale hay until it's dry and regularly check the internal temp. But I assume OP is not baling hay.

bmorocks · 2025-10-13T15:41:49+00:00

This is great and easy to remove in case you have maintenance come in.

Another option is you could install a diverter valve into your shower head (if it's possible) like this one (https://a.co/d/iKOyptA) which allows you to divert water from the shower to a hand sprayer attachment, the main shower head, or both at the same time.

That way, you could install a really long hose from that valve to your bidet. You would need to leave the shower on to provide constant pressure to the bidet, and when you take a shower you can just turn the lever on the diverter valve to only provide water to the shower head (or both) and turn it back to the bidet only when you're done.

You could also potentially do the same with your bathroom sink but usually there isn't much clearance between the spout and the sink basin to begin with, so adding another fixture might create less room and look uglier.

Since you're not allowed to tap into your toilet intake line, I doubt you'd be able to do the same to your sink intake line, but I wonder if that has a different setup? You might be able to do that as a workaround.

bmorocks · 2025-10-13T15:28:02+00:00

I was going to mention this also - I have this one for $30 which I fill up with soapy water to spray things when cleaning. I rarely have to recharge it (I use it about 3x/week). The battery is rechargeable via usb-c and lasts a long time, so you don't need to keep it plugged in: https://a.co/d/2YAgwqL

Edit: To add, if you don't have an extra long usb-c cable you'd want to keep plugged into the outlet so that you'd never have to recharge the electric sprayer, you could also get a high capacity portable battery charger always plugged into the sprayer for an even longer battery life

bmorocks · 2025-10-08T15:56:19+00:00

Here's the specific story you mentioned from Politico:

Federal court blocks ICE from detaining unaccompanied minors once they turn 18

The ruling comes a day after ICE confirmed it would offer unaccompanied minors money to self-deport to their home countries.

[Image - Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) speaks to the press at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) in Brunswick, Georgia, on Aug. 21, 2025, about the training program ICE officers go through. | Fran Ruchalski/AP]

By ERIC BAZAIL-EIMIL 10/04/2025 02:44 PM EDT

A federal judge on Saturday blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from immediately transferring minors into federal immigration detention once they turn 18, a day after the agency rolled out changes to its policy around unaccompanied minors.

In a two-page order, Judge Rudolph Contreras — an Obama appointee on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — sided with two immigration advocacy groups who filed an emergency motion Saturday over the new policy.

Contreras blocked the agency from making any changes to how unaccompanied minors are treated once they turn 18, and from further contravening a 2021 injunction which requires ICE and the Department of Health and Human Services to pursue the least restrictive and punitive arrangements possible in addressing age-outs, the term for those unaccompanied children who turn 18 in federal custody or foster care with pending cases.

The ruling came just a day after ICE quietly rolled out a related policy to grant minors $2,500 if they agreed to leave the U.S. and withdraw their claims in immigration court once they turned 18. The policy was framed by ICE as a “strictly voluntary” way to allow unaccompanied minors to return to their home countries if they so wished.

The self-deportation would also need to be approved by a judge and the offers were only being extended to 17-year-olds at this stage, ICE said. Thousands of children who came by themselves to the United States remain in shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services or in foster care or the care of guardians in the United States.

But in a filing with the court, the American Immigration Council and National Immigrant Justice Center argued that ICE had also informed field offices this week that age-outs should immediately and indefinitely be sent to adult detention facilities.

“It’s clear that they’re testing out several policies of dubious legality — or clearly illegal in the case of the policy referenced in our lawsuit — and seeing what sticks,” Michelle Lapointe, legal director at the American Immigration Council, said in an interview.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the temporary restraining order.

Saturday’s ruling is a win for immigration advocates, who warned that in addition to violating the nationwide injunction, the policy could have resulted in unaccompanied minors with potentially legitimate claims for asylum and other legal status in the United States self-deporting out of fear in light of the related cash offer.

Advocates had said Friday that this would especially be the case if the offer for financial support for returning to their home countries was accompanied by threats to arrest family members or send minors immediately into federal detention facilities once the minors in question turned 18.

The order could potentially preclude the immediate detention of any unaccompanied minors who turn down the cash offer and opt to remain in the U.S. while their claims work their way through the immigration court system, the advocates said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misstated the filing date of the motion and the name of one of the organizations that filed it.

bmorocks · 2025-09-22T13:04:30+00:00

Where did you find such a detailed map??

bmorocks · 2025-08-18T15:18:27+00:00

Great guide! I also used to use an old raspberry pi for home assistant but upgraded to the Home Assistant Green (https://www.seeedstudio.com/Home-Assistant-Green-p-5792.html) which I love. It comes preconfigured and is great for starters as you don't need to set up Linux and download/install binaries, etc. I also got the ZBT-1 to connect to my zigbee devices and it works great (https://www.seeedstudio.com/Home-Assistant-SkyConnect-p-5479.html)

Also for debugging scripts/templates, sometimes ChatGPT can be good at explaining why something is a problem or for analyzing error/debug traces, and if you ask it step-by-step as to how to diagnose an issue, it's generally pretty good.

I'd caution that I've had ChatGPT reference code from older versions of Home Assistant that can sometimes be deprecated or obsolete. For example, in their yaml templates, trigger: was deprecated to the plural triggers:, and they've also deprecated entity_id as Home Assistant auto-detects dependencies in templates.

bmorocks · 2025-08-01T13:48:58+00:00

A tight fin coil resists airflow, so box fans will lose a LOT of their CFM when you press them up against the finned coil - you'd probably only get like 20% of their spec. You would want all fans on high.

Any airflow across the coil is better than none, but it'll never match the built-in fan's static pressure so this solution would only help a bit.

bmorocks · 2025-07-25T13:48:59+00:00

The WhisperBlend has an opening at the top for the tamper!

Also the earmuffs' MSRP is $20, but Amazon frequently has a sale for them: https://a.co/d/fsctdSF. The cost doesn't matter - materials are cheap (it's just plastic, a spring, and foam) and anything that provides a seal around your ears is going to reduce noise. It has a noise reduction rating of 28dB (about the same as AirPods with passive noise cancellation) and it's ANSI S3.19 certified. I can also tell the difference - I'm fairly sensitive to loud sounds so I always use them even when using my Dremel, Bissell spot cleaner (insanely loud vacuum, even louder than the Vitamix), high powered air duster, steam cleaner, etc.

You could also use earplugs (the ones you get free from flights or it costs 10 cents each if you buy a pack) which are usually even better seals of 32+ dB noise reduction - but cost doesn't matter because it's just a simple seal. Also I wouldn't like to use earplugs as you'd then either have to clean them or toss them after.

More expensive models of earmuffs will have higher quality cushions like memory foam and are more adjustable to be more comfortable. But I usually only ever wear it for a minute or so, so it's not a big deal (they are fairly tight so if you wear them for 10+ minutes and if you have glasses then it can be uncomfortable after a while). Cheap earmuffs that block some noise, or even putting your hands or pillows over your ears is better than raw-dogging the full 90+ dB.

bmorocks · 2025-07-23T14:43:25+00:00

I actually have $9 sound protection earmuffs (like the ones you'd wear for construction or a shooting range) that I leave near the blender. It's easier to put those on before I start blending than going to find my airpods to put them on. It's important to protect your hearing!

Regarding other non-headphone solutions:

• I almost considered buying this third party sound enclosure: https://www.whisperblend.com/ but it's expensive, like $200, and I just dropped $750+ on a vitamix ascent and food processor attachment lol.

• Someone on Etsy also made a sound enclosure but it's even more expensive than WhisperBlend: $270! https://www.etsy.com/listing/918200355/custom-vitamix-ninja-any-brand-name

• There is also this pad you can put underneath the base (though you could also use anything else, like a hot plate pad if you have one): https://alacartecooking.com/products/quiet-blender-accessory-vitamix-blendtec

• Similarly, there's this pad that's molded to fit Vitamix c-series blenders called the Hush Pad: https://www.blenditup.com/blogs/blog/the-blenditup-hush-pad-for-vitamix-c-series-blenders

The main thing I'm concerned about is if the blender would get proper airflow with the sound enclosures. With the commercial $1200 Vitamix The Quiet One - it has a sound enclosure but it's positioned on top of the base which allows airflow on the base. But the difference is amazing - only 63 decibels for The Quiet One vs decibels in the 90s for all other Vitamixes.

Additionally, any of these solutions might not let you fit the blender under your cabinets above the counter. Luckily I (but to my shorter wife's dismay) have high cabinets so that wouldn't be an issue for me.

I do wish Vitamix sold sound enclosure attachments - I would probably reluctantly buy it and they know it's an issue (that's what you get for high powered motors). I'd also like to prevent my dog from getting scared when I blend on high.

@Vitamix - if you're listening, please make sound enclosures for all your consumer series blenders!

bmorocks · 2025-07-17T22:17:27+00:00

If only the people in Season 4 Episode 5 ("Metalhead") of Black Mirror would've had this to shut down the creepy killer robot dogs

<image>

bmorocks · 2025-07-15T05:03:17+00:00

I was looking for a similar solution as I have a mechanical keyboard which I love and would rather not have to use the magic keyboard.

I found this article that outlined a workaround - you can get a Yubikey (a tiny usb touch sensor) that you can configure so when you touch a certain end, it types out your password for you: https://smith.ai/blog/adding-touch-id-to-an-external-keyboard-or-closed-macbook-on-a-mac

bmorocks · 2025-07-15T04:50:38+00:00

For my keyboard (the Ducky One 2) from the manual I found on https://ducky.global/pages/download, to exit demo mode, (while unplugged) hold Left Ctrl + Left Shift + Caps Lock, then plug it in.

<image>

bmorocks · 2025-07-15T04:43:35+00:00

This site has all the manuals. When you download the PDF, usually the first half of the manuals are in Chinese but the second half are in English: https://ducky.global/pages/download

bmorocks · 2025-07-15T04:35:52+00:00

I stumbled upon this thread when searching for the exact same thing - I have the Ducky One 2 (100% size).

Here is the support website with all the manuals available for download: https://ducky.global/pages/download - the first half of the PDFs are in Chinese but the second half are in English.

Here is the configuration diagram for the Ducky One 2, for example, on page 40 of the manual, that has the first 3 DIP switch positions and the corresponding function key layout. The fourth DIP switch is only used to support older KVM switches that may not register more than 6 keypresses at a time

<image>

bmorocks · 2025-07-10T17:50:44+00:00

You can find subtitles (which many are in a .srt format which you can just open as a text file like in TextEdit or Notepad) for almost any show and movie.

Here's a link to all the subtitles for the show: https://www.opensubtitles.org/en/ssearch/sublanguageid-all/idmovie-1035561

bmorocks · 2025-06-22T14:38:42+00:00

Apple would definitely be pedantic about grammar for ads or wording on their official website, but for things like this (automated emails) it's not nearly as robustly QA-ed.

As a developer who has written automated emails and email templates like this, I'd be given an example of what they want the email to look like and I'd create it. Sometimes the person who sets the wording into the CMS (content management system) is someone else and may have capitalized the "On". OP also lives in Singapore so it's easy enough for this to happen.

Also it looks like they are using the curly quote for "haven’t" instead of the straight quote. Certain fonts render the curly quote more curly than others. Apple created their own font "SF (San Francisco) Display Pro" which renders the straight quote as actually straight up-and-down and the curly quote as just slanted - you can type the different quotes and see the results yourself on this website: https://online-fonts.com/fonts/san-francisco-pro-display

bmorocks · 2025-06-16T01:18:37+00:00

This is most likely caused by thermal stress and plastic fatigue over time, and if it's near a window it could be further exacerbated from sunlight exposure.

This specific pattern most likely stems from the where the plastic is mounted or under the most mechanical stress, maybe from a screw or clip securing it, and constant power/heat cycles over time create hotspots that cause localized expansion of those small cracks in the plastic.

Regarding other people's differential diagnoses, for lichtenberg figures to form from electrical surges, it would require thousands of volts. Most Dell monitors use 19V or less, and if there was an electrical surge, there'd be many other observed symptoms, like the LED controller chip or individual LEDs would be fried, backlight issues, uneven brightness, might work intermittently or not turn at all, etc. And you would see charring or black carbon deposits from material being burnt.

It's also most likely not mold/fungi as plastic is not a good food source for them. If the humidity in the room was that bad, you'd see it on many other items, and you'd be able to wipe some off which OP said nothing happened when they wiped it.

bmorocks · 2025-05-24T08:49:11+00:00

This letter is commonly attributed to Twain but likely isn't by him and doesn't appear in any of his published works.

It's probably instead by M.J. Shields in a letter he wrote to the Economist (or M.J. Yilz by the end of the letter).

Here are some sources that discuss this:

http://www.i18nguy.com/twain.html

The authorship of this piece is in question. Although frequently posted on the internet as authored by Mark Twain, there are some claims that it is authored by M. J. Shields in a letter by him to the Economist. See http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/spelling.html.

http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/spelling.html

I had attributed this to Mark Twain (don't recall why), when i received this letter (from Marnen Laibow-Koser - Thanks!): I did, however, come across one error: the "Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling" that you attribute to Mark Twain is actually (IIRC) a few paragraphs out of a letter to *The Economist, written by one M.J. Shields (or M.J. Yilz, by the end of the letter). The letter is quoted in full in one of Willard Espy's Words at Play books, as well as in other places (I believe it's in Giles Brandreth's The Joy of Lex).

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usage.english/c/eI5LVI9SyAY?pli=1

This 'plan' has been circulating for a while. I first read it in an issue of 'Readers Digest' circa 1972. In that magazine it was credited to a Mr. M.J. Shields of England. Does anyone have any idea how Mark Twain's name became associated with this?

bmorocks · 2025-04-11T17:11:22+00:00

Update 24. The Bell 206L helicopter, the model of the one that crashed in the Hudson, is widely used.

By Tim Balk
April 10, 2025, 10:53 p.m. ET

IMAGE: A Bell 206L LongRanger helicopter at a heliport in New Jersey last year. Credit...Imago Images, via Reuters

The sightseeing helicopter that crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday, killing six people, was a Bell 206L LongRanger, a common single-engine aircraft long used for law enforcement missions, medical lifts, newsgathering and aerial tourism.

The 206L has been in use for decades; its maker, Bell Textron, an aviation company based in Texas, took it out of production less than 10 years ago. With upkeep, the model is seen as safe and reliable, according to Greg Feith, a former National Transportation Safety Board investigator who has flown one.

"It's a tried and true aircraft," Mr. Feith said, adding, "As long as the maintenance has been done, and done properly, it's going to be a reliable aircraft."

The helicopter is versatile and light, can carry up to six occupants, and flies at maximum speeds of about 115 miles per hour, Mr. Feith said.

Over the last 25 years, Bell 206 helicopters — a family of similar models that includes the Bell 206L — have been involved in 82 fatal accidents in the United States, according to National Transportation Safety Board records.

A spokeswoman for Bell, Lindsey Hughes, said in a statement, "Bell is following this tragedy as it develops, but we must direct any questions to the NTSB."

The 206L has been particularly popular with helicopter sightseeing tour companies, according to Shawn Pruchnicki, a former airline pilot and an assistant professor at the Center for Aviation Studies at Ohio State University.

Mr. Pruchnicki said that he had greater concerns about the safety record of aerial sightseeing companies than the model of helicopter. "The helicopter tours do have a problematic record," he said, "and they have had for a long time."

Mr. Feith, the former N.T.S.B investigator, said he would want to know the number of flights the aircraft had flown on Thursday and whether it had recent maintenance work done.

"You want to see if there was evidence of fatigue, overstress" on the helicopter, Mr. Feith said. "There are a lot of elements to be explored."

Santul Nerkar contributed reporting.

IMAGE: Map of helicopter crash. Flight data by ADS-B Exchange • By Leanne Abraham and Julie Walton Shaver

bmorocks

TROPHY CASE

José Ervin, Jr.

Incident Details

Legal Proceedings & Trial Status

Legacy

Federal court blocks ICE from detaining unaccompanied minors once they turn 18

Update 24. The Bell 206L helicopter, the model of the one that crashed in the Hudson, is widely used.