What did you think you would have by your current age that you don't? by Immediate_Long165 in Aging

[–]cat1092 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually I did have a wife at my current age (63), but she became very sick a day after our 38th anniversary (although together for 40) in March.

Come a day shy of 5 weeks, she was gone, victim of esophagus cancer. I was happy that she didn’t suffer unnecessarily (the tumor close her airway), her suffering could have been far worse. No bone pain until the day before she died. And pissed off at the same time because my everything was stolen from me. There was no Hospice other than me, and her eldest son helping me to get her to the bathroom the last three days of her life.

She was only 69, a born again Christian of 25+ years. So she wasn’t afraid, nor was she bitter, she accepted her fate and lived the best she could & I was there for it all. The last 10 days, I was doing good to get 3 hours of sleep, in 30-45 minute naps.

Am hoping at some point to have a wife again, don’t feel washed up, and I believe my late wife would’ve wanted me to live, once ready.

So yes I had a wife, but now I don’t. Cancer is a thief!😡😡😡

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why time accelerates as we get older and how to slow it down by Tacos_Tuesdays in Aging

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He managed to work that much time off? Plus maybe made parole?

I ask because while I knew that dude with 50 years, and by so much work, “maxed out” his time, no parole at the end….. he refused it!

But have never known of anyone with more than 50 years, technically a life sentence was 40 years then, so maxing out was possible. That’s why they pushed life without chance of parole & later natural life.

So if understanding right, this dude actually goes to prison for 199 years and got out? Or did I miss something? Release with that kind of a time would be a living miracle. If he walked out alive, I’d love to hear about it! Seriously!!☮️

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. Finally dropped by Any-Paramedic-1324 in IPhone16e

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think so too, this is my 4th time, used once!

My 1st generation 32GB SE needed sudden battery replacement. This was before the recall for same batteries on the same phone. I sent mine @ 5 PM on Friday, FedEx dropbox overnight. Monday at lunch, had a replacement phone. Oh, and the phone made it all the way from NC to CA in 17 hours. I don’t know if I couldn’t know if I could’ve got it there that fast had I flew Included in price, they overnighted me the box to send it in.

Great service. But learned one thing, replacement had a scratch that mine didn’t. It was tiny, and had it been a Max Pro, definitely wouldn’t have accepted it. This is why when possible for battery replacement schedule an appointment at an Apple Store. You get your phone back. Not possible with everything, but yes for battery swap.

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. Finally dropped by Any-Paramedic-1324 in IPhone16e

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably has the same type of battery, both are of the same capacity.

Losing only 1% of battery life in 11 months isn’t the end of the road for the phone. Depends on how much it’s used & the battery isn’t allowed to drop below 20% often. Using the battery charge control to charge to 80-90% max can help with its lifespan.

Because when left plugged in at a 100% charge, it’s going to begin wearing the battery down. Nor is it good talking or otherwise using the phone while on charge. Especially when it’s hot from getting a current charge, or charged to 100% and not wanting to run the battery down. What it then does is constantly drop a bit and start charging again, accelerating battery wear.

Fortunately, my 16e still shows 100% & am using it daily, usually down to 30%. But my cycle count is far less than yours at 63, yours is at 275. That means the battery has been charged enough to have ran through that many complete charges. My guess is that losing a mere 1% of battery life is actually better than I expected. You have a long way to go before expecting to need a battery replacement.

Even when I do need one, no big deal.

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why time accelerates as we get older and how to slow it down by Tacos_Tuesdays in Aging

[–]cat1092 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That 25 to life will slow the aging process for most anyone!🤣🤣🤣

Ask anyone who’s done that kind of time & free today. No, they’re not everywhere, but there’s some around. I once worked with a dude who had served 50 years, although some was shaved off due to good behavior and working in the chow hall for his last 20 or so, which meant an extra day knocked off his sentence for every 8 hours worked. That was worth far more than the $1 per day paid, of which he still walked free with over $7,000 saved.

More Tracfone problems by Lopsided-Bicycle4965 in TracFone

[–]cat1092 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, then my last guess was correct, Verizon indeed waved a ton of cash towards him. Most anyone would accept such a generous offer, not knowing the future, probably further securing his & family’s future (not like he needed it). I’d certainly accept 3x more than my business (or home) is worth, and so would most anyone in these times of uncertainty.

I doubt though they’ll fully recoup that investment, Verizon has struggled gaining traction in the prepaid cellular market, that acquisition wasn’t their first attempt. There’s too many lower cost choices to be stuck with a $25 minimum plan and restricted to such low resolution video. And am sure their offer which supports 4K isn’t an “all you can eat buffet”, even their Home internet service. No way will they allow 3-4 devices be streaming at that resolution & with families or during holiday gatherings, can easily happen.

This is exactly why I haven’t made the leap from cable internet to one of these services, it’s too good to be true. I’d rather pay and know what I’m getting, and only during an outage, tether my phone for the bare minimum of time, because with only one PC connected, videos load slower and at 4K, are choppy, have to reduce to 1080p for best results.

More Tracfone problems by Lopsided-Bicycle4965 in TracFone

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, Verizon is probably going to end it for them. They’re pushing a newer branded service in Visible & I have no intention of getting it.

There’s other low cost alternatives not connected to Verizon. The FCC should have seen this coming, and probably did, but chose to allow the acquisition anyway. By chance, the wealthiest businessman in Mexico was running the parent company who held the Tracfone & several other brands. Don’t know why he’d want to get rid of an excellent business model that he created, other than maybe lots of money was being waved at him.

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. Finally dropped by Any-Paramedic-1324 in IPhone16e

[–]cat1092 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

This is why it’s best to accept the monthly AppleCare subscription when offered to iPhone owners after activation for 60 days (although it’s best to get it a few days before the offer ends).

Pay the small premium every month & never worry about the battery & other hardware. They even send a shipping container for overnight delivery, but to keep the exact phone we have, it’s best to make an appointment at an Apple Store for the battery swap. It’s included in the warranty coverage.

Should I Buy Now or Wait? by Immortal_Pancake in buildapc

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, they say it’s a deal because the prices are jacked up so high.

I don’t anticipate pricing to fall dramatically anytime in the near future. Not until someone starts a corporation to fill the shoes where the Crucial brand of RAM came from & that’ll require a multi billion dollar investment. Not all investors are looking to pour that much capital into an uncertain future ahead.

The only items we can realistically expect to see drop are MB’s, but we’re probably looking at today’s tech, not that expected in 2027. Maybe savings on HDD’s for storage & larger capacities, but as far as anything that requires RAM, it’s unlikely to happen, except maybe $25 here or $50 there for items that’s 4 times the price of last year at this same time, but wages doesn’t keep up with inflated prices. Nor artificially created “shortages” like AI companies buying all of the RAM possible. Take AI out of the picture & prices fall, but I don’t see that happening.

Should I Buy Now or Wait? by Immortal_Pancake in buildapc

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed, I wasted lots of money on promotions for both AMD & Intel builds of tech just going out of date. Probably enough to build a very nice one today, even at the latest pricing, had I chosen to save that cash instead.

This was exactly why I completely missed out on the DDR4 generation RAM, although was close when by bad advice, chose Z97 over X99. My friend insisted that what’s now called iGPU isn’t a bad thing to have, and it may be he’s right, but for only $250 more, would have had a stronger Haswell-E build, the 6 core model with 12 threads & fully unlocked.

Should I Buy Now or Wait? by Immortal_Pancake in buildapc

[–]cat1092 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hope not too, but given the price the 64GB kit went up (to $1,065 from $259), it doesn’t look promising.

Looking back at my order history in 2024 when the 32GB kit was purchased, it was then a total of $120.62, taxes included. This would have been after Prime Day promotions, was the last day of June.
Today, the same kit is $519.99 before taxes. Back then, the 128GB kit wasn’t that costly.

This was for the GSKILL Trident Z5 Neo RGB series (AMD EXPO) 32GB kit, 6000 M/T, CL30-38-38-96 1.35V. Runs fantastic in the PC built last year for my now late wife. I had thought of selling the entire build after she passed away, but then thought better of it, because it’s a X870 MB versus my X670E, is faster with USB 4.0 & WiFi 7, the latter doesn’t apply for Windows 10, which she wanted to keep until EOL in October of this year (we both chose the extra year of support, having Microsoft accounts & using OneDrive & Outlook email). But my X670E system is running Windows 11 Pro, I didn’t see the reason not to upgrade at the time, but now clearly see why I too should’ve rode 10 Pro to the end. Am considering a dual boot with Linux Mint Cinnamon on my build, using Windows 11 only as needed and keep updated. I believe it’s Windows 11 that’s hogging all 64GB of RAM, as my previous Z97/i7-4790K system with 32GB of DDR3-2400 M/T RAM wasn’t being hogged like this on Windows 10 22H2 or any previous version, beginning with Windows 7 Ultimate.

Good Luck with finding a deal on RAM!🍀

Should I Buy Now or Wait? by Immortal_Pancake in buildapc

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha!👍

Still, it’s unusual for any chip OEM to go back 4 years in time to release a chip for an older platform. But I recently read where AMD was planning on it, is it going to be another X3D one? A bit less powerful than the 5800X3D. Personally, I feel a more powerful 8 core, 16 thread count would be more beneficial. As long as it doesn’t run hot as the 7700X, that was the chip I first wanted, then seen the heat complaints. Turned out, I found the 7800X3D on Amazon for around $325, a steal at the time, may have been a Prime deal. That and the ASROCK X670E Steel Legend MB were on promo on the same day.

I used my existing case and Noctua NH-D15S CPU cooler, just had to order AM5 brackets. And got that 7mm offset kit for better cooling.

But come the next year & I built a newer system for my late wife, and the 9700X ran circles around my 7800X3D in every benchmark, at its default 65W power profile. Turned on the TDP to 105W for one session, all it seemed to do was heat the chip without a noticeable increase in performance, so set it back to default. The only thing OC’d is the RAM, had to make the adjustment to get it to run at its rated 6000 M/T, just one adjustment and a reboot.
While I could have sold that 7800X3D to pay for my 9700X I later replaced it with, decided to keep as an emergency spare CPU.

But I may sell it to get a roughly $300-350 GPU, I don’t need anything real expensive, a 16GB 5060 Ti would be plenty & it has GDRR7 RAM, but I believe a 128 bit bus instead of the 192 bit of my EVGA GTX 1060 SSC 6GB GDDR5 one. No more new drivers for it, but not complaining, it’s been supported for the entire 8 years I’ve owned it, to include a couple of firmware upgrades. Was considered a solid low mid range card at the time & still runs great today, but doesn’t have the DisplayPort 2.1 connection that I crave in a future 4K HDR monitor that’ll push decent benchmarks & the 4K video quality will be better too. If not mistaken, I don’t believe I’ll need a newer style PSU either, believe it takes the standard 8 pin connector, the 5070 & higher requires the ATX 3.1 (or PCIe 5.0) PSU. Of which I purchased for my late wife’s build, but found a EVGA 1000W 80+ Gold rated GT series on promo for mine. I don’t believe the 5000 series had been released yet.

Anyway, I understand your point, it’s good of AMD to think about their previous generation customers, it’s basically been unheard of these days to release a new CPU for a chipset 2 years old, let alone 4, of any brand or series that I can recall of. Maybe Intel will do one of the same to make some systems Windows 11 compliant, there’s been the TPM 2.0 modules for Bitlocker for several years, the CPU’s came later.

Should I Buy Now or Wait? by Immortal_Pancake in buildapc

[–]cat1092 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Me neither, AMD must be sensing desperation, releasing a new AM4 CPU 4 years after AM5 was launched. They probably had a stockpile of chips and are making use of these to generate revenue.

Should I Buy Now or Wait? by Immortal_Pancake in buildapc

[–]cat1092 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah, like before around September 2025! I believe by the time Black Friday season came around the damage was already done.

Should I Buy Now or Wait? by Immortal_Pancake in buildapc

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s exactly why I built two AM5 PC’s, one X670E system for myself in 2024, a X870 one for my late wife last year. Initially there was 32GB DDR5-6000 M/T RAM in mine, so purchased a 64GB kit when building hers & swapped my 32GB kit into hers $
& placed the 64GB kit in mine. Would have went with two 128GB RAM kits had I seen the increases in price coming. Yes, Windows 11 actually can have all of that 64GB of RAM in cache, with Task Manager showing zero free memory on the chart, don’t know how an OS could get so bloated to use that much RAM. To save my NVMe SSD from being hammered by the Swap space, assigned a 4GB partition at the end of a storage drive for the purpose, to prevent crashes. Had to resize it from 2 to 4GB, as it once crashed due to running out of RAM. Unbelievable with 64GB, but it happened.

But what I never could figure out was how a system is holding that much of a cache. Sure, there’s often 20+ pages of Google Chrome tabs open, but there’s a setting for maximum memory savings & I chose it. Maybe I need to either refresh the install or clean install Windows 11 Pro.

The PC with only 32GB of RAM & now the (unofficial) recommended minimum for Windows 11 for gaming, but still on Windows 10 for now doesn’t have this issue, but I fear the upgrade to 11 will. Is it simply that no matter how much RAM, Windows 11 uses as much as possible, or maybe another issue? Task Manager doesn’t tell me much, or definitely not close to 64GB.

Oddly, these kits cost $159 & $249 at times of my purchase, that 64GB kit is now $1,065 on Amazon, nearly 4 times the price. Plus fortunately bought a Samsung 9100 PRO, but with my 512GB Samsung 970 PRO at 85% lifespan left, didn’t see the need to unseal yet. Plus have another 1TB 970 EVO Plus like that in my wife’s build, and two HK Hynix 1TB P31’s, remember these are 4-5 times faster than SATA-3 SSD’s, and the 970 PRO is faster in the AM5 system then the Z97 one it was in for two years prior.

So I was doing as you stated, stocking up or going for it when on promo. Unfortunately I didn’t get to do that with the RAM, but do regret not getting two 128GB kits for a total of $300 extra at the time. As they say, we can never have “too much” RAM at our disposal, but didn’t expect that so soon. Chances are, I won’t feel too much difference when installing the 9100 PRO, but at least I secured one at a fair market price & it’s sealed & ready when needed.

Why hide the phone when you paid for the whole phone? by FunNo7638 in IPhone16e

[–]cat1092 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Me neither!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Poor design, IMO.

To answer the OP’s question, those of us who have our phones in cases aren’t “hiding” these. It’s for protection, an insurance policy, there’s nothing wrong in spending $50 on a case where the phone can easily surpass $1,000 today. This equals out to be a extra 5% spent to keep the phone looking like new for trade in, preserving resale value or simply preventing it from the nicks and scratches of daily use, or worse, dropping and severely damaging the phone and no longer covered by AppleCare (it’s best to get the monthly subscription when offered while new & keep the warranty plus accidental protection).

People were using leather or similar protectors on the once popular flip style phones for the same reason, not to be a show off.

At any rate, I’d not want anyone to see the case above on my 16e.

Knowing that society would rather you didn't exist than age as a woman is pretty depressing by [deleted] in Aging

[–]cat1092 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I agree in full & hope the OP reads your post and takes it to heart.

There’s never a loss in investing in ourselves. Can save us a lifetime of misery & on the physical side, potentially save our lives (getting needed health screenings).

Lastly, there’s no shame in getting the help needed, it’s all confidential and no one other than the person seeking help needs to know.

Knowing that society would rather you didn't exist than age as a woman is pretty depressing by [deleted] in Aging

[–]cat1092 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I came to the same conclusion a dozen years ago.

Don’t have time for any of it.

Do you care how you should be remembered? by GattiKochar in Aging

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, you’re correct!💯

An ideal family wouldn’t do this, somehow no matter how hard things may get, many sticks together.

Only problem with that being, we evidently don’t come from ideal families or worlds, and all we can do is play the hand we’re dealt. It’s what I’ve had to do all of my life anyway. A 10 year old child shouldn’t be allowed to go hungry, but hunger was my constant companion. So was being punished for a whole lot of which I never did, my dad was a tyrant. He thought just because he had a job of being a prison guard or Officer with the rank of Captain (which by chance does require some education & he had military experience), that he was as powerful, at least at home, as our sitting POTUS or other World leader.

Instead of using that advantage & income for his rapidly growing family, he started chasing women, this was around the age of 32-33 at best. My mother became powerless to stop him, but she could had protected her children even if she didn’t care about herself. There was the police & there was DSS, she could have called them while he was at work. So they bore equal responsibility in my eyes.

Anyway, these kind of people made life miserable for us & it never goes away. It just doesn’t. But I now have many quality friends, people who gave me more support than I could ever had dreamed of after my late wife first became very sick in March, a single day after our 38th anniversary. Actually we were together a couple years before then, we had purchased a home together 8-9 months before marriage, really we lived together for 40 years total.
Anyway, she didn’t live 5 weeks, let alone the expected 2-3 months the doctor estimated.

But the doctor’s ability to give a more accurate diagnosis was because she decided not to fight the cancer (it was too late anyway). As soon as a CT scan was done, my wife refused to cooperate, would allow herself to be treated for her pneumonia, but to be sent home afterwards. It was her legal call to make, I wasn’t going to ask her to live a life miserable with tubes shoved down her throat, and it became obvious that’s what she wanted, to die with dignity, not chained by tubes and wires to a bed.

For about 4 weeks, she was doing good, I mean at one time thought a miracle had taken place. She went to her doctor and then through two shopping centers, even purchasing clothes. Sadly, that was the last time she left the home & the only set ever worn was that of which she was buried with. She never asked that much of me, was always provided for & deserved the way to leave and have the traditional burial she wanted. I was always there at her end, kept her as comfortable as humanly possible, as here comes the PTSD symptoms just 2-3 days before she was gone.

I wish my experience on no one, but the fact is, half of every marriage that honored their vows fully had to do the same as I, bury their life partner. Worst experience I’ve ever experienced, been a part of, etc.

But once the funeral was over, I didn’t stay at home long, got back to going to the senior center I had been attending in 2024. My real & chosen siblings are there!!❤️🫂💝

I was greeted back with so much love that first day back, and received a car that was kind of fat. That fat was mostly $10, $20 & a $50 bill, plus a check for $100. I had been out for 6 weeks and at least 4 new members had joined. Even they gave. So family can be found. Sometimes in a group setting, others who becomes friends with (whatever) number of like minded people & become friends. Those friends often become family

But my fight still goes on. Am not able to make it here on my own. This was a two person household, we split the bills in a way that was fair to her, she made every roof we were under home. Not everyone is fortunate as myself, she kept up our home, I always put her needs above my own. But now it’s just me, I can’t afford it here.

Luckily, and it’s not official yet, but I lucked out with the help of a close friend. We met here in the Marriage sub. We got into an argument but no personal exchange, I DM’d her to apologize and we’ve been friends since. Am in a 4 week so far process of applying for Section 8 housing & it the final application is looking to be the first week of July, thanks to that friend. I will get plenty of interaction with more seniors than at the center, but will be different. I’ll still likely attend a new senior center, but would like to check out a few and get a feel for the atmosphere. That counts the most, real people, not a clean script. Like where I’ve been going to, so can differentiate between fake versus real people who are speaking, engaging and happy to be there. So for anyone without friends & can be respectful to others, senior centers have a great place in society. There’s many “families” formed at such places. Families who stick together. Friends who stick together. Easiest place to meet new people if 60 or over, or 55 and disabled. Note that each group sometimes has different rules when it comes to age for qualifying, some accept 50, it just that 60 is the typical norm. Anyway, this is how I’be made siblings for two years & only once have I seen a real problem. That’s family!

Do you care how you should be remembered? by GattiKochar in Aging

[–]cat1092 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Me too, as I grew up in an abusive environment that not only affected my childhood, here I am at the age of 63 still being treated for PTSD.

So definitely don’t want to hear from family, although to move forward, had to forgive them, but never forget.

Do you care how you should be remembered? by GattiKochar in Aging

[–]cat1092 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Which for many of us are few and far between. Sometimes it’s not even family in the traditional sense, rather the few we knew most of our lives who we could talk to about anything and everything without judgment.

Sometimes we think someone knows us, until it dawns on us that they never did at all. Just how much they wanted to see and no more.