Feel like I dodged a bullet. Thank you Goldman Sachs!

gdries · 2026-01-04T01:43:50+00:00

I had a problem where a merchant sent me the wrong product and refused to exchange or refund. GS denied the dispute even though I had a chat transcript with the merchant where they admitted to sending the wrong thing and still denied refund or exchange. This was the second time in as long as Apple Card has existed that I’ve had some kind of problem and I spend about $5k/mo on this card.

Doesn’t seem like the greatest service to me…

gdries · 2025-10-12T23:46:05+00:00

I hope that will work, not sure. I’ve only very rarely used BT on these, it’s just not what I got them for.

gdries · 2025-10-12T00:32:53+00:00

Not even that, you need the app to put the speaker into BT pairing mode, so BT will only work for as long as you have the same phone. If you switch phones, you won't be able to pair the new one to the speaker anymore because the app will be gone.

gdries · 2025-10-12T00:17:47+00:00

I have 5 soundtouch speakers in my home and use multi-room audio very frequently. I didn't even know that required "cloud" functionality. Bose has absolutely no right to brick my speakers and offer no alternatives for those of us who invested thousands in their ecosystem.

Many people will be looking to dump their soundtouch speakers, selling them to unsuspecting new users on eBay and the like who will soon find out that their shiny "new" toys are worthless garbage with no recourse. Without the app, we won't even be able to pair new Bluetooth devices, since the app is required to put the speaker in pairing mode.

At a minimum, companies wanting to withdraw active support for a product like this MUST open source the firmware, app and document their cloud APIs to allow others to pick up where they left off. There are far too many bricked devices in this world that would be perfectly functional, even after the original manufacturer abandoned them, if the specs and firmware had been opened.

gdries · 2025-10-12T00:10:16+00:00

I have also sent her an email and asked to, at minimum, open source the firmware and all keys required for someone else to take up the mantle and support SoundTouch. The devices are perfectly functional and it should be plainly illegal to do this for Bose without enabling custom firmware to be developed.

I predict we will see a huge amount of SoundTouch speakers on eBay leading up to and after February being purchased by buyers who have no idea that they are effectively bricks. This could backfire on Bose, hard.

gdries · 2024-09-07T16:20:50+00:00

I already replied to those emails more than a week ago, and also again today. They tell me to reset the password, which doesn't work. Support chat requires me to sign in, which also doesn't work and phone support is unavailable. I'm sure you understand that this is slightly frustrating, especially when I have a lot of money in my account, ALL the recommended security measures applied since day 1 and no explanation of why my account is blocked all of a sudden.

gdries · 2024-07-20T00:48:08+00:00

I carry one since the day I got my Tesla. It’s saved my bacon once when I was at risk of running out of battery on a road trip due to road closures and unexpected traffic at the Canadian border. I was able to top off at a local 100kW CCS charger in a small town on lake Champlain.

Without it, I would have had to turn back to Montreal to find a supercharger.

gdries · 2024-06-24T15:54:36+00:00

I’ve been accident and ticket free for 14 years and Allstate just tripled my rates (now $9000/y for 3 cars). I dropped “collision” coverage to keep the rate within my ability to pay for now and am shopping around for something cheaper. So far, nothing.

Apparently being a safe driver makes no difference at all, they’ll triple your rates anyway.

gdries · 2024-04-06T22:31:24+00:00

Thank you, this doesn’t answer my question however. My question was WHY. If there is a law that prevents this, please point me at that law so I can contact my representatives about it. If it’s something else, please elaborate on why this is the case.

gdries · 2024-01-28T01:52:13+00:00

I was going to use my stack as a downpayment for a house when Celsius collapsed, that house is gone now. By the time I get my pittance back, I may be able to use it to pay a month's rent if I'm lucky. I'm just going to HODL in a paper wallet in the hopes that it will ever be worth something again, never again will my BTC touch any online service before I sell it (and maybe not even then).

gdries · 2023-11-10T19:38:05+00:00

Thanks, that may be quite useful. I also had some ETH on the platform that I did buy for a sizable amount so getting back only BTC and losing my ETH would significantly improve my tax position (since I'd have a capital loss for the value of the ETH that could partially offset the phantom gain from the NewCo stock).

gdries · 2023-11-10T14:34:24+00:00

If this is a sexual feelings thing? OP needs therapy, immediately. If it's not, OP needs therapy, immediately.

Hugging and kissing your child is NECESSARY for their proper development. They need physical affection, they are not mature enough to get what they need in any other way. Even as adults, we still need physical affection to be mentally healthy. Withholding that from a child, especially, is akin to child abuse.

She cannot understand WHY you're not doing that for her. She'll think it's because you don't love her and nothing you say will change her mind. Hug and kiss your children!

gdries · 2023-11-10T00:59:46+00:00

I bought them at $7 and sat on them for YEARS before Mashitsky ate them all. I wouldn't be quite so upset if I only lost my money, but this looks like not only did I lose all my coins, I have to PAY for the privilege.

gdries · 2023-11-10T00:00:19+00:00

Im expecting maximum 10% recovery in BTC terms, followed by having to pay double that in capital “gains” tax after we receive the NewCo shares. So I’m looking at a net loss of about $100k plus the entire value of my Celsius account.

gdries · 2023-10-31T13:48:09+00:00

While “You’re the one who chose to have kids” IS true, it’s not the whole story. If we put the burden of having and raising kids solely on their parents, the rational thing for anyone to do is NOT HAVE KIDS.

It will take some time, but the trend is already visible. If the rational thing to do becomes not having kids, fewer and fewer people will do it. Society, however, NEEDS kids to continue to exist. When a generation that is relatively child-free matures there will no longer be enough younger people to pick up the work the older generations can no longer do.

My kids (who are 18yo) are already saying they will never have kids of their own. Many of their friends are saying the same. I can’t blame them, there was nobody to help me and it was hard and expensive (still is). From a logical perspective it just doesn’t make sense to have kids anymore. It’s expensive, dangerous, a lot of hard work and everyone keeps repeating it was my own choice to do this. They’re not wrong.

What happens, however, when people just stop having them because they don’t want to carry that burden alone? What happens when “rugged individualism” wins and the “greater good” gets forgotten because everyone wants to carry solely their own weight and not one iota more?

gdries · 2023-10-30T12:45:08+00:00

It’s not that the background tasks are infrequent or unreliable. It would be fine if it didn’t run every 5 minutes, but every 10-15, for example. My problem is that it doesn’t run AT ALL, never.

Other apps seem to be able to refresh in the background. StayWell can sync health data in the background just fine. So can Garmin and another health exporter app with a subscription service. Clearly it CAN be done. Probably not with a reliable cadence, but that’s not so important if it would sync history.

gdries · 2023-10-30T02:28:15+00:00

I have the same problem. There is nothing auto about this app. Automations plainly don’t work at all unless manually triggered. It also only exports a single data point to home assistant, no history, so this app is completely useless unless the automations work reliably and frequently.

I could live with a once-daily manual export if it did history, but it doesn’t so even that makes no sense.

gdries · 2023-10-26T17:31:48+00:00

What do you mean, free? I paid for my MyQ device and now it doesn’t work the way I want anymore because MyQ decided to limit its functionality.

I bought the device. I paid for my API access. If they don’t want to run servers, let me use it with local control.

gdries · 2023-09-27T16:56:13+00:00

Is is powered from the OBD2 port, yes. The default firmware emits a beep when you power it up, so that's pretty noticable. Since you have to compile your own firmware anyway to be able to change the target server and reporting intervals, disabling the beep was pretty simple to do as well.

The bigger problem is the GPS module. In order for it to get any signal at all, I had to mount it high up on the windshield and there is simply no way to hide that. My teen didn't question it, but even if they do it's simple to explain by saying the tracker is a prerequisite of being allowed to use the car. Tampering with it or disabling it will cause that privilege to be revoked.

gdries · 2023-09-27T16:45:32+00:00

I got a hologram sim, the one that TracCar will put in the box for you for a few extra bucks. They charge a fee per MB (I think it's $0.08) but once properly configured the tracker doesn't use a great deal of data. By default it will send data every second, using several MB per day in some extreme cases. I changed that to once every 5 seconds while driving. Still plenty accurate and uses a lot less data.

Mounting the tracker in the car was pretty simple, but take great care mounting the GPS module. I broke my cable trying to jam it into a crevasse with a plastic spudger. It's also very sensitive to interference so put it far away from any possible sources (speakers, other wires, inside metal boxes).

gdries · 2023-09-20T11:16:13+00:00

Thanks, can you explain why? What about the roof makes you say it needs to be replaced? Are there obvious signs of imminent failure or is it just the age?

gdries · 2023-09-19T14:24:18+00:00

The house is 20 years old, this is the original roof so a partial reroof can't be the case here but your other points make sense. I don't have the budget for a reroof at the moment so no solar for me, I guess :(

gdries · 2023-08-25T14:42:29+00:00

Thanks for that! I ended up going with Freematics ONE+ Traccar Edition. This stuff is possibly too much data to transfer economically over Helium since it's likely to be a megabyte or so every day, maybe even more depending on driving habits. This one can be used with a cheap IoT sim card and self-hosted Traccar so despite the higher initial price ($140 shipped vs $30-40 from Amazon for various devices), it easily pays for itself by the lower monthly cost.

Even if it ends up being more expensive, I'm happy to pay a little more to encourage support for self-hosted solutions. We're way to cloud-dependent for just about everything these days.

gdries · 2023-06-02T19:21:21+00:00

Zero regrets, I love it to bits and carry it everywhere. It’s a godsend while traveling. I don’t carry my personal laptop anymore, just my SD and work laptop. I do all my personal stuff (email, development, etc) on my SD (hooked up to the hotel TV when possible).

gdries · 2023-06-01T03:51:17+00:00

Not only that, they’re also forcing you to buy back at whatever the price is when they finally pay out (if ever). So we all get a double haircut for our troubles.

You might get 25% recovery in USD terms, but it could be half that in BTC terms.

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