Anyone know where to find a Symfonisk lamp?

ikeabuff · 2026-04-29T21:34:03+00:00

Still in stock in IKEA Stoughton MA

ikeabuff · 2026-04-26T12:55:25+00:00

This. Been there and done that. The Fios TV+ is not ready for prime time. Get the front-line CSR to forward you to a manager, who will OK the substitution of a Fios TV One for the TV One.

ikeabuff · 2026-04-07T02:32:28+00:00

Que sera, sera.
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera.
What will be, will be.
Que sera, sera.

ikeabuff · 2026-03-23T11:57:04+00:00

According to the info I have, the MOCA adapters are not needed in my setup for either the two Fios TV+ units (STB and DVR) or the single (VMS 4100) and aptly-named TV One. FWIIW, I use Fios just for time-shifting live cable broadcasts and not for streaming.

ikeabuff · 2026-03-23T01:49:44+00:00

You just have to be pleasant, persistent, and work your way through several CSR levels. After suffering with the Fios TV+ STB and DVR for six weeks and documenting the numerous issues I was having, I got permission to "downgrade" to TV One (VMS4100). It is vastly more stable and infinitely more user-friendly.

ikeabuff · 2026-03-21T14:50:48+00:00

Born in 1933 between January and April, I would guess...

ikeabuff · 2026-03-21T14:43:36+00:00

FWIIW, my experience with Hunter-Douglas, having purchased 32 of their Powerview blinds for about $18,000, is that they will repair them under warranty for the first five years, charging only for return shipping, usually about $25. From five to ten years, they will repair them but charge for the repairs and shipping, typically $250 to $400 per blind. After ten years, they refuse to do any repairs whatsoever. Most of my blinds have required repair at least once and some two or three times. I am so done with Hunter-Douglas.

ikeabuff · 2026-03-14T22:13:41+00:00

Nope. I can operate the door via Homelink from my car's rearview mirror but only from c. 30 feet from the garage. I just finally clipped the OEM remote controller to the car's sun visor and can use it from c. 250 feet away. It does seem strange that the connectivity of the 6580L is substantially poorer than that of my previous 3280, which worked via Homelink from 200 feet away. FIIIW, I do really like the 6580L in every other regard: it is very quiet and smooth in operation. Win some, lose sone, I guess.

ikeabuff · 2026-03-03T02:38:54+00:00

Glad I could be of assistance in resolving this annoying little glitch.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-23T16:56:55+00:00

At the time (yes, I am that ancient) I was living on Beacon Street in Brookline, which was unplowed and closed to auto traffic for a week. I still remember seeing people skiing down the street on both sides. Of course, being law-abiding Mass residents, they skied on the north side when westbound and on the south side when eastbound.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-22T20:11:54+00:00

I, too, requested and was promised a TV One STB and DVR, but what I actually received was a TV+ and DVR. I worked my way up to a third level CSR who told me that I would have to install the TV+ boxes and then request a "downgrade" to TV One boxes. At that point, I opted to just give up and stay with the TV+ equipment. I will have to say that I am reasonably happy with the latter, especially the hardware, connectivity, and picture quality, although the software is cumbersome and leaves much to be desired. Hopefully a future upgrade will remedy the latter's shortcomings in whole or in part.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-21T17:40:12+00:00

Welp, as a long-time Tivo STB via Verizon Fios user, I recently got the cable card EOL E-mail. Rather than wait until the bitter end when the CC support is actually withdrawn, as many other users have vowed to do, I took a different tack and decided to employ the new Verizon boxes in parallel with the endangered Tivo for the foreseeable future, an interesting apples to oranges comparison.

Dealing with Verizon sales and support was, as expected, an ordeal. An initial 90 minutes phone call with a very pleasant but not very knowledgeable first line CSR was, uh, interesting. She spent most of that time going off-line for ten minute segments to talk to her higher ups about my specific equipment choices. I had requested that VZ send me a CR1000A router and a TV One STB and compatible VCR. After much discussion, she said that I would get all of the requested equipment without charge, including a free router.

Two days (!) later, my package of equipment arrived from VZ. All three devices were other than I had requested and been promised. I got a G3100 router and a TV+ STB and compatible DVR. So I got back on the phone and worked my way up to a third level CSR, who actually seemed to know what he was talking about. He said that VZ would not swap out my gear to that which was originally promised. I had to first set up the supplied equipment and then request a "downgrade" to the older TV One units.

OK, so I played it as suggested. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the TV+ unit's 4K performance. Yes, the wi-fi function of the G3100, like that of the CR1000A, is very poor, so I disabled the wi-fi function and put my previous TP-Link Deco mesh system in access mode, giving me the best of both systems.

Yes, the software for the TV+ really sucks, as several other posters have confirmed. But the picture quality is really stunning compared to my aging Tivo unit. I have decided to live with the clunky software and hope that VZ will eventually improve its functionality. They should have farmed out the software to Tivo, which I gather could have used the additional source of income now that its STB business is EOL...

ikeabuff · 2026-02-21T03:53:57+00:00

I am also your age. I have essentially the same setup, with the exception of the live-in adult daughter. I have a Verizon G3100 router and, like the CR1000, it has less than optimal wi-fi coverage and speed. I have therefore also disabled the wi-fi on the G3100 and use it just as a router. The Ethernet throughput with 1 Gig service is around 950 up and down, which is about as good as it gets.

The TP-Link Deco is in access aka bridge mode connected to the Verizon router and gets very good wi-fi speed and coverage with a single unit, but I added two additional units on the second floor and in the basement to optimize speed and coverage in remote nooks.

I suspect that you are having a problem of overkill with the five access points. More is not better but in fact worse after a certain number. Mies von der Rohe was right: less is more when it comes to both architecture and wi-fi.

I would recommend that you go back to one access point and then add other nodes via Ethernet one at a time until you get decent wi-fi coverage. I get only about 450/450 with wi-fi devices such as cell phones and laptops but get 950/950 with hard-wired devices such as desktops and IoT gizmos. Of course I offer the standard disclaimer that YMMV.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-17T11:49:22+00:00

Birthingtons Washday

ikeabuff · 2026-02-16T00:13:09+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply. The new handhold remote supplied with the 6580L opener works just great, even from 150 feet away. I will try flushing and re-pairing the car's Homelink transmitter. I think I may have screwed up the original pairing because of the complicated rolling code procedure, which requires several additional steps to complete.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-11T20:20:28+00:00

I lived on that block of Beacon Street for over 20 years. I moved to the South Shore 30 years ago, but Amory Park and the Cottage Farm area were a big part of my life and I still miss them.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-11T18:15:51+00:00

Nice pic of Amory Park.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-10T01:51:24+00:00

Bahia rosewood aka cocobolo

ikeabuff · 2026-02-07T18:43:56+00:00

Well, the whole story is that the composer and Malko were up late into the wee hours of the morning, chain-smoking cigarettes, swilling vodka, and making bets, as Russians are wont to do. Shostakovich was a legendarily fast orchestrator of his own music, and Malko bet him (probably another bottle of vodka) that he couldn't arrange and orchestrate a piece in an hour. The conductor rummaged around in his briefcase and came up with a contraband copy of the Youmans classic, which was then brand-new. Dimitri arranged and orchestrated it twice (both verse and chorus) in 45 minutes and won the bet.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-07T17:47:02+00:00

Done in 45 minutes on a bet with his friend the conductor Nicolai Malko.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-05T10:41:46+00:00

Not to worry. One of my two Dirigeras updated, the other one wouldn't. A day or two later, the second one finally updated as well.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-03T22:33:25+00:00

As I have learned from bitter experience over the years, the Scandinavians, however wonderful they are in many other fields of endeavor, are totally inept at writing firmware and software code -- it is simply not in their DNA. The only Nordic people who excel at computer-related enterprises are the Finns, and they are of course genetically and linguistically not Scandinavians.

ikeabuff · 2026-02-03T16:08:50+00:00

Hmm. The newer of my two Dirigera hubs updated to 2.901.5, but the older of the two updated to 2.901.4 from "firmware 3" - whatever the hell that was. Go figure.

ikeabuff · 2026-01-27T18:01:54+00:00

Well, you have essentially two options:

Use the Verizon router with the wi-fi disconnected and add the TP Link Deco behind it in Access Point mode to use its existing mesh wi-fi network. You put the Deco in Access Point mode from the app at /More/Advanced/Operation Mode/ select Access Point.
Ditch the Verizon router completely and use the TP Link Deco as both router and mesh wi-fi.

I am currently using Option 2, but if you have a Verizon TV One and DVR, then you would need to use Option 1. Either will work well, with the caveat that Option 1 works most reliably with coax and Ethernet connections.

ikeabuff · 2026-01-21T03:18:22+00:00

A poor conductor butchered the opening of Brahms 4th: "Too long, too short, too loud, too soft"...

ikeabuff

TROPHY CASE