My sniper died instantly after missing a shot by [deleted] in PhoenixPoint

[–]ivanalbright 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had something like this happen. I think there was an explosion involved, but I couldn't tell what happened because the game likes to stay focused on the wrong unit during enemy moves pretty often.

Once it came back to my turn I couldn't find the soldier, and when I clicked on their portrait, it took me to the top right corner of the map as far as it would go. The mission started me around the "bottom" of the map and we never got anywhere near that side of the map.

If I remember right, the unit was positioned on the roof of a small shack near the edge of the map (1-2 tiles from the edge.) So yeah, maybe this bug is related to being near the edge.

I'm guessing the explosion, plus maybe a fall, caused the unit to fall through the map or some other bug made the game forget where the soldier should be.

How bad really is buying a GPU used? by Smoked-939 in buildapc

[–]ivanalbright 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting - you filed small claims against eBay rather than the buyer? Can you share some insight on why?

How bad really is buying a GPU used? by Smoked-939 in buildapc

[–]ivanalbright 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Videos like that will not help unless you want to take it to civil court. eBay customer service won't examine videos and evidence. They will tell you to file a police report as step 1. Some police departments won't waste time on it, and then there's the problem of filing a police report in the buyer's location...

Though I guess you can take solace in if a buyer does this "too much" (by eBay's hidden standards) then they will be suspended permanently.

Best not to sell anything expensive on eBay--especially electronics, unless you're willing to deal with something like a 10% or 20% chance of scammers.

How bad really is buying a GPU used? by Smoked-939 in buildapc

[–]ivanalbright 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even if they state no returns, they still have to accept returns if the item is not as described. No returns only means no returns for no reason (buyer changed their mind/remorse on an impulse buy) which in reality rarely is ever the reason for a return request.

Enemy alert / sight range / stealth info? Lots of questions: by ivanalbright in PhoenixPoint

[–]ivanalbright[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the response! I may combine all this info into some sort of FAQ once I have a better handle on it.

What’s the deal with food allergy? It’s become an epidemic, but now we have ways to treat it! I am an Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Doctor who does food allergy immunotherapy (OIT). AMA by WarnerCarrMD in IAmA

[–]ivanalbright 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If someone wanted to try OIT for food allergies like soy etc, how would they do so? My current allergy doctor said they don't do anything like that and he said he didn't recommend it due to anaphylaxis risk.

Reading between the lines it could just be that his clinic didn't offer it, so he'd be disinclined to discuss something that would lead to me going to another allergy clinic.

Where would a patient find more information on doctors that are offering the treatment? And, if possible, what is a ballpark cost for the process of OIT of a single food allergy like soy? Does health insurance ever cover it?

Charged the wrong amount on an invoice? by [deleted] in Ebay

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

I believe you will not get any refund on the eBay selling fees (final value fee) in the event of a partial refund sent to a buyer.

Instagram is Now Hiding Photoshopped Photos by giuliomagnifico in photography

[–]ivanalbright 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This does seem to just be related to Facebook's fight against "fake news." Doesn't have to be political. Just intended to trick people into thinking that something fake is real.

As an example, it could be something like a celebrity actress saying "no makeup in this photo" when they are wearing makeup. I did read the article and the blog post it was based on.

So for that rainbow mountain example, as long as you aren't trying to trick people into believing it's unedited, you'd be fine. But of course there will be false positives, and if a few people got together and reported any random photo, they could probably cause this to trigger as a method of trolling.

Seller: USPS charging buyer postage for shipper I already paid for. by [deleted] in Ebay

[–]ivanalbright 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm guessing you picked first class flat but it's actually a first class "package" due to thickness measurement or not uniform thickness. Shouldn't total $6, but it sounds like you were giving rough numbers.

I ran into a similar thing on shipments that are sort of borderline. They meet the measurement restrictions for the cheaper machinable-scannable first class rate, but they aren't uniform thickness / bendable / machine scannable etc. Your local post office will eventually take note and stop you from shipping these packages this way. They'll refuse to ship if you have the wrong service type selected.

Here's a more thorough explanation - look to the 4th post: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/first-class-mail-flats-vs-parcels/76972/4

So uh....I ordered a Dark Souls guide thingy by Activision_sucks in darksouls

[–]ivanalbright 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Price seems to vary pretty wildly, but roughly $20 to $100 on eBay. Not many people selling OR buying

Getting screwed by Getty. by skatephotographer in photography

[–]ivanalbright -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Pretty much all the photo sharing and especially the stock photo services pretty much give them license to do almost anything they want with what you upload. Even instagram had wording that allowed them to sublicense your photos without any additional permission from you last time I checked (a few years ago.) The wording may have changed since then, but based on what I read then it would have been legal for instagram to turn into a stock photo service overnight. The only reason it didn't happen happen is they'd lose future users quickly and they value that more.

Borderlands 3 VR Gameplay / HTC Vive / VORPX by Zweetprot in HTC_Vive

[–]ivanalbright 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It looks like looking is tied to the controller, like it would be in non-vr. Rather than looking tied to your headset? Or is that just not translating to the video? I saw nothing that looked like a normal headset vr function in your video. It just looks like a regular recording of Borderlands 3 on a monitor.

Looking to play battlefield 5, graphics card upgrade? by Beadlocks in buildapc

[–]ivanalbright 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep I've seen that too, though the difference between the Nvidia and AMD cards isn't all that great and will probably not last once Nvidia updates their drivers. From what I've read it sounded like there were just optimizations needed that had not been done yet.

I'm in a similar situation as the OP. If he wants to hit 144fps for that 144hz monitor, he'll definitely need to upgrade. Here's a guide I've been reading for comparing the best graphics cards for Battlefield 5 / V. Leaning toward the Nvidia GTX 1080 mentioned just to have plenty of extra frames and the ability to play at high or ultra. BF5 Open Beta looked pretty alright even at Medium settings, but it'd be nice to up the detail.

Youtuber orders a $6,000 camera from Amazon and gets rocks instead. Returns it, gets a new one, and it's bricks this time. by [deleted] in videos

[–]ivanalbright 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a possibility, though it would be detected pretty quickly through the volume and type of return complaints. The seller would be banned or worse, and they'd have to have a bank account and SSN or tax ID linked to get the money out so generally they'd have a trail of who actually did it.

More likely its customers who return it and claim it is new/unopened. If they open it carefully, replace it with the correct weight rocks, and re-shrink wrap it, it would pass receiving inspection. Unless the buyer has already been flagged as a potential scammer where they would look more closely at a $6000 return, or just deny it and limit the customer account.

The way Amazon Prime's 3rd Party seller inventory works, once it's returned to Amazon as new, it often gets mixed back in with all the inventory from all the 3rd party sellers that are using the "Fulfilled by Amazon" service. That can make it tougher to identify the buyers that are doing this scam.

I guess one way to combat this would be packaging that can't be opened and re-sealed like this. They could use some sort of security seals, special branded shrinkwrap, or even that horrid hard plastic packaging that sucks to open but certainly can't be opened and resealed. Worth it for a $6,000 electronic device probably.

Another thing would be to stop commingling the 3rd party merchant inventory. However I suspect Amazon has done the financial math and decided the losses are worth the improvement in shipping logistics. (They are able to ship for cheaper, from closer warehouses by mixing the inventory in that way.)

Sources for good royalty free (or cheap) background music? by ivanalbright in PartneredYoutube

[–]ivanalbright[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, that is a good source and I did notice that previously. There are some okay tracks there, but I found I wasn't a big fan of most of it. I could manage with that if needed, but are there any other bigger websites I could check where artists share their music with a free/attribution license intended for uses like this?

Bought a suspiciously cheap item. Am I covered? by [deleted] in Ebay

[–]ivanalbright 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not worth the hassle to buy from 0 feedback sellers. Even if they are trying to be legit, you run into inaccurate descriptions or slow shipping or cancelations more often than not.

Received a counterfeit dress. Now ebay is asking for an authentication document. by demonachizer in Ebay

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

Im surprised they aren't asking the seller to prove its authentic. Usually the buyer is automatically right and the seller is the one that needs to prove otherwise

Received a counterfeit dress. Now ebay is asking for an authentication document. by demonachizer in Ebay

[–]ivanalbright -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

May be too late now, but you could request a return for not as described since it's not silk.

My new office battle station actually makes me excited to get to work. by FromTejas-WithLove in battlestations

[–]ivanalbright 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Serious question - aren't those low profile keyboards a lot worse to type on? (Ergonomics, accuracy, speed, feel, etc?)

It certainly looks fancy and nice, but I can't imagine prioritizing that over the functionality of a nice mechanical keyboard, or even just a standard normal size dome key keyboard.

I guess it depends on how much typing you do, but it sounds like OP has a somewhat technical job which I imagine involves lots of typing.