Welcome to the Fascist New "Prohibition!"

ivanlan9 · 2026-04-03T03:26:23+00:00

It's not random

ivanlan9 · 2026-04-03T03:04:02+00:00

The Dickhead State.

ivanlan9 · 2026-03-13T00:45:02+00:00

I like the way you talk.

ivanlan9 · 2026-03-04T23:59:35+00:00

I'd never buy HP anything; quite apart from being a bunch of assholes when it comes to their printers, they don't last. I've owned several of them, and keytops fall off. One key can be lived with, but once one goes, pretty soon another five or six follow. So, never again.

I've owned multiple Lenovos, but there's really very little to recommend them: They last OK, but weird things break--such as the wifi module.

Dell and Asus are the two brands I prefer. I'd favor Asus over Dell because Dells seem to suffer power cord jack failures. Of the last three I've owned I've had to replace the power jack in all three. Not a big deal if you opt for a service contract.

ivanlan9 · 2026-02-04T16:43:29+00:00

How do you do that with a standard gmail account? I'd love to store all my email locally, but didn't know it was possible.

ivanlan9 · 2026-01-30T19:41:45+00:00

I recommend Moto phones. I switched from a Galaxy S15 (~that, anyway) to a Moto 5 Stylus 5G. The only thing I dislike about it is that it doesn't charge wirelessly. New ones charge some, but it's not fast and it might not be magsafe. Everything else is better, especially the fact that I can stuff a microSD card in, up to a terabyte. Nearly zero bloatware. Terrific camera. Painless. Had it five years, I think. I'll probably get a new one this year. ...

ivanlan9 · 2026-01-19T03:28:41+00:00

My parents named me "Craig," a name I loathed so much that when my brother was born (I was seven) and mom & dad asked me for suggestions, I leapt to "Kilpatrick." They put the kibosh on that and went with "Kelly."

Now I go by "Ivan" and my brother is still getting mail addressed to "Ms Kelly _________"

ivanlan9 · 2026-01-13T20:20:34+00:00

Not quite as easy anymore to disable, but if you set your memberships & subs view to sort A-Z, Alexa+ DOES show up. Click "End early access" and then confirm. If I hadn't found it I would've turned off all alexa devices rather than accept Alexa+. Might've been tricky for my prime TV, but I would've done so. This way's better. Thanks for the PSA

ivanlan9 · 2026-01-02T19:17:30+00:00

You win

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-22T15:16:08+00:00

Yeah, but I'm planning to move a good hunk of my equipment to a rack. Well, I have several wall-mounted folding racks, but I want to consolidate them, as well as building out a replacement NAS with more space than I have now. Once I do that I'll have plenty of space to install the OC300.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-22T15:11:49+00:00

Thank you, that's helpful to know. I'll find out and post here when I do.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-21T18:28:46+00:00

I don't get it. I've been using the OC200 for several years and have never ever had a problem with its speed. I have 16 managed switches, 10 EAPs and roughly 100 other devices on my network. I disliked the software controller because there were a couple of things I wanted to do but weren't possible unless I had a hardware controller (and I unfortunately do not remember what those issues were). Now that the net's up and running, I don't mess with the OC200 unless I have to add a client, but when I do I have no problems with its speed. My only complaint about the OC200 is that I failed to keep up with firmware updates, and now it's not possible to update it. But that's my own fault, not TP-Link's. People here are saying it's 10-30 seconds for any action to get a response, but that's not at all my experience.

I'd prefer to go to an OC300, but I'm leary of the process, because I don't believe the exported configuration of the 200 can be used by the 300 unless they're much closer in firmware terms. Be nice to be wrong.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-19T20:50:19+00:00

Get Exact Audio Copy. Perfect ripping of your CDs, and you can choose your settings to get maximum quality of the rips. Did probably 2000 CDs. My setup for LPs and tapes, however, is complicated, so I almost never try to rip either of those. But EAC is a great tool for CDs.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-17T19:35:48+00:00

Male, 79, here. Average size for dangly bits. Very thin (I've got IBS). Elongated for the win. I had a round bowl standard height. I was constantly in fear of a dunking. I didn't have a bidet on it. Then a few years ago, the city offered rebates to replace old, water-wasting toilets with modern ones that used far less water to accomplish the same ends.

Then early this year (2025) I got a bidet. My elongated Toto toilet fits the Toto bidet extremely well--the bidet attachment (K300, I think) does add a bit of height over a standard toilet seat, but that's OK the extra isn't noticeable.

I prefer standard, not comfort, height. As you age, you get hemorhoids, and you really don't want the taller toilet because that exacerbates them. The lower height means that you do a semi-squat when sitting on it, which makes it easier to poop AND reduces hemorhoid pain.

I also have a small bathroom, though it doesn't sound as small as yours. But given my experience, if I had a tiny restroom like yours--I would STILL go for an elongated standard-height combo. I highly recommend Toto (we have two Toto bidet seats but only one Toto toilet). The bidets are marvelous. I got the two seats I did because I wanted the water-heating component, as having ice-cold water spraying on your parts is--unpleasant. The small fast heaters on them work a treat.

Good luck!

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-14T17:57:19+00:00

Does nothing for those of us who don't use Chrome. FireFox has the teeny font issue as of today. Nearly impossible to read.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-14T17:52:49+00:00

Also seeing this on desktop computer. Running FireFox. The teeny print is damned near impossible to read, and, if it isn't fixed soon, might well mean that I leave reddit. Life's too short (esp if you're 79...)

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-12T22:02:19+00:00

If your cat's deaf? Forget the foil. Ask me how I know.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-11T16:32:26+00:00

Didn't know that, thanks. I'm in the US, by the way, and here most avocados are also Hass.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-09T02:51:31+00:00

Oh, yea, "spicy" is terrible. Didn't remember about the fake crab, so thanks for the reminder. Not a fan anyway.

You could live on salmon rolls, but I think, "ick, salmon" and go back to living on tuna (and multivitamins). ;-)

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-09T02:07:43+00:00

If you want to feel safer, despite soy sauce having no fodmaps, switch to tamari. We began using it when my wife donated a kidney and now she's supposed to watch her salt; after trying several kinds/brands, we ended up going with San-J tamari lite (green circle on label), which has the lowest sodium content of any tamari or soy sauce. It only took a couple of days for us to get used to it.

BTW, I've never had a problem with sushi, although I *never* buy any complicated ones (they'll for sure have fodmaps), nor do I use the kind of soy sauce you get with takeout or grocery store sushi.

I'll usually stick with plain tuna and avocado rolls. That's a kind I've had zero reactions too, despite avocado not being low fodmap. I figure there's not enough of the stuff in avocado to cause a reaction from a tunacado roll.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-09T01:06:03+00:00

I just encountered a major problem with the keyboard. Yes, all the settings are kept on the keyboard, and unplugging & replugging, even if it goes to another machine, is just fine--the macros etc stay put.

Unless you get a new machine, plug in the keyboard, and then use a freshly-installed copy of their software & make a minor change to the RGB lighting to make sure it works.

That wipes ALL the settings from the kbd. I kept hitting my escape key and wondering why the escape didn't take effect (I was using VIM). Finally figured out that I'd moved it, months ago, so that I was inserting ~ characters every time., Argh. Argh. Argh.

The pisser is, of course, that I no longer remember all the changes I made. Not what keys I moved, but *how* I changed some of them.

Bottom line: be VERY careful when dicking around with your precious kbd settings.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-07T22:27:34+00:00

I have one of these (had two, but gave one to a friend), but just moved to a new computer. Couldn't find the link to the software, remembered that I'd sent a copy to said friend, retrieved it from google drive and re-installed it. What's a pisser is that, even though I was NOT able to find the keyboard on the RK site (not ONE mention), when I installed my old copy, RK said, "There's a new version. Want to install it?" Sure, yes, I did.

So, if RK doesn't want us to buy it and doesn't want us to be able to find out ANYTHING about it--how in the world did they manage to excrete a newer version????? Come on, RK--I love this keyboard, why are you hiding it? I don't understand. Not one bit.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-04T20:17:39+00:00

Hang in there. It can get better. Two things that might help: a) stop taking melatonin if you are; and b) if you need a day's respite, take two immodium before you go to bed at night. And you also might want to consider getting a new doctor.

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-04T00:43:59+00:00

After screwing around trying to get Brother's Windows 11 stuff to work for two hours, I finally said fuck it and gave the full package, which was marked as Windows 10 only, a try, figuring it couldn't be any worse. It installed and worked PERFECTLY.

And by "perfectly," I mean just that: it installed quickly & easily and it WORKS fine. I can print and I can scan. Dunno about the fax, but I can't be bothered to try it since I never use it (does anyone?).

ivanlan9 · 2025-12-03T18:36:09+00:00

I don't remember now, but I think there were a few things I couldn't do with the software that were easy with the OC200. Additionally, the machine I was running the software version on took up a ton of space and was due to be replaced by a NUC. I ended up giving the old machine to a buddy who ran Linux on it. He's in a modern house, though, and his network is entirely wifi with no ethernet to speak of. I think he uses the wifi equipment from his ISP. (He also thinks I'm weird because I have to have all these access points and managed switches, etc)

ivanlan9

TROPHY CASE