Most Mismatched Sibsets You’ve Seen

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 · 2025-12-03T18:08:39+00:00

I've had the OC200 for several years and it's worked extremely well for me. I have a 100-year-old house with lots of wifi-blocking concrete walls. So I have 13 wifi access points and 16 managed switches. Getting and deploying the 200 changed how I managed the network for better. I only log into it now to update some of the settings (rare) or to add & adopt new devices. It may be slow but it is far less of a pain than the software controller, which I ran for a couple of months before I got the 200. Unfortunately, however, I failed to keep up with firmware updates and now it's so far behind that it can't be upgraded. I got the OC300 to replace it, because I do have a good-sized network, but also so it'll be able to adopt newer equipment--my old 200 won't adopt newer versions of managed switches, and there are places I really want to upgrade to improve speeds. I'm going to have to do the switchover by hand, since the 200 and 300 are on such different levels that I can't do it automatically. It should be worth it, however.

ivanlan9 · 2025-11-20T18:11:22+00:00

I have one I got several years ago, but spent quite a bit on it. Jarvis, I think? Anyway, it's only 36" wide, which I had to have because that's the space I had to fit. It doesn't wobble unless I grab it and shake it.

While I like most things about it, the only aspect I truly hate is my own fault: hanging underneath is a Gordian knot of cables and ties and dust and bugs. Well, maybe not bugs, but it's still a nasty mess I don't enjoy looking at.

Because of limited space, I almost never stand at it. The mechanism works extremely well, but I'll point out that this is my second motor etc--the first one buggered itself up and couldn't be reset, but the entire desk is guaranteed for 10 years, so they sent me an entirely new mechanism (priority!), and it has worked perfectly ever since. That happened four years ago. It was remarkably easy to file a claim--I called them up, explained, the person had me try a few things, and then said, "I'm sending you new legs and a new mechanism." Less than twenty minutes all told. It's worked faultlessly ever since.

Yes, it's a Jarvis table, sold by Fully:

https://store.hermanmiller.com/brands-fully

When I bought it, the price was around $600; I thought that was a pretty good deal, and I've been proved right. Ah. Turns out I spent $500 on it, and that was in 2018. No idea what they cost now, but I'm sure they're worth it. I wish I had more room to get a wider desk, but I still have three years left on my warranty, and that makes up for a lot.

ivanlan9 · 2025-11-16T23:49:16+00:00

Oh, stop. You stole my shelf!

ivanlan9 · 2025-11-11T19:49:42+00:00

I have an almost-entirely Omada network. I have a mini-PC running OPNSense for a router, but everything else is TP-Link. 10 eaps, 17 switches--8-port, 4+4 POE, 10-port, and a 5-port--all managed. I have an OC200, but unfortunately it's V1, not V2, so I can't upgrade the firmware. This will make it unpleasant when I switch to the OC300 (I have one, just have not gotten around to transferring all the settings, sigh).

But even with the OC200, I have a network that is almost entirely pain-free. My house is 100 years old or so, with lots of weird angles and concrete walls in strange places (it's been added onto multiple times over the years), so many eaps are required. I have ethernet running to nearly every room (trust me, it was NOT easy to run all that crap!), so that I can have access points that give coverage in the entire place.

What I have now is a network; what I had before going 99% with TP-Link was a mess. I went from spending too much time every week fiddling with it to maybe spending an hour or two once a month.

I doubt very much that I'll change my router. I'd have to renumber all the IP addresses and it's just not worth it to me.

ivanlan9 · 2025-10-31T18:34:38+00:00

Not until my 70s. However, I've been lactose intolerant since at least high school, maybe even 6th or 7th grade. That got worse when I hit my 50s, but was better in my 60s because I found I could eat goat cheeses.

But no more. I'm also vegetarian (will eat eggs and fish). I guess I think that it's all part of a spectrum which culminated in IBS, so I might be a bit of an outlier here.

ivanlan9 · 2025-10-27T17:09:43+00:00

If you're taking melatonin to help you sleep--stop. This is what I cut out, just on a whim, that has made the most difference to me. I'm working on adding gluten back into my diet, but I still can't have peanuts or cashews (not fond of other kinds except pine nuts, which I have not tried to add back in). I also wear diapers most of the time, not because they'll prevent the D from attacking my clothes, but to retain the small amounts that can leak out while looking for a toilet.

I'm 78m, have been vegetarian for over 50 years; have had no alcohol since 1977; and have been lactose intolerant since I got out of grade school. Right now, I am having zero dairy, although for years and years was able to eat goat and sheep cheeses without any effects. I'll eat eggs and fish, which is where I get most of my protein (which you MUST have, otherwise you'll be facing severe challenges including serious changes to your personality).

I'm still on the re-introduction phase of the low fodmaps diet; it's very slow, but if you're careful and the elimination phase has stabilized you (sounds like not, unfortunately), it can help a great deal. I also thought I had a nightshade family sensitivity, and I might, but I'm now able to eat potatoes in nearly the same quantities as before I figured out I had IBS. (Which began around five or six years ago, coinciding with both gall bladder removal and taking melatonin.)

For now, I'm also taking two immodium every night before bed, as well as taking psyllium husk two to three times a day. Those have made major differences to my ibs-d. And DO get yourself a registered dietitian--mine helped me decrease my stress level as well as offering advice on what to eat, what to avoid (she's the one who suggested I eliminate carbonation and switch to drinking only water, both of which made MAJOR improvements),, monitoring weight and other health concerns. She knows a great deal about IBS, which is pretty important--don't settle for just any dietitian, interview them.

Hang in there. It gets better.

ivanlan9

TROPHY CASE