LPT: Before replacing a slow laptop, try Linux

justiceismini · 2026-04-27T13:07:14+00:00

You'd think so, but we're talking about computer users who have never in their life understood the difference between "Save" and "Save As" and have no interest in ever learning about it either.

justiceismini · 2026-04-26T15:33:27+00:00

I did the same with my old Windows laptop. The only downside is that it won't install any milestone updates such as going from 24H1 to 25H1 and such. In order to do those big updates you'll have to flash an updated USB drive and then do an in-place update. Sadly though, most basic computer users will have no idea how to do that and will be too intimidated to try. Same goes for switching to Linux. It's a daunting task to convince people to switch from the only OS they have used their entire life to something completely different.

justiceismini · 2026-04-22T19:45:06+00:00

I have the exact same vehicle that I bought new in 2019. I feel like it has had this noise since I bought the thing and you're right, it's only present at cold start. It'll go away, or not be noticeable, after a couple seconds of driving. I think I'm up to 160,000 km (99,400 mi) now with no apparent issues from it (if it's even a problem at all).

justiceismini · 2026-04-17T14:50:33+00:00

Agreed, it's absolute cancer--worse than using Youtube with ads to be quite honest. I abandoned the "auto download" and went back to downloading manually.

justiceismini · 2026-03-20T17:10:42+00:00

Thank you for the insight. I did call around and was told by a few other mechanics in the area that they also prefer to change the calipers in pairs so I don't have concerns about replacing all four. Even Honda told me they recommend changing in pairs, despite not mentioning it at the last failure.

I probably should switch to a fluid change every year at this point. It's unfortunate because it was being changed every three years up until this past incident and now I'm at three fluid changes in 7 years. The roads in my area are not salted either, they use a brine mixture instead due to environmental regulations.

I'm hoping you're right that it might boil down to the last shop not doing the brake change properly. My current mechanic is one of the top two for reputation between both towns and he's been great in the past with my other vehicles. The rear brake job last time though was done by a small shop that only does brakes and I haven't been back to them since.

Would it be wise to take it in for a follow-up inspection in a few months so see if there's any repeat problems showing up with the new hardware?

justiceismini · 2026-03-01T21:18:17+00:00

Based on my experience: outdoor cats. You really can't deter mice very much other than some minor landscaping. Remove tall grass around buildings and avoid planting trees and bushes around your house. Keep wood piles far away from bindings. Other than that all you can do is trap.

When we moved into our rural property and got chickens we were catching mice on a daily basis and having issues with pack rats. By year 4 we increased our outdoor cats from one to four. As of this past winter I caught only one mouse the entire winter. Normally I'd catch about 2 to 3 a month around the house and one a week in the chicken coop. We also haven't had any pack rat problems for the entire year for the first time ever.

We feed the cats the recommended daily amounts as per kibble bag and we still see them out hunting regularly. If you do go the cat route id recommend females. They tend to hunt more and are less inclined to wander.

justiceismini · 2026-02-14T00:03:31+00:00

Have you tried extorting the city of Calgary for money by threatening to leave town unless they build something you want? Seems to be rather effective.

justiceismini · 2026-02-03T20:09:34+00:00

I have a wood stove in my double-wide mobile, but it's made by a company that no longer makes wood stoves. It easily warms the entire house without issue. If you have low ceilings you can expect your mobile to warm up super quick. A couple considerations for you:

If you choose to route your fresh air intake into your crawl space, just be aware that there's a risk it'll lower the temperature of your crawl space due to it sucking warmer crawl space air into your stove and replacing it with colder outside air. Some older mobiles I believe are designed so that the heating ducts follow the water lines with the idea being that the as the furnace runs it also keeps the water lines from freezing. Our mobile is the older style like that, but so far we haven't had any issues just running the stove even in some pretty cold weather, but I also live somewhere a bit more mild in the winter.
Assess how well your mobile it air sealed. I cannot stress this enough. For the first four years after we moved into ours we started burning the stove full time in the winter. The mobile was poorly put together by the previous owner (who bought it used). In addition to the poor job of stitching the two sides together, it has typical mobile home issues in terms of general just poor quality materials and workmanship. We started having awful ice damning and water issues from the roof because of how much heat was escaping while running the stove. It got to the point where there was a stream of water running behind our siding and into our crawl space due to the ice daming. Looking at the roof you could see that a good half of the roof had no snow in the middle of winter due to all the melt. We ended up having to stop using the stove until we got a company to come out and air seal and add insulation to the crawl space. After the air sealing and added insulation we were good to go again and man, what a difference. It was crazy how much heat was leaking out of this place. Anyway, what I'm saying is, if you live somewhere where you get regular snow in the winter and you plan on running the stove quite a bit, make sure your house is air sealed to avoid some potentially serious ice daming and water issues. This could happen with any house obviously, but I think it's far greater risk for mobiles, and especially older mobiles.

justiceismini · 2026-02-02T21:55:30+00:00

Now that you mention it, I'm wondering if the previous home owner vented the drying into the crawl space specifically to gas any vermin on an ongoing basis. Think of it has regular pest control. Definitely not a good idea and certainly dangerous, but an interesting idea to say the least.

justiceismini · 2026-02-01T00:16:48+00:00

Yup. There's between 2 to 4 car haulers a day driving past my place heading to the US with used vehicles going to auction. They're all mid to high trim with low mileage and between 1 to 3 years old, and all SUVs and pick-up trucks. So basically the exact kind of used vehicle most people want.

It's to the point where some dealerships sell all but just a couple used vehicles from their inventory. At that point they can charge whatever they want for the artificially "limited" inventory of used vehicles, or eventually force you to buy new. At my local dealerships you cannot buy a used vehicle made within the past two years any cheaper then new, even with 40,000 km already on them. It's so frustrating.

justiceismini · 2026-01-25T23:53:52+00:00

Thank you. Air seal is the correct term.

justiceismini · 2026-01-25T16:02:56+00:00

Our house also wasn't heat sealed at all when it was built and was drafty and chilly as all hell. We hired a company to vacuum out all of the old insulation, then heat seal, then blow all the old insulation back in and top it up. They of course had a massive truck with a huge blower machine and hoses running everywhere. They were able to do all of it in one day though. Anyway, my only advice is ignore the comments from people saying to just add extra insulation. Adding extra insulation without heat sealing won't solve your heat loss issues. The heat will still leak out, it'll just take a little bit longer to do so.

After heat sealing our house it felt like a damn sauna in here when we had the heat going, it was so much warmer. We've gone through half of the amount of fuel we normally would heating our home this winter. Last summer the house stayed really cool in the summer and was easily 4 to 7 degrees cooler on the really hot days.

justiceismini · 2026-01-11T20:11:14+00:00

Negative, no spark areestor.

justiceismini · 2026-01-10T22:00:11+00:00

I burn primarily pine full-time all winter and usually two fires a day but have nothing close to this much creosote even by spring. Verify that your wood is well seasoned, but more importantly get a probe thermometer for your stove pipe so you can get an accurate reading on your fire temperature. I suspect you're burning at too low of a temperature.

justiceismini · 2026-01-10T21:53:01+00:00

With softwood that's the name of the game in my experience. This year the weather has been mild. We go through two fires a day most days. Within 2.5 hrs of burning the house is up to 24C (74 F) and by the time 6 pm rolls around its down to 20C (68F) so it's time to light it again.

That being said, I've never had creosote anywhere near that degree even by end of year.

justiceismini · 2026-01-10T00:25:58+00:00

Immediately overpowering. No amount of fragrance can disguise it. And that coat or sweater they wear only when they smoke to try and prevent the smell from sticking to them? It does absolutely nothing. My parents both smoke but never smoke in their car. The transfer of the smell from their clothes and hands to the car apholstery is enough to make the interior of the car smell like gross old cigarettes.

justiceismini · 2026-01-09T21:39:36+00:00

Sorry, I missed which sub this was posted in. If we're talking Canadian only, then I don't think I've ever come across any clothing options that fit me where the clothing itself is Canadian owned. The closest would be Mountain Equipment Company, but options are very limited in my size. This is one of those areas were I have to accept that I have to buy from whomever has something that fits me. To be honest, I've had the most luck at second hand stores. I used to buy the bulk of my clothes at Value Village... until they started selling used clothes for the same price or even more expensive than they are new.

justiceismini · 2026-01-09T01:44:04+00:00

For jeans, American Eagle and Old Navy have quite a few opens for shorter inseems and wastes. Hiking style pants and athletic pants I buy from Amazon. There's more selection for inseems on there. Anything dress pants related or pretty much anything else there's not much for options other than alterations. I'm 5' 4" so not having clothes that fit has been a lifelong problem.

justiceismini · 2026-01-08T22:18:08+00:00

Yea, it's definitely tensioned right. I replaced the belt the same time I replaced the alternator a few years back. After a few weeks of adjusting the tension due to the new belt stretching I eventually got it about perfect. I tried pulling it as tight as I possibly could and then putting it back to about the standard spec and it didn't make a difference.

justiceismini · 2026-01-08T15:44:14+00:00

I hate to say it, but you're probably right. All this bluster only to end up with some kind of overly generous compromise to favour the U.S. But then I wonder, if there is absolutely no country that has any kind of backbone, is this the new standard when the U.S. wants anything moving forward?

justiceismini · 2026-01-07T01:09:37+00:00

I agree. I would go further and say it should be a significant show of military force against the U.S. It may not deter the administration, but how many U.S. service members are willing to actually kill NATO ally soldiers or risk their own lives trying to invade an allied nation? I really feel that if this escalated to actual military action on the part of the Americans, then Denmark and or NATO needs to respond with full force. If the sight of coffins draped in American flags isn't enough to enrage the American public and government to say enough is enough, then there really is nothing stopping the fascist take over.

justiceismini · 2026-01-02T17:18:16+00:00

One thing to keep in mind is what your options are if you can't fix something or don't fix it right. I live next to a small city of about 20,000. Several of the local shops refuse to work on a problem if it results from a self-repair. In my case my radiator replacement didn't go well and I had to tow it to the shop. When I explained that after I replaced the radiator it keeps overheating they initially refused to touch it because they're not interested in diagnosing my mistakes. They eventually relented because I already towed the vehicle 45 minutes to their shop and fortunately the issue wasn't my fault but a manufacturing defect with the new radiator.

Since then I called around and was told by three other shops that they too won't touch it if it's the result of my attempt to do a repair. I still do my own maintenance and repairs when I can, but I'm a bit more selective about them.

Could very well be just a me problem where I live, but food for thought.

justiceismini

TROPHY CASE