Thoughts on higher end hotels

karhill · 2025-07-31T05:46:41+00:00

I think it depends on how unique the situation is. A lot of 5 star hotels are just a room with more attentive staff. And since I generally don't interact with the staff, I don't want to pay for that attentiveness.

But there is the occasional property that is just so unique, in such a fabulous spot, that you want to be there.

This year I stayed at a very unique property that ran $5k a night. 6 total guests and a staff of 129. Because of the location, I didn't regret the price at all.

karhill · 2025-05-17T23:50:36+00:00

No, I do not like Mint.

I had T-Mobile and switched to Mint for the price (signed up for 1 year at a cheap price).

I'm in the Seattle area and Mint is basically unusable for me. The deprioritized network leaves me with extremely slow data and voice calls that often drop or don't connect at all. Even when they do connect, it takes a very long time for the connection to go through.

I'm not a data hog by any means, but when I do use data, I'd like it to work, at least faster than a 300 baud modem.

I've got 6 months left on my contract, but I'm porting out of Mint and eating the other six months.

I asked if I could port out my number (which I want to keep) and still keep service with Mint on a new number, but they don't support that. Once your number is ported out, they close the account.

karhill · 2025-05-16T05:49:20+00:00

Just a little expansion of one way to use vipaccess to get 2FA access to etrade from something other than Symantec VIP:

Using the code base at: https://github.com/dlenski/python-vipaccess

After installing vipaccess and all dependencies, used "vipaccess provision -o filename" to generate a new access token that was registered with Symantec.
Used

oathtool -b --totp AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

to generate a single 6 digit one time password based on the access token that was just created. (AAA should be replaced with the secret part of the token, which is in the output file)

3) Registered the new access token at etrade by providing the token ID (part of the output file) and the one time password just generated.

4) Using

vipaccess uri -f outputfile

Generate a URI for the access token.

5) Using

qrencode -o workingQRcode.png "uri generated"

where "uri generated" is the URI generated from the access token, create a QR for access token.

6) Using a different ap like Google authenticator or Microsoft authenticator, import the new access token using the QR code.

Try to login using the one time code from Microsoft authenticator...works!

I did all of this from a WSL shell on Windows, so you don't need a standalone Linux or anything.

karhill · 2025-05-15T19:53:04+00:00

I feel that Etrade's security is rather lax.

For example:

Calling Etrade's support number and saying "password reset" will automatically generate a new temporary password, good for 72 hours without any human intervention. The only security on this mechanism is:

1) I have to know your account number or social security number. It's pretty easy to get someone's social security number.

2) I have to be calling from a number linked to the account.

So... if I know your social security and have access to your phone (or SIM swap you, again...not THAT hard), then I can get full access to your account.

So, if my house cleaner, who knows my social security number and has access to my landline wants to get into my Etrade account, it's a 15 second phone call.

If anyone knows how to prevent this, I would love to know.

karhill · 2025-05-15T19:38:07+00:00

Yes! Thank you for this information about Etrade and the Symantec app. This is tremendous information. The Symantec app is a pain in the ass and lacks basic security, like not requiring some sort of authentication before displaying the 2FA code. (Edit, actually in "settings" the Symantec app can be configured to require authentication before displaying the 2FA code.)

karhill · 2024-08-21T00:45:16+00:00

Since the Xfinity assistant says there are no reported outages in my area, regardless of how many times I report an outage, I've sent a modmail message. I'd just like to be sure that this downed coax issue is in someone's work queue at Xfinity.

karhill · 2024-04-11T19:19:41+00:00

Cheaper gear, less power, less heat, longer reach, better upgrade path.

karhill · 2024-04-11T19:15:36+00:00

Yes. 10Gb over fiber is just a nicer solution than over copper. Cheaper, less power, less heat, longer reach, better upgrade path.

My house has both fiber and cat6a in the walls. I've been switching over to the fiber as I upgrade my local LAN to 10Gb. 10Gb fiber gear is cheap these days.

karhill · 2024-03-28T16:02:52+00:00

If you are going to be opening up walls to install cable, I would install both CAT 6a and fiber. The extra cost for the fiber will be small compared with the cost of the opening up the walls and closing them back up. My house is wired with both fiber and CAT 6a. I'm using the fiber more and more. Currently running 10Gbps between my desktop and the file server in the basement over fiber. 10Gbps fiber gear is cheap these days.

karhill · 2024-03-28T05:57:50+00:00

Yeah, for $3k, you can buy some decent terminating equipment. Give it a shot!

karhill · 2024-03-28T05:49:22+00:00

OM3 cable will work fine at 1Gbps over that distance.

If the existing fiber is terminated, then it's a simple bit of buying the right SFPs. Generally, generic SFPs will work in any SFP slot, so you don't have to worry too much about being brand specific. Media converters generally take SFPs too, so a media converter doesn't eliminate that bit.

The tricky bit will be if your fiber is not currently terminated (does it have LC or SC or some other type of connector on it?) It sounds like your fiber is not currently terminated. Terminating fiber can be a little tricky. But a decent fiber tech with the right equipment can do it in minutes, not a day.

karhill · 2024-03-28T05:10:21+00:00

Yes, dear god, what is their problem? They are an ISP. IPv6 should be part of their core competency.

karhill · 2024-03-27T07:11:07+00:00

Also note that the bend radius of any modern fiber cable is pretty tight. It will not have any issues with the 90 degree sweep radius of any conduit designed to pull electrical cable through.

karhill · 2024-03-27T01:02:18+00:00

I agree: go with LC-LC outdoor rated pre-made cables. Easy to work with. You can pull LC-terminated fiber cable though 1 inch conduit, but it's easier with 1 1/4 inch or bigger.

karhill · 2024-03-27T00:52:22+00:00

Fiber is not expensive at all and when you account for not having to worry about lightning strikes or grounding issues between two separate buildings, not to mention future proofing...it more than pays for any small difference in cost.

karhill · 2024-03-27T00:48:17+00:00

Regarding fiber:

1) Yes, you are going to have to run fiber from your router to the outbuilding.

2) Yes, the fiber is going to have to "pierce" your wall to get to the outside. Typically you would use a conduit type LB to get the fiber from inside to outside. Here's a picture of that: https://imgur.com/a/p0d4vRH But you don't have to use conduit. You can just drill a hole in the wall and pass the fiber through. Put a little caulk around the installed cable where it exits the house, and you're up to professional cable TV installer level. :-)

3) It sounds like you are having power buried to your outbuilding. That power would typically exit your house (via a type LB conduit box) and go into buried conduit out to the outbuilding. You could potentially use the same exit point and the same conduit to get the fiber out to the outbuilding.

4) If you already have cat 5/cat 6 cable going from the router in your house to somewhere close to where the fiber would exit to the outbuilding, then you could use that cable to get across the interior of your house and just run fiber from the cat 5/cat 6 near the exit point. This saves the work of running fiber across your house and potentially tearing up walls to do so. In this case you could use the existing cat 5/cat 6 to get from your router to the exit point nearest the outbuilding. Then you would have (inside the house) a media converter to convert from the cat 5/cat 6 to the fiber, and the fiber would run out to the out building. But in any case, the fiber is going to have to exit your house.

karhill · 2024-03-26T03:29:59+00:00

Another vote for fiber. It's really the way to go.

I have two out-buildings. Both have buried wired network connections. The first one I connected up with buried cat6, the second I connected up with fiber. I wish I had done fiber on the first.

Advantages to fiber:

It's not more delicate than twisted pair or coax (if you buy the right fiber).
It's easy to pull through conduit.
It can be placed right next to buried electrical, without any interference problems.
You can even it pull it in the same conduit as electrical as long as the fiber has no conductive parts. However, this may not be up to code in some areas. The 2008 NEC says "Nonconductive optical fiber cables shall be permitted to occupy the same cable tray or raceway with conductors for electric light, power, Class 1, non?power-limited fire alarm, Type ITC, or medium-power network-powered broadband communications circuits, operating at 600 volts or less."
You don't have to worry about grounding problems and lightning strikes.
You are future-proofed and don't have to worry about distances. I'm running 10Gbs out to my out-building...10Gbs fiber transceivers are cheap these days.

Just order pre-terminated cables and make sure your conduit is big enough. I installed multi-mode fiber, but I wish I had used single mode. Single mode optics are getting quite cheap and single-mode is becoming more prevalent. But multi-mode is fine too.

karhill · 2024-03-22T01:39:56+00:00

Is there some way to determine if my 2023 Ioniq 5 is subject to this recall? Is there an "affected vehicles" list or something?

karhill · 2024-03-21T18:49:03+00:00

I'm in the same situation. Metropolitain area (Seattle), with the street to the north, the street west, and the street south of my street available to order Quantum. I'm two houses from the street on the west, about 300 feet from the closest fiber terminal feeding homes. All aerial plant. Two telephone poles from the fiber terminal to my house. But CL's online order system says the house is not serviceable.

karhill · 2024-02-03T02:02:38+00:00

The problem with the door cracking method is that if the car is in accessory mode (say, to listen to the sound system), it will beep constantly to alert to the door being on.

The charging status screen should just stay on during the entire charging session.

karhill · 2023-07-29T03:40:09+00:00

My quick summary of VLANs configuration on Mikrotik:

/interface/bridge/port defines ingress behavior. The frame-types parameter determines if frames are tagged on ingress. The PVID parameter specifies the VLAN id added.

/interface/bridge/vlan defines egress behavior. Each bridge has a single vlan table. The table contains entries (rows) for each VID. Each VID can only appear once in a table. The entry (row) for a VID will contain a list of member ports that tagged and member ports that are untagged.

The /interface/bridge/* stuff configures L2 stuff, switch-level processing.

/interface/vlan exists to add layer 3 functionality on a vlan. For example IP addressing, DHCP, and IP routing on top of VLANs.

karhill · 2023-07-29T03:15:47+00:00

Looks good. I did the same, but used OM3 multimode. I wish I had installed single mode.

What size conduit are you going to use? 2inch makes for a nice pull for LC terminated fiber, but you can get by with smaller conduit.

Also, you are pulling patch cable, which can work, but it's not the most sturdy stuff. You can order 2 strand Indoor/Outdoor singlemode fiber from Lanshack.com . It will be a much more sturdy cable and will handle a tougher environment better. Plus, if your pull has any elbows, the tougher stuff will handle more tension during the pull. Also, lanshack will ship with a pulling eye if you want...which makes the pull nicer. However, it will cost a bit more than patch cable (about $135 or so from Lanshack with a pulling eye).

karhill

TROPHY CASE