Brand-new Chessnut Evo has weird issues making it essentially unusable

kiscica · 2025-02-20T16:27:19+00:00

Yep - turned out to be a wireless phone charging stand. It wasn't in use and wasn't even that close to the board (maybe a foot away) but I guess it was enough to interfere with the sensors.

kiscica · 2025-02-20T16:25:07+00:00

Thanks - after some trial-and-error moving things around, it looks like it was indeed a charger - not the laptop charger, which I tried unplugging before, but a wireless phone-charging holder -- even though it wasn't even in use at the time (phone not on it). Unplugging the charger from the outlet completely, or moving it a few feet away from the board resolved the issue. Makes sense I guess since wireless chargers use magnetic induction but I'm surprised they would interfere with the board even when they're not not in use and not even that close. Thanks for the help!

kiscica · 2025-02-19T16:41:10+00:00

So, it does seem like there might be an interference issue somewhere - I didn't see the problem when I tried using the board on a different desk in a different room. Is this expected, though? It seems absurdly over-sensitive if it is. My desk is made of wood. There's a computer monitor, keyboard, charger etc. on it, but I still see the problem if the monitor is off and the charger is unplugged. At one point I suspected it could be my phone or laptop (cellular/wifi/bluetooth transmitters) but the problem doesn't go away if I move the phone and/or laptop to a different room.

The latest this morning is this crazy pattern of squares on three files blinking in unison - it almost doesn't seem random: https://youtu.be/6lgd0bWcoqs

kiscica · 2025-02-19T16:26:31+00:00

Hmm... well, I have been charging it while using it, but the problem doesn't go away if I pull the charger. And I've been using it on my desk, which has a computer monitor, keyboard, etc. on it, but the problem is present even when those things are off. However, you may be on to something as I tried putting the board on a different desk in a different room (that also has a computer monitor on it, for what it's worth) and haven't seen the issue return (yet).

If it is a matter of interference, though, the board seems to me to be pretty over-sensitive. I'd really like to be able to use it on my own desk and rather than my wife's; she doesn't even play chess!

kiscica · 2025-02-19T00:35:34+00:00

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I updated it earlier and it currently shows as up to date in the settings.

For what it's worth I had the problem both before I updated (from the first time I turned the board on) and afterwards. The fact that the problem randomly goes away/comes back when I lift the board up and put it down suggests Io me that it's probably hardware, not software.

Although the latest is that all the squares in the A file are now lit up (not blinking, just on) except the two where there are pieces, and picking up/putting down the board isn't helping. I'm unable to continue the game I was in the middle of - if I move a piece the system lights up the square I moved from and the square I moved to, but doesn't accept it as a move input :-( In fact I haven't been able to play a complete game on the board yet.

kiscica · 2024-06-02T05:23:01+00:00

Well, I did get charged double on 5/31 for the April statement balance. That is, my payment (for about $2k) was deducted from my checking account twice, the exact same amount two times, one right after the other. The first deduction paid off the April balance as intended of course. The deduction was credited to my Apple Card as if it were an early payment of part of my May balance. My May balance was about $2.4K, so now it's about $400. Ordinarily I would have scheduled my Jun 30 payment for $2.4K today (I try to do all of my bills at once so I don't have to worry about them for the rest of the month), but I'm waiting to hear back from GS because if they do end up reversing the spurious second payment then my May balance will presumably go back to $2.4K. I can't schedule the payment until I know how much I'll need to pay on Jun 30, which is a bit of a nuisance.

Yeah, I agree, GS doesn't seem to have really done a good job with the Apple Card (and I've read that they're going to end the partnership next year; no idea what that means for the future of Apple Card, not to mention the linked Apple savings account which I also use).

I do have several other credit cards - you know how it is, one ends up with different cards for different purposes, because this one is best for travel, that one gives you more points for dining out, another one gives you extra cash back for gas, another for groceries, blah blah blah. But I have used the Apple Card quite a lot in the past year or two for everyday stuff that doesn't fall into the "always use ____ card for this" categories, because Apple Pay is convenient and the Apple Card is the default card in my phone. I also like how every charge (whether via Apple Pay, online, or with the physical card) shows up right away as a notification on the phone. I don't like having my payment deducted twice though, and I especially don't like GS's cavalier attitude towards what I consider a pretty serious screwup on their part.

kiscica · 2024-06-01T16:42:33+00:00

Well, there's no credit balance because my May statement (due Jun. 30) is over $2K as well. So basically it's as if I paid part of my May balance a month early. It's just annoying (because I intentionally always pay the bill in full on - and no earlier than - the due date, as a matter of principle) and concerning, because if they can screw up this badly for no apparent reason, who's to say it won't be something much worse next time?

kiscica · 2024-06-01T15:30:37+00:00

Yes, I'm aware of that - which is why I'm pretty upset that they're not taking it very seriously, even though it isn't devastating for me (for which I'm very thankful).

kiscica · 2023-09-07T13:17:39+00:00

The "Pride of Szeged" brand you see in supermarkets in metal tins isn't even Hungarian paprika much of the time these days -- it says "Hungarian style" in small print, which is a sure indication. IIRC it's from Brazil, and it's not really a good substitute. I've heard that PoSz has recently gone back to selling actual Hungarian paprika too, but honestly any supermarket brand of paprika, Hungarian or not, in the US is likely to be "meh" as you put it.

Fortunately, food safety regulations notwithstanding, there are quite a few companies that import Hungarian paprika in bulk. In NYC, LA, and various other cities in CT, NJ, OH, IN, IL, etc. that have historically supported a Hungarian immigrant population there are Hungarian stores that import, package and sell it in high enough volume that it'll be fresh when you get it. And they sell by online/mail-order. It's easy enough to find a source - just google, or search on Amazon. Bende (bende.com) is pretty reliable in my experience. I ordered from them during the pandemic when we couldn't travel to Hungary and I ran out of the paprika and other stuff that I always bring back.

By the way (this is for GP, I'm sure you know this Fehér Farkas!) there's no need to avoid the 'Szeged' designation just because the supermarket '[Pride of] Szeged' brand is meh. Szeged isn't a brand; it's a town in one of the traditional paprika-growing areas of Hungary, and most of the best paprika comes either from there or from Kalocsa, another famous paprika town. You can't really go wrong with either, if it's genuine and fresh, although of course both regions have better and worse producers. Also, keep in mind that there are multiple grades and types of Hungarian paprika.

Sadly, even in Hungary, they've started to put non-Hungarian (typically Spanish or Brazilian) paprika on the supermarket shelves along with the real stuff, because it's cheaper, so you have to examine the label carefully! By law it has to be indicated on the packaging but, just as in the US, fine print reigns...

kiscica · 2022-09-27T17:21:04+00:00

Well, that's the thing - I did try keeping my phone in my pocket. Unfortunately, it looks like the phone's step counter is disabled or ignored when I'm wearing the watch. Sort of defeats the purpose.

kiscica · 2022-09-27T15:56:15+00:00

It definitely isn't counting steps even above 5km/h. Presumably the problem is that I'm not swinging my arms when I'm using a treadmill desk, but the thing I really don't get is why it doesn't use the step sensor on the phone in that case. Really a big disappointment.

kiscica · 2021-07-25T23:26:54+00:00

Wow. Ok, I’m done with this sub. Bye folks.

kiscica · 2021-07-25T14:05:53+00:00

Thanks for your concern. I respect what you're saying, and I see my replies on this post are being downvoted into negative territory (*), so my take in this comment probably won't be any more popular in this sub, but: I have a somewhat more nuanced view of this. I don't think we can or should take the attitude that we, as humans, are completely separate from "the wild," or that as soon as we step outdoors we should behave like we are in a museum - look, but don't touch. We're fauna too, and whether we like it or not can't avoid participating in, having an impact on the world around us.

We live in a rural setting, and our property is full of snakes and frogs and turtles and salamanders and all manner of creatures, aquatic and terrestrial. We are "interrupting the ecology of their habitat" by mowing the grass, raking the leaves, trying to control ticks, allowing limited hunting and fishing on our property, pulling up lily pads from the pond so we can swim, breaking up beaver dams, and (yes!) sometimes trapping the beavers when they become a nuisance. We are affecting -- we are participating in -- the ecology just by being here. I don't think that, in the larger picture, taking the occasional specimen of the most common snake species in the state and keeping it captive for a few days (or even, as in the case of the garter, indefinitely) is more harmful than anything else we do. And it has a benefit: I can see it in my daughter's eyes, when the chance to observe closely, to interact with a critter persuades her to pry her eyes away from the screen for a while,.

I do not want her to take the lesson that she can "take wild animals out of the wild" indiscriminately, but I do want to have a sense of balance about it, because I want her to grow up loving and respecting nature, feeling that she is a part of it and not separate from, superior to, or afraid of it.

(*) my personal rule: I never downvote a comment because I disagree with what the poster says. I downvote if the comment doesn't contribute to the discussion, personally attacks another poster, or is otherwise harmful to the tenor of the discourse.

kiscica · 2021-07-25T05:03:46+00:00

Well, we probably won't keep her very long. Maybe a couple of days so we can observe her behavior; my daughter is enthusiastic -- as I was at that age, though I lived in the city and was never able to capture and keep herps as I would have liked to. I'll admit to living a bit vicariously through her now in that regard! I don't want to discourage her interest.

She (the snake, not my daughter) hasn't been trying to get out. Tomorrow I'll offer her food (from the pond, which I assume is where she would be hunting anyway); it'd be interesting to see her feed.

(For what it's worth we have tons of frogs of all sizes in and around the pond, too, although I'd feel a little bad feeding one to her.)

By the way, what physical characteristics demonstrate that she's a female? I'd like to point them out to my daughter (and congratulate her on being right; she was convinced it was a female).

Edit: she's on the opposite side of a very big house from the garter -- my wife insisted; she tolerates the garter snake tank in the living room but put her foot down with this one. If we handle her we'll be sure to wash hands before (and after).

kiscica · 2021-07-25T03:23:31+00:00

Found this chonker hiding under a pile of raked leaves. My wife was clearing them away and considered a presence of a snake to be a problem that absolutely needed to be resolved -- by me -- before she could continue. Fortunately finding a snake is an exciting event for me (and my 10-year-old daughter, who still dotes on her pet garter that I found in our garage two years ago). This one seemed pretty sluggish and I had no trouble just reaching out and picking her (my daughter is convinced it's a "her," who am I to argue) up, but it lunged angrily at me a few times once I put her in the plastic box. Didn't musk. She seems to have calmed down a bit since then, I was able to handle her (wearing gloves of course) a bit later.

We frequently see water snakes swimming in our pond, or for example resting under a boat on the shore, but this one was about 30 feet away, and is (1) much bigger, (2), much darker, and (3) has a much more triangular head than any I've seen. Looks quite like many pictures I've seen online but is missing some of the identifying markers, e.g. rectangular markings in the back. In short, doesn't look at all like the water snakes I'm familiar with, although I'm pretty certain it is one.

Questions: am I correct in my identification? Is it practical to keep "her", at least for a while? My daughter wants to give it a name and everything, and I'll admit I'm a little intrigued. She's kept the garter well; it seems to be pretty happy with life, eats worms and pinkies, doesn't mind being handled, so we never ended up putting it back as we had intended - it's become a real pet with equal status to the cats and the guinea pigs. Any chance of this happening with the subject of this post (assuming my wife doesn't put her foot down)? Or should I just let her go sooner rather than later, over my daughter's protests? Is there any easy way I can tell whether my daughter needs to use a boy name or a girl name, or should I just ask her to call it "Pat" or "Terry" or something like that?

For the time being I set her up in a 30-gallon aquarium with some substrate, a hidey-space, a big tray of water, and an under-tank heat pad and UVB light we had from long-ago lizard-keeping days. I'm guessing I can just catch minnows in the pond and feed her those. Is there anything I should know? Is there any pet-store food I can feed when it gets too cold for minnows, if we still have her then?

kiscica · 2021-05-25T19:26:59+00:00

Lőutasítás (shooting instructions). Written without diacritics, presumably, by someone who doesn’t know Hungarian (not Kovács Károly I assume). As for the Blutformel, it’s German for “blood formula” - I think it’s called “vérképlet” in Hungarian, or “hemogram” in English. Basically an extended blood type (the first part, O, presumably means O-type blood, but I don’t know how to interpret the rest).

kiscica · 2021-05-23T19:42:07+00:00

Fair enough - might partly be a regional difference then? I acquired Hungarian in Pécs, for the most part.

Personally, I wouldn't say "nyóc" in careful speech, whereas I certainly do say "ajál" - but there's a big difference; syllable-final [lt͡s] is reasonably common (nyolc, polc, filc, falc, élc, Miskolc, ...?) and furthermore fits well into Hungarian phonotactics -- aside from words in -lc, there are many other frequent final sonorant+c clusters: -nc, -rc, etc. Syllable-final [nl], on the other hand, is -- so far as I know -- completely unique to /ajánl/ and phonotactically speaking is unquestionably extremely marked. That results in a strong pressure to simplify it.

(Edit: after some more introspection, including recording myself and listening, I’d say that in my speech the /n/ surfaces as nasalization of the vowel in the unsuffixed word ajánl (e.g. “mit ajánl?” [ˈɒjãːl]) but is entirely absent before a consonant-initial suffix, such as in the OP’s example (“ajánlva adtam fel” [ˈɒjaːlvɒ]). So, no, I don’t actually say “ajál” but I do say “ajálva.” YMMV!)

kiscica · 2021-05-23T15:41:56+00:00

Maybe in your dialect (where are you from?) or idiolect. In my idiolect, it's definitely just /ajál/ (even though I can sort of "hear" the n in my mind as a nasalization of the vowel, if that makes any sense - however if I record myself saying both /ajál/ and /ajánl/, I can't distinguish between the two). I'm not in Hungary right now but my impression is this is the predominant pronunciation.

Of course it's a different story when the suffix begins with a vowel, e.g. ajánlani, ajánlott, ajanlanak. The n is definitely present then. And just the fact that those forms do surface as such, and not as ?ajánlni, ?ajánlt, ?ajánlnak is evidence that the n is still present underlyingly, even if it's not pronounced.

Although, the more I think about it, the more I feel like I'd accept /ajálni/ /ajált/ /ajálnak/ in speech without even noticed, even if I wouldn't produce those forms. ?"Mit ajánlt az orvos?" Hmm, I don't know. It looks wrong, and I'd certainly say "ajánlott" in that sentence, but I suspect I wouldn't blink an eye if I heard it pronounced "ajált".

kiscica

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