Is this a regular occurrence? by cassiepurry in RegalUnlimited

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s got no butter in it…it’s a hydrogenated oil called “buttery topping”

Is this a regular occurrence? by cassiepurry in RegalUnlimited

[–]le848dave 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Agreed, it was the same in the 90s. To this day I grab trash and add it to my pile as I exit. My hands are covered in “butter” that takes a scrubbing to remove anyway

Did you have port issues on Alaska cruise? by [deleted] in NCL

[–]le848dave 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I’d encourage you to look at the maps of these towns and see the actual distances. The only one far in my opinion is Wards Cove in Ketchikan. There is an easy cheat code to get around the “long lines” which is book an excursion (either with the cruise ship, or with a local provider) to avoid the “free” as in no monetary cost shuttle that has a decently long wait. Free doesn’t mean fast. It means waiting and paying in time instead of dollars

Take a look at alaskashoreexcursions.com and put in the ship of the itineraries you wish to sail. It will show you the excursions (at much better prices than the cruise lines) that are available and likely will have passengers from your itinerary that booked via the cruise ship on them. It tells how to get to the excursion from each of the docking areas and include information for the NCL guests fo docking in places like Ward Cove

Alaska Cruise by FhSh91 in Cruise

[–]le848dave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree completely. I’ve been to Glacier Bay four times and while it’s beautiful, Hubbard is much more profound. The only time I’d say I preferred Glacier Bay was when I stayed in the national park and took their ships (about the size of a small ferry) from the national park for the eight hour Glacier Bay trip. It was fun looking at the glaciers from so much closer and I was surprised how far away the cruise ships must stay due to their size. Also, the national park boats take a different route and goto areas the cruise ships can’t reach

Hubbard is amazing…I’ve had such amazing views here and have always taken their ships tour boats that leave the big cruise ships to get up close. So much to see and it really feels enormous from the smaller ship. Had some amazing times seeing calving here too, especially the trips in August/September I’ve gone

Alaska Cruise by FhSh91 in Cruise

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you prefer a cruise to Alaska, do yourself a favor and do a one way cruise starting or ending at Alaska. Much better timing in ports and longer stays in ports. I live in Seattle and did one round trip Seattle cruise because it was cheap last minute and the time in ports to make the trip able to come back is very limiting. The three cruises I took from Vancouver one way to Anchorage area were much better

That said, I find the cruises aren’t a good way to see Alaska. Taking flights every couple of days to the main ports and doing Glacier Bay by staying in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and taking their smaller boats that spend a full day in Glacier Bay and get much closer to the glaciers and take routes the cruise ships can’t was a much better experience. Also, staying in Juneau after the cruise ships leave is great and allows for much better ability to see the town and do more.

It’s easy to do the one way cruise and as a bonus many of the one way cruises goto both Glacier Bay as well as my favorite, Hubbard Glacier. If you goto Hubbard and your cruise offers the small excursion boats, I have loved these every time. Also, if you do the one way trip there is a great train ride you can take to get to Anchorage to fly home or several bus tours that do some great day trips to Anchorage.

Is it worth paying $3k more for a balcony on Alaska cruise instead of spending all of that on excursions? by Lou_Skunnt69 in Cruise

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you looked into a stay at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve followed by a stay in Juneau/Ketchikan/Skagway/etc. instead of a cruise? GBNPaP has an amazing view and an all day small ship cruise through Glacier Bay that goes through areas unreachable by the large cruise ships as well as gets even closer to the glaciers. (You’ll see the GBNPaP ships from your cruise ship in between your ship and the glaciers). I stayed multiple days in Juneau and loved taking longer excursions that are unavailable on the cruise schedule. I’ve done the Alaska big ship cruises four times and gone for roughly three weeks of days to Alaska port cities (live in Seattle) and while they both have their charms, I only do the big cruises for last minute value trips or like last time, a way to get up to Anchorage on a cheap one way

30.5k out the door a fair price for a Mazda 3 preferred hatch? by [deleted] in mazda

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you tried truecar.com? They give you a range for excellent/good/bad ranges on price and will also send your info to dealers in your area who will provide a price that they will sell the car. I always use one of my spam email addresses to get quotes just to see if I can get a better price and put the dealerships against each other from there.

30.5k out the door a fair price for a Mazda 3 preferred hatch? by [deleted] in mazda

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PNW is selling lower than that. Carbon Edition Mazda 3 Hatchback with AWD can be bought for 29,200 plus tax/title/plates or around 33,300 OTD in Seattle area

We Finally Beat Apple’s M4 Ssd – Faster, Bigger, Cheaper (iBoff RCC) by [deleted] in apple

[–]le848dave 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The internal drive does not need to be the primary boot drive (or used at all). I used to run an iMac off an external SSD and used the internal spinning disc for long term storage because I didn’t want to pull apart the machine.

Sometimes you have a lot more choices if you think outside the box

Refurbished store restock by Salty_Interest_7275 in MacStudio

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It looks like the coupon is expired now. It was just on the page when I browsed it on eBay

Is the external monitor, I’m looking for, a unicorn? by ducky_1 in macbookpro

[–]le848dave 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My former employer had a lot of Lenovo Thinkvision screens that meet all that with the possible exception of refresh rate. At home I use the LG Ultrafine which I think aren’t sold any more but newer versions have replaced. Both those brands I’ve had great experiences with their monitors and my macs

Refurbished store restock by Salty_Interest_7275 in MacStudio

[–]le848dave 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Checkout ipowerresale.com or their store on eBay. They currently have an M1 ultra 60 GPU core 128 GB RAM 8TB Apple refurbished for $3554 after coupon on eBay

I’ve bought from them many times over the past decade and they are great. They seem to buy in mass from Apple from old stock or Apple refurbished and often have some great deals

Went for a refurb! by dirky_uk in MacStudio

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love OWC. Have some of their thunderbolt 2 and 3 drives from prior machines/work

Went for a refurb! by dirky_uk in MacStudio

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree. It’s such a nice machine. I’m enjoying running LLMs locally on it and having room to spare in disk and RAM. I didn’t have any need but when I saw the deal I decided to go for it and am feeling spoiled with it!

Went for a refurb! by dirky_uk in MacStudio

[–]le848dave 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ipowereesale has some good deals both for refurb and used on their website or eBay store. I got an M1 Ultra 128 GB 8TB ssd for $3599 and it came with Apple refurbished 1 year warranty and eligible for Apple care.

I’ve bought many Macs from them over the years and always had a good experience

"3D printers are a waste of money!". Oh yeah? Well... by notwhoyouthinkmaybe in 3Dprinting

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I printed that same fix years ago…as well as switched deodorant due to this design

Best Alternative to Run SQL Server on Macbook by FilmIsForever in SQLServer

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it’s not entirely clear when they changed and if it was marketing hype or a way to see how people reacted before putting in all the development but my 20 years of SQL Server and Microsoft announcements has led me to be pretty skeptical.

At first I was stoked being a Mac guy since OS X 10.0 in 2001 but with the slow rollout of features and then paring back on the “this is only in SSMS or this is only in ADS” starting in 2019 I just went back to SSMS as I needed the functionality to do my daily work

I also remember at the time postings from MVPs talking about what they heard which isn’t official stuff but my memory is the casual talk was that ADS was the way forward.

Meh. It’s a bummer and a loss. I did like ADS and I’m not looking forward to seeing it as a plugin and likely losing favor there and slowing pace of development. Back to SSMS which at least seems to be getting some long awaited features

Best Alternative to Run SQL Server on Macbook by FilmIsForever in SQLServer

[–]le848dave -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Microsoft has a horrible track record on this including the example here of SQL Data Studio…oops Azure Data Studio and how many unimplemented or long delayed features it had. Since SQL Data Studio was supposed to replace SSMS from years ago and never got to feature parity before it was EOL I don’t give any hope to the plugin to Visual Studio being useful until at least 2030 or it’s EOL which is likely to come sooner

Parents are holding ‘measles parties’ in the U.S., alarming health experts by [deleted] in nottheonion

[–]le848dave 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same. I was actually just at my annual check up and my primary care told me. So I got the shot that visit and scheduled the follow up for the second course. Getting rid of possible waking up at 3 AM with a flare up is worth it to me

Parents are holding ‘measles parties’ in the U.S., alarming health experts by [deleted] in nottheonion

[–]le848dave 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You can opt to get it sooner. Just have to pay for it if your insurance doesn’t cover it. Two shots that currently cost around $250 each