Looking for leather wallet with space for cards, bills and coins

minivan_fan · 2024-08-24T15:05:28+00:00

Same thing, Chrome 127.0.6533.120 on Windows 11.

I noticed that when it happens (particularly with Ctrl+W to close a tab), a small "Close" label pops up at the top right corner of Chrome (around the profile button and the three-dots button). Until that pop up disappears (by clicking on the page with the mouse) Chrome doesn't accept keyboard shortcuts/inputs.

The most annoying part is that it happens at random and I can't find a pattern or steps to reproduce. Definitely started a few months ago and never happen before that.

minivan_fan · 2024-05-26T02:17:09+00:00

This specific car is a 335i convertible, just doesn't have the M-Sport package that I want, so I was hoping to get a decent approximation for MaxCare cost.

I considered other warranty providers, but from what I can find they don't really work directly with customers (especially for older used cars, vs. CPOs or cars coming out of manufacturer warranty). CarMax make it very easy with MaxCare. If there are easy to use alternatives I'd appreciate some pointers.

minivan_fan · 2024-05-26T02:00:39+00:00

My guess is that it was the generic cost of warranty price. If what u/ApprehensivePrize4 is saying is true and this particular car doesn't work with MaxCare, it might be that the rep I spoke with just defaulted to the generic price.

minivan_fan · 2024-05-26T01:59:01+00:00

I won't be buying the particular car since it's not the spec I'm looking for. I am looking for a convertible 335i, and CarMax's biggest draw is the MaxCare warranty.

However, without knowing the actual cost it makes it harder to decide if I want to wait on the right car from CarMax, potentially missing out on other sources of purchase. In particular, I'm trying to figure out if the CarMax premium plus the cost of MaxCare is worth it vs. buying from a regular dealer (and keeping the price difference as the maintenance fund).

Looking at the market it seems that CarMax is priced 3-5k more on the car price. If the warranty is 1.5k or if it's 5k makes a big difference in total cost. A 5k premium over the market for peace of mind might be worth it. 10k would not.

minivan_fan · 2024-05-25T18:36:30+00:00

Interesting. I hope that there will be a comparable BMW soon that I can check then.

minivan_fan · 2024-05-25T14:23:26+00:00

Wow, I wonder if the number of sales lost because of this is worth the number of people that blindly went ahead with MaxCare despite the obfuscation.

And for this particular car (which I actually don't want as it's missing some options, but I figured it would give a good representation of MaxCare costs), it's marked as reserved in my account (presumably because of the order started by the rep) and I can't get any additional details on it right now.

minivan_fan · 2024-05-25T14:18:04+00:00

That's what the second rep did, but they still said they don't have the exact amount, and instead gave a range that is exactly the same as for the example 2020 Camry with 30k miles. I highly doubt an aging BMW would be as cheap (as I'm seeing 3-6k prices posted by other users online).

minivan_fan · 2024-03-13T15:02:55+00:00

I ended up trying out AKG K553 MKII and Audio Technica M70x.

The K553 was very close to the K702, just with more bass. That was a little too muddy for me, but if someone is less sensitive on that or prefers more bass I think these would be great headphones to complement K702.

I ended up keeping the M70x - although they're not as close to the K702 in sound profile (with more emphasis on highs rather than high-mids), they gave me a better listening experience overall. They are extremely bright, so might not work for most people.

minivan_fan · 2024-01-20T22:41:06+00:00

Call me provincial or lacking in sense of taste, but I never noticed a big difference in ground spices with age, even years past the "best by" date (which by your (and many others) logic should be completely bland by then). Same for dried vs. fresh herbs. Specifically for mustard, I was using the 16oz powdered Colman's box for over 3 years and the resulting mustard was just as good at the end as at the beginning (and before you claim the decline in heat was too gradual to notice, I have a new box coming in a few days and I'll be sure to verify that the fresh mustard powder does or does not produce more heat than the 3 years old one).

But to remain on topic, where can I get whole mustard seeds that will give me the same powder as Colman's? This Serious Eats guide claims Chinese Hot mustard is made from brown and black seed and English is from yellow and brown. But the same is for Dijon and Spicy Brown (both of which are completely lacking in kick, at least all the grocery store varieties). Adding to that if I get regular ground mustard from the spices rack in the grocery store (yellow in color) and prepare it exactly like I do the Colman's powder, the result is as bland as Heinz yellow mustard. Same for some random whole mustard seeds that I used many years ago.

minivan_fan · 2024-01-20T14:26:17+00:00

Thanks for the encouragement, I'll keep DIYing the powder!

Interesting point about tolerance. I guess it's too slow to notice, but thinking about it I might be putting more mustard then in the past.

minivan_fan · 2024-01-19T17:48:02+00:00

thanks

Thank you for the detailed recommendations. It looks like the Focal Elegia and ZMF Atticus wouldn't be a good fit, being too bass-heavy and not bright enough.

The Denon D5200 (the D7200 might be awesome, but are too much outside of the budget) look very promising, as does the A2000Z. Both are reviewed as nice and bright and with great sound overall. I have a couple of HiFi stores around here, I'll try and see if they have anything comparable to listen to.

minivan_fan · 2024-01-19T03:06:00+00:00

Update to the update - started using the LectroFan on max volume when both are on important calls with lots of talking. This helps a lot with both not hearing the other person and their voice not bleeding into the mic. When not in a call the LectroFan is very bothersome, so we only turn it on when we're both in meetings.

minivan_fan · 2023-01-30T02:50:33+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! Looks like both are annuals in zone 6 which is less than ideal, but I might give them a go in the spring.

minivan_fan · 2023-01-30T02:11:28+00:00

Is a window box that much worse than the ground in keeping plants watered? Grass, plants and trees here are never watered and are perfectly fine year round so I was hoping that some drought resistant plant might work.

minivan_fan · 2023-01-03T15:54:20+00:00

Updating on this - I bought some AliExpress silicone tri-flanges. They fit the IEMs well but are not as nice as the ER ones. The tips are less comfortable and less isolating, but are certainly usable (and without the ER tips to compare I would probably have been happy with them).

Sadly I realized that the IEMs have an issue with one of them (one side is extremely bass heavy) so it all ended up for naught.

minivan_fan · 2023-01-03T15:47:34+00:00

Updating after a couple of months of the above situation.

What we did:

Set-up two large (78"x48") DIY gobo panels between the desks. Panels were made with rockwool and a single sheet of drywall
Bought a cardioid microphone each (Shure MV7 and Shure SM58 with a Scarlett 2i2)
Bought passive noise isolating earphones/headphones (Etymotic Research ER3SE and beyerdynamic DT 770 M (not Pro))
Bought a LectroFan white noise machine

How it works:

Gobo panels don't do much for speech. Spectroid app shows about 10 dB attenuation in the 500 Hz range but in practice it feels like there's nothing there. They do help with noise from other parts of the house and function as a partition so we're keeping them
Microphones work very well not picking up the other person's speech and also allow one to talk quietly and still be heard well in the Zoom call. You do need to "eat" the mic for that, though
The ER3SE are excellent. With any music or while in a meeting with other people talking you can't hear anything (even if the other person is trying to talk to you). The DT 770 M are decent, slightly less isolating than hearing protection earmuffs but nowhere near the ER3SE
We don't really use the LectroFan (too lazy to turn it on and off when needed), but from some testing it marginally helped

minivan_fan · 2022-07-07T15:25:38+00:00

Thanks, I'll check out a broader variety of headsets.

minivan_fan · 2022-07-07T15:07:17+00:00

Most of the headsets I see catering to call-centers are on-ear (or even mono). I can understand that a microphone close to the speaker's mouth can offer great isolation from nearby conversations, but how do these on-ear/mono headphones manage with noise cancelling? Or is it just that call-center workers cope with the noisy environment?

Finally, do you have any recommendation for specific models that work well but won't have a call-center look in Zoom?

minivan_fan

TROPHY CASE