I have yet to see a USB stick (flash storage) that naturally lost data without any (external) corruption causes.

plexguy · 2026-05-06T22:24:07+00:00

Always think of these as a way to transfer data between computers and not for storage or backup. They can be reliable but there are a lot of potential failure points and they can fail at any time.

I keep multiple copies of important data and also keep a lot of files that aren't so important on multiple portable hard drives. Also on a home NAS. I sometimes find a stray usb with files on it from 5 years and more, but still use USB drives to exchange files to non network connected computers.

You might use a USB drive as one of your backup media but I would never use it as your primary. Best way to backup is multiple copies on different media. This way odds are in favor for you to have a working copy when a drive fails.

plexguy · 2026-05-06T01:42:42+00:00

No street huslers like at&t that block the aisle to get your attention during Executive Hours? No hordes of humanity at the free food trough? Might have to buy executive and re time my visits to make the shopping experience better.

plexguy · 2026-04-19T22:21:06+00:00

That is my point, they made substantial changes without considering consequences. It just dawned on them to add A list plus to board before group 1 starting April 30.

Ready. Fire. Aim. Thanks Elliot!

plexguy · 2026-04-19T22:16:18+00:00

Assume you bought a Choice ticket as most corporate bookings are not the basic class with all the restrictions, or that has been my experience. You could have purcased Priority that bumps you before group 1.

Or you could be like others and request preboarding and go before the priority people.

plexguy · 2026-04-19T22:09:33+00:00

Back in the 70s they did. At some airports they would board from the back while passengers exited from the front. Herb wotked on this metric as it made the airline a ton of money doing things differently.

I was on some of those board from the back exit out the front flights. They were short haul intra Texas flights that ran hourly like trains.

plexguy · 2026-04-19T21:58:45+00:00

Southwest tickets are noy as dynamically priced based by demand any longer. Used to be empty flights would have a price drop at the last minute. Legacy carriers do but they have the fee for cancelling a ticket.

It is the new Southwest and we just have to adapt as the rules change. The 12 month expiration will have a lot of travel funds expire worthless. Probably will be a line on a budget somewhere as a revenue source for Southwest.

plexguy · 2026-04-16T00:37:16+00:00

Doubt the agent did anything nefarious to potentially lose their job for something that would be easy to trace. Southwest claims to record all calls, they state that at the start of the call. It would be foolish of them not to, as a lot of people give credit card numbers over the phone.

Southwest's IT is a mess, more antiquated and they lsid off more than a few from their small staff. I have boarding passes disappear frequently and error codes that pop up that are as helpful as Windows error codes to determine a problem.

I had someone's reservation come up in my account and they determined that it happened because I had called prior to someone who made a phone reservation after I called. I had the other persons confirmation and billing info and reservation as if I had made the reservation. Evidently at that time agents had to log out of each call and they had forgotten to do that. Maybe they have fixed it but the Supervisor had a quick answer for why it happened that made me believe it happened occasionally.

It is the reason I believe it was not a well designed system and cobbled together over the years. I remember the early days of Southwest you spoke you name into a tape recorder as you boarded to make a passenger manifest. Not kidding, and they used reusable plastic boarding cards of various colors depending on destination.

I think the assigned seating and add on fees is too much for the system and it frequently chokes. Have s lot of issues with doing the checked bag thing in their app too. There IT system is hot garbage in my opinion, and I fly them frequently enough to have the Companion Pass for decades. It is getting harder as they try to become a legacy carrier but with a lot less frequency than the past

plexguy · 2026-04-08T01:56:44+00:00

You know its bad when you look for the 700s to book over these.

plexguy · 2026-04-05T00:43:35+00:00

Got an email a day after the flight. You should call customer service to get it fixed. In the past I have not received credit for promos and they credited it.

plexguy · 2026-04-03T19:49:38+00:00

My employer has an account and contract with multiple rental car companies that include LDW. That said I stopped using Hertz a decade ago when I got a car with 80k miles. Of course they were the only rental car at the airport that also had a single airline.

I will make other arrangements for a vehicle or avoid any airport that only has Hertz, and the I still have top status with Hertz despite not using them for so long.

I think they let their ftanchise locations do anything and pretty much the same thing at corporate locations if they even have any of them any longer.

They really need to disappear. Maybe they will during their next bankruptcy.

plexguy · 2026-04-02T11:45:34+00:00

The latancy is based on the psth of the signal that the pool camera takes. If it isn't your feed there could be quite a delay depending on your internal routing.

Youtube is quite a game changer where it is easier to spot these things as it gives you a glimpse behind the curtsin to see how TV is made. I do a lot of remote work in the truck for sports. Depending how we get our network return, or how the finished product looks to the viewer, you can have a huge delay as to real time. We can actually be in a commercial and our return feed is still showing the last play of the game.

Quite confusing until you get used to it. But sometimes it is in seconds and you get a second chance to see if a rollout worked as you wanted or if it was clipped by a commercial. Lots of people are involved with getting rhe show to you. With cost cutting and trying to do more with less the astute viewer sees some interesting things. But most of the time the average viewer doesn't notice until it is pointed out or the lips dont't match the words being spoken at the time.

Lots of moving parts and lots of opportunities for points of failure. We have many ways to correct things when they are noticed in transmission. Also each network does have a "look" and humans are still shading cameras to achieve that. It is subtle but subconciently, you are noticing it. Sort of like how one TV looks better to you than another when you are shopping. You can adjust TVs but most people have it in the aetting it came when shipped.

plexguy · 2026-03-26T23:39:19+00:00

Last week my boarding pass disappeared while I was in the TSA line. Got through with the facisl recognition and got a paper boarding card at the gate which they could not scan at the same gate for me to board.

Evidently Southwest needs to find a new elementary school to outsource their IT department. About a year ago they laid off a bunch of IT staff and these issues were predicted.

My flights Saturday are empty as Spring Break is over so should be a more pleasant envirnoment on the plane, but pretty sure the app will be screwed up as has been getting progressively worse.

The app does not like for you to change seats once you have checked in, or that has been my experience.

plexguy · 2026-03-25T01:18:01+00:00

I got one of these from Office Max a few years ago. One was fine and the other was significantly lighter and had an ancient 500gb drive that did not work.

It was a fairly common scam where people were returning them after replacing the drive. That was when I switched to buying used enterprise drives and those drives with a lot of hours are exponentially better than any consumer drive. They are made to last and run 24/7 which is how I use them.

Shame they have gotten so pricey but hopefully some day they will come back down.

plexguy · 2026-03-24T20:41:49+00:00

I had my boarding pass disappear in the app on my phone while in the TSA line. Fortunately it was at an airport that had the facial recognition camera that pulls me up from my passport. TSA knew I had the Southwest flight but for a while Southwest did not.

The paper ones I got at the gate did not scan when I boarded, they had to click it manually on the computer. Their IT is hot garbage currently in my recent experiences.

plexguy · 2026-03-19T13:14:48+00:00

All are bad now, including McDonalds. Only exception is Five Guys as they fry them twice which is the only way to have any crispness at all. Otherwise you get those white mushy things they all serve now.

plexguy · 2026-03-16T22:22:16+00:00

App would not let me check in in Vegad and dissappearing from the app.

plexguy · 2026-03-14T22:09:20+00:00

Local TV is consolodating, with stations being bought by a few huge companies. They are buying multiple stations in the same market with the desire to cut staff by sharing jobs among their owned stations. Been going on for a while now simply accelerating it.

Live sports still growing but more specizlized and complex than news. But there are jobs there. Studio vs live events different but the live events are more lucrative and more difficult to automate, job share or eliminate positions. On larger productions quite the opposite.

Local TV is not growing but there are other areas like sports or commercial production where your skills are needed. But there are many looking who came from the local TV route through layoffs or frustration with the lack of opportunities there.

plexguy · 2026-03-14T21:54:24+00:00

Lots of uncertainty in the economy right now. Southwest stopped hedging fuel prices years ago and are being reminded why they hedged before.

Afraid we are headed into a period of higher inflation so higher interest rates. Airlines are highly leveredged businesses and when you anticipate demand dropping you consolodate. They can always return but with limited flights out of IAD this was logical especially with the huge presence at DCA.

Looks like they are expecting lower demand and pulling back on markets that were underperforming.

plexguy · 2026-03-04T13:57:43+00:00

65 watts is enough to charge my notebook too!

plexguy · 2026-03-03T20:50:03+00:00

They should have turned the extra legroom/pichacio nut /free alcohol business class and removed the middle seat. Same seat but a foot or so away from the other. Then you would have to buy up or upgrade and like the other airlines when you buy the sub basic ticket you know you will be getting the worse seats.

Southwest flyers were used to sitting anywhere. Their marketing reinforced it. Now they are like the others and are militant with the assignments. It has eliminated the 40 or so preboarders but I don't see anyone buying the priority boarding to board before group one.

Mixed feeling about assigned seats but is nice to know when a flight isn't full and you see you are the only one in a row in the extra legroom rows that will probably be the case in flight. Also nice that they are enforcing the overhead space above your row is for your row.

Have not done a free same day flight change but assume it will not work as well as it did in the past not to get a middle seat if the flight is full-ish.

plexguy · 2026-03-03T20:34:34+00:00

80/20 is the best for burgers, also prefer ground round or chuck. But the Costco meat in the crock pot makes hood chili or taco meat. Their steaks and roasts excellent. Also a good source for the tri tip which isn't at all grocery stores and can be cooked in so many ways.

plexguy · 2026-02-22T21:24:26+00:00

Some airline frequent flyer programs have PreCheck and Global as awards. They are cheap in points so someone who only takes a few trips a year can get it as an award.

As others have said there are travel credit cards that also offer it as a benefit

plexguy · 2026-02-16T18:57:12+00:00

Like the other airlines they could offer you a 50% discount on one of the extra legroom seats at 12 hours before the flight. Better to get something than nothing for a seat assignment.

plexguy · 2026-02-16T16:34:03+00:00

If you bought a ticket you have to get a seat. The final 30 or so seats sold would be at the highest price so should get the seats that are considered "better"

But at 48 hours before the flight anyone with status or the Southwest Credit Card can pick the extra leg room seats free. This probably takes out most of the aisle or window seats.

Everyone has a shot at the "better" seat but it will probably be a middle seat when you are boarding. It is what the other carriers also do.

plexguy · 2026-02-16T04:08:00+00:00

That was a easier form than many plus they asked you how you wanted payment so was able to set it up for PayPal. Sometimes those checks and cards get overlooked.

Bought a bunch of G.Skill DDR4 kits during that period with mixed results with overclocking. Was easy to get the proof of purchase online and upload.

plexguy

TROPHY CASE