Random Thoughts

[Blaine91555]

I have this burning question: 

Why does bottled water have an expiration date?  

I mean, if you allowed it to become heated, then you might surmise that the plastic would leach into the water, and if construed as a time weighted average, you might arrive at an approximate elapsed time which generally represented the "safe usage" period.  

OR

The MFers want to scare us into throwing away perfectly good bottled water and buying new because it is "expired".  Boo f'n hoo.  

OR?

It's a CONSPIRACY!!!

[CCoburn]

As we progress technically it appears that those in the "money" want to take all else away from the ones who buy things. Just look at setting up a Home Theater today. We dumped DIRECT TV for a ROKU stick and signed on for YouTube TV, Netflix and HULU with commercials and have more channels than we know what to do with. All that for $111 a month. ROKU @ $0, Netflix @ $17, YouTube @ $89, Hulu @ $7.  Just keeping all up as we have monthly WIFI outages requires me to be an AV specialist as we have two Smart TV's and the primary no Smart TV has the ROKU stick in it. 

So how about those Smart Refrigerators, Door locks and more. I stay away not because I am an OLD FART its because lt can be hacked and / or breached. 

Our new used home came with a Samsung $3000+ refrigerator. Yep, the one where the WIFI listens to you. Yep, the one where the ice maker has not been engineered correctly so the Samsung OEM water filter froze and cracked and flooded the home. We had Best Buy take the fridge away and bought a Whirlpool with NO WIFI. To date at 3+ years NO issues. 

Anything electronic is beyond 99% of the population to fix outside of a Hard Drive or a component.  Then we have cars. Thinking ahead we will have Lithium Batteries that can explode along with refrigerant in the AC that can leak into the environment. Today a car is comprised of electronic modules. Back when I was with General Motors Powertrain the modules that controlled the engine could generate unlimited horsepower. So much that we could blow up the rear end as it couldn't take the torque. That's almost 20 years ago so I get what they have today. 

Hmm so take a look in WIFI Jammers. The choice of Drug Dealers. They could either be in your neighborhood or coming to a neighborhood near you. May explain WIFI outages stuff?

I know, I can't even fathom having to go to a dealership for anything other than miscellaneous hard-to-get parts every-now-and-then, and after dumping DirecTV I'm now stuck with their stupid dish on my roof that's in a hard-to-get-at place, and whenever we get high winds I'm worried the dish might go and take half the roof with it.

The DSL modem for a while here how has been re-booting itself all day on numerous occasions. We need to upgrade soon to the fidium anyway, plus they keep jacking the price saying DSL is older technology and costly to maintain.

Coincidentally, I just purchased a "Whirlpool" washer/dryer combo the other night. Was hoping to use my Best Buy card, but the Insignia brand is an unknown to me as far as appliances go, so I applied online for a Lowes card and checked out all within an hour – I knew what I wanted.

Those automatic ice dispensers frequently go on the fritz around here. Residential but mostly commercial that I'm aware of. I know this because I'm always taking a drink with me on hot days and request free ice when I gas-up. The last place the other day had a big ice bin right next to the busted ice dispenser.

Even though most cars these days do have a lot of integrated electronics, much of the work I do still ends up being mechanical in nature. My biggest gripe would be purchasing used cars that have petrified nuts and bolts from being on salty Maine roads or maybe in close proximity to the ocean much of the time. This Volvo I have now has been the easiest one to work on so far, but also one of the more expensive with slightly less mileage.

---

And "$89.00" does seem like a bit much for YouTube, and it's mostly all I watch around here as they continually keep jacking their ad time into infinity – they're really pushing hard for those paid subscriptions.

[Waterglass]

I know, I can't even fathom having to go to a dealership for anything other than miscellaneous hard-to-get parts every-now-and-then, and after dumping DirecTV I'm now stuck with their stupid dish on my roof that's in a hard-to-get-at place, and whenever we get high winds I'm worried the dish might go and take half the roof with it.

The DSL modem for a while here how has been re-booting itself all day on numerous occasions. We need to upgrade soon to the fidium anyway, plus they keep jacking the price saying DSL is older technology and costly to maintain.

Coincidentally, I just purchased a "Whirlpool" washer/dryer combo the other night. Was hoping to use my Best Buy card, but the Insignia brand is an unknown to me as far as appliances go, so I applied online for a Lowes card and checked out all within an hour – I knew what I wanted.

Those automatic ice dispensers frequently go on the fritz around here. Residential but mostly commercial that I'm aware of. I know this because I'm always taking a drink with me on hot days and request free ice when I gas-up. The last place the other day had a big ice bin right next to the busted ice dispenser.

Even though most cars these days do have a lot of integrated electronics, much of the work I do still ends up being mechanical in nature. My biggest gripe would be purchasing used cars that have petrified nuts and bolts from being on salty Maine roads or maybe in close proximity to the ocean much of the time. This Volvo I have now has been the easiest one to work on so far, but also one of the more expensive with slightly less mileage.

---

And "$89.00" does seem like a bit much for YouTube, and it's mostly all I watch around here as they continually keep jacking their ad time into infinity – they're really pushing hard for those paid subscriptions.

The $89 was a guess as my wife pays the bills. For what we get it isn't alot. DIRECT TV was a huge ripoff. Only had it because of NFL Sunday Ticket.

[CCoburn]

DIRECT TV was a huge ripoff. Only had it because of NFL Sunday Ticket.

Direct TV had some shady business practices. They'd push their contracts and when you cancel there'd be a several hundred-dollar penalty, and there wasn't any negotiation, they had your banking info, and they would just clean you out without so much as a word.

It never happened to me, but it's well documented.

[Waterglass]

Direct TV had some shady business practices. They'd push their contracts and when you cancel there'd be a several hundred-dollar penalty, and there wasn't any negotiation, they had your banking info, and they would just clean you out without so much as a word.

It never happened to me, but it's well documented.

Yep. They tried to push that shit on me but I got them. They told me that I was under a two year contract but I never was so I could cancel at any time without penalty. So I did. They told me no need to send any equipment back so I kept it and 90 days later they billed be $100 for not returning the equipment back.   

So I wrote an email to the FTC and FTC forced them to give me directions as to how to return the equipment. I took equipment to UPS, they boxed it and I took pictures of what was returned. I got my money back. F them as they are sleaze balls

Oh they also pulled other stunts

[CCoburn]

I'm still paying bills the old-fashioned way. I'll write down how much you get each month and that's that.

---

I used to see this spiral star cluster straight up in the nighttime sky. It's been a couple decades but I've started thinking about it again. I think it might be the Pleiades.

[l0st]

Direct TV had some shady business practices. They'd push their contracts and when you cancel there'd be a several hundred-dollar penalty, and there wasn't any negotiation, they had your banking info, and they would just clean you out without so much as a word.

It never happened to me, but it's well documented.

I left DirecTV years ago after my contract was up. They hounded me for about 6 months to come back. I didn't get wrapped up in any penalties or anything but I've heard about what you are talking about as well.

Their satellite service isn't bad, but you need to get boxes that don't crash. They initially gave me those "genie" things and the boxes would drop out, reboot, malfunction, and just do all kinds of weird stuff pretty regularly.  At the time, they were introducing the streaming services alongside the satellite and man, their streaming service was extremely unreliable as well.

The last subscription "TV" service I had was PhiloTV. Wasn't a bad deal at the time. I cancelled it when the weather warmed up and never got any TV service again. I did used to have an antenna on the side of my house pointed at the hill and got about 110 channels(digital) off the local towers, but barely watched it.

[CCoburn]

Not Resonating with the Old Man as God Concept


I tried the AI again last night. I was hoping to pair up a graphic with a literary piece I have. I was trying to fabricate a cosmic dreamscape with the inclusion of a godlike image, but all I kept getting was old men as God, and that wasn't really what I was looking for, so I hung it up for the time being and moved on to something else.

[Maxmars]

Not Resonating with the Old Man as God Concept


I tried the AI again last night. I was hoping to pair up a graphic with a literary piece I have. I was trying to fabricate a cosmic dreamscape with the inclusion of a godlike image, but all I kept getting was old men as God, and that wasn't really what I was looking for, so I hung it up for the time being and moved on to something else.

If I may opine... That's because of the way the 'image training' was conducted, the 'framework'... and the fact that it's distinctly "not" AI.  It just regurgitates what it's been taught.

[CCoburn]

If I may opine... That's because of the way the 'image training' was conducted, the 'framework'... and the fact that it's distinctly "not" AI.  It just regurgitates what it's been taught.

Yes, that did come to mind. I think the AI needs a little guidance in how God should be defined as opposed to "The old man in the sky". I did try deviating from the anthropomorphic by introducing fractals which was maybe an improvement but still not quite there yet. Much of it is in the creativity of the prompts being used – we'll try again another time.