What first world problem did you have today?

[Red Squirrel]

I remember back when we got a new CRT TV and it had PIP and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. My mom could watch her soap opera, and the hockey game could be going in a small corner for my dad to check the score. You could choose which audio goes through, the main one or the pip one. Even move the box around and change the size. Though come to think of it, I don't actually recall them using it all that much. That was ahead of it's time though, I don't even know if smart TVs can do that. I think it also has to do with the way cable works now, you need a box. With analog cable it was basically a standard signal straight to the TV so the TV knew how to handle doing fancy things like that. In theory it probably would have been possible to have a matrix of channels if your really wanted to, as the data from every channel is coming to you anyway. With digital cable, it would need to be something the cable box itself can do.

 

[sdifox]

View attachment 87585

Why in the hell in this day and age cannot we not PiP or multi screen anything we want? As far as I know, only way to get multiple games on the screen at once is to Get YouTubeTV, and the NFL package which we have. We also have Hulu live with ESPN+ and Fubo.

But I bought the PPV UFC fights for almost $90 today, and there is no ability to have a football game on on side and the fights on the other. I have no doubts it's because all these streaming platforms want to make money and not make the customers happy. But we had PiP over 20 years ago with any two channels we wanted. There is no way to do this now?!

Like a Neanderthal, I have to resort to watching the fights either on my phone, laptop, or drag another TV and put it on the floor to watch football and fights at the same time. Ridiculous.

That just means you wasted money buying the programming that cannot hold your complete attention by itself.

 

[BoomerD]

Watch what you want...DVR the others.

 

[Charmonium]

I'm not really sure how I survive before DVRs. And I especially love server-based DVRing. Up to 10 programs simultaneously. It's rare that I use all 10 streams but there I times I've gone into my 'recorded' list and seen 5 or 6 red recording dots.

 

[BoomerD]

I'm not really sure how I survive before DVRs. And I especially love server-based DVRing. Up to 10 programs simultaneously. It's rare that I use all 10 streams but there I times I've gone into my 'recorded' list and seen 5 or 6 red recording dots.

I love my Dish Network Hopper 3. I can record like a bazillion things at once...with a gazillibyte HDD.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I find VHS was sorta superior to DVRs, in the sense that you had your recordings on actual media after so it works in any other VCR. DVRs are more or less a black box, and once it's full you have to start deleting stuff. I think they use normal SATA drives but they might be formatted a special way so don't know if you could even swap drives out if you wanted to. You also have to give it back if you switch providers, or if they upgrade their systems they might have to give you a new one and old one wont work etc... it has very similar disadvantages to cloud storage without necessarily being in the cloud, as you can't really do long term archiving. My dad has lot of old VHS tapes from like the 80's and 90's and it's kind of cool to see stuff like old news or commercials etc. With DVRs there is no easy way to do long term archival like that.

 

[igor_kavinski]

My dad has lot of old VHS tapes from like the 80's and 90's

Digitize and upload to Youtube! Or even archive.org

Don't let history fade away.

 

[IronWing]

I've had a savings account with the same bank for almost two decades. I noticed that they have a "new" savings account available that is paying 4% higher interest than the one I have. Looking at the terms and conditions side-by-side they are literally the exact same account except for the new name and the interest rate. So I contact the bank. "Do I really have to close the old account and open a new one to get the better rate?" "Yep." <click, click, click, done> Banks be dumb.

This is one of them newfangled online banks where everything is virtual except the ATMs. Today we received eight separate snail mail letters telling us that we had closed the old account, three for me and five for my wife, each with different permutations of our names. Iron H Wing, Iron Hume Wing, Iron Wing, etc. Banks be more dumb.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Digitize and upload to Youtube! Or even archive.org

Don't let history fade away.

Yeah I really need to get a capture setup going for him to do that with. I think he has copied some to DVD though, so there's that, but it would be cool to put it online.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I bought some of my photography stuff from two different stores, when I could have ordered everything from one (B&H of course). What I ordered from B&H arrived next day (I live close by). The order from the other store has not shipped yet after 3 days.
Kinda regretting splitting my order.

 

[sdifox]

This is one of them newfangled online banks where everything is virtual except the ATMs. Today we received eight separate snail mail letters telling us that we had closed the old account, three for me and five for my wife, each with different permutations of our names. Iron H Wing, Iron Hume Wing, Iron Wing, etc. Banks be more dumb.

There is a cc issuing company that earned my ire. I keep the account open and have a -2 balance. And I opted for paper statement.

It's been more than a decade of monthly paper statements on the two dollar I overpaid xd.

 

[Motostu]

Ordered a new receiver over the weekend to replace my current one (~12 years old); mainly to get 4k capability, but hope that room correction has improved in that time as well. Of course, another model came up today for 1/2 the price and, while not at the same level, it might be good enough for me. There's still time to cancel the first order. Hmmm...

 

[igor_kavinski]

Hmmm...

I would look for glaring flaws in the cheaper one.

 

[Red Squirrel]

There is a cc issuing company that earned my ire. I keep the account open and have a -2 balance. And I opted for paper statement.

It's been more than a decade of monthly paper statements on the two dollar I overpaid xd.

I have a similar situation but it's involuntary, when my CU switched credit card providers some weird thing must have fell through the cracks and my account stayed active at the old provider with a 1 cent balance. Since everything had been switched over there was no way to pay it at that particular provider because if I make a payment it will just go to the new provider. So I made a cheque for like 10 cents (to cover any interest that may have accumulated since then) and sent it by mail via the return envelope on the paper bill. But now I have a credit, so I keep getting the damn statements anyway. On my credit report it shows it closed but in their internal systems it's still open. Been years. I figure once I get my wood stove going I basically have a life time of starter paper even if we stop getting the newspaper.

 

[Ackmed]

I remember back when we got a new CRT TV and it had PIP and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. My mom could watch her soap opera, and the hockey game could be going in a small corner for my dad to check the score. You could choose which audio goes through, the main one or the pip one. Even move the box around and change the size. Though come to think of it, I don't actually recall them using it all that much. That was ahead of it's time though, I don't even know if smart TVs can do that. I think it also has to do with the way cable works now, you need a box. With analog cable it was basically a standard signal straight to the TV so the TV knew how to handle doing fancy things like that. In theory it probably would have been possible to have a matrix of channels if your really wanted to, as the data from every channel is coming to you anyway. With digital cable, it would need to be something the cable box itself can do.

My monitor can split and run different things on each side. I know it wouldn't be easy but damn it'd be great.

Watch what you want...DVR the others.

Both are live though. Wife and I are sports fiends, watch about everything but Nascar and golf. Play off baseball on, ufc, college football, it's a lot of really good live programs on. Just be nice to be able to watch two or more at once. Tonight it's Sunday night football and playoff baseball. 50/50 would be amazing.

We "fixed" it, brought in the garage TV. People who don't watch that much sports may not car. Most things need audio, not always for sports.

 

[lxskllr]

I like your Welcome-ish sign :^D

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I know it's been at least 30 years, probably much longer since I've watched any kind of sports by any means.

 

[snoopy7548]

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[snoopy7548]

I think I'm finally starting to get old. I just looked up the Annihilation book on Amazon, saw it was part of the Southern Reach Trilogy, and thought, "I wonder how many books are in this series."

 

[mindless1]

I have this LED flashlight. Works fine, except has a magnetic base and if I attach it to something metal with that, it starts making an annoying, high pitched squealing sound.

I thought my ears were playing tricks on me, that possibly it always made that sound and I'm now only hearing to due to the position of it or something but after several trials, it only makes the noise attached to metal.

The buck driver for it isn't even in that end. I mean I assume it is some interaction where the magnetic field, alters the cell's IMR, and puts the buck circuit's inductor into a resonant frequency. I don't think there's a way to non-destructively open it to see if there's any remedy.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm not even into sports but I can totally see watching more than one game at once being cool. Watch the ones where something is happening while ignoring the ones where nothing is happening or if it's commercials and kind of bounce between the screens. Like a NOC but for sports!

 

[Ackmed]

Someone was listening.

 

[igor_kavinski]

it starts making an annoying, high pitched squealing sound.

Can someone else also hear it?

 

[mindless1]

Can someone else also hear it?

No I'm just imagining it and my ears are ringing... except if that were the case, it wouldn't make a difference if it were magnetically attached to a metal object.

Of course others can hear it. I even asked someone that, a few events ago when using it. Doesn't usually bother me but last time I used it, my head was very near.

I've played around with it more, and it turns out that it does barely make the same sound on any brightness setting besides the highest, but so faintly that I can barely hear it until attached to a metal object again.

Playing with it more, I discovered that it makes the sound the loudest, if I take the magnetic tailcap off and use a screwdriver blade to bridge the contact between the body and the battery cathode.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Playing with it more, I discovered that it makes the sound the loudest, if I take the magnetic tailcap off and use a screwdriver blade to bridge the contact between the body and the battery cathode.

The sound is caused by some sort of oscillation. Does this help? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_oscillation