What first world problem did you have today?

[IronWing]

I bought a phone, my first personal smartphone. I have always had a company phone and never wanted a personal phone for two reasons: 1) I’m a cheapskate and free is free and, 2) I thought dealing with two phones would be a pain in the ass. My boss doesn’t care what I do with the company phone as long as I don’t embarrass the company. I only bought the phone because I’m closing in on retirement and I figured I need to separate my work life from my private life. So anyway, dealing with two phones sucks even more than I was imagining. Everything about it sucks, twice the charging, twice the pocket space, remembering to carry both. I guess I’ll be back down to one phone soon enough.

Could be worse though. I knew a guy who had to carry four phones, a work Alltel, a personal Alltel, and ditto for Verizon. He lived in a community that only had Alltel but everywhere else had Verizon coverage. His job required him to be on call 24/7 so carrying four phones everywhere was necessary.

I'm kind of liking the camera on the new phone. It does far better macros than my work phone.




Barrel cactus close-up. The orange balls are nectar droplets. The cactus feeds the insects so that they stay around to pollinate when the cactus flowers.

 

[KLin]

Bee hives have been staged near the almond orchards across the street from me for pollination.

Now the bees are flying around and crapping all over my car. Damnit.

#firstworldproblems

 

[BoomerD]

I have this since 2018: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/goodmonday/weightless-sitting-zero-gravity-upright-posture-cu

As someone who suffered for a few years with a limp right leg due to broken spinal disc (it eventually healed and leg much better now), I have no back issues to report since I got this and it's pretty cheap now: https://www.amazon.com/GoodMonday-G...mic-Comfortable/dp/B07X5CKL99?ref_=ast_sto_dp

Nice. I’m ordering one. With my FUBAR’d back, it might help no matter what chair I end up buying.
THANKS!

 

[nisryus]

Order a new 16GB SODIMM from Amazon earlier this week.

It arrived today in one of those Amazon plastic easy open envelop. Well, inside was an opened box 8GB SODIMM, which someone used a marker to highlight the 8GB letters on the package itself.

Thanks Amazon. Time for an exchange.

 

[Chaotic42]

Now Amazon is terrible at deliveries. They delivered some of my boxes, but not others. Some have "problem occurred" and other say "delayed due to severe weather". It's sunny and 60F.

Also, my TV goes black when the oven cycles on. It's only the TV, everything else seems fine. It's on a UPS and the internet says to look for a loose neutral, but I still don't get why this is happening just to the TV (and it's only sometimes), especially with the UPS. It's super annoying.

 

[Chaotic42]

Even more packages have a "problem" now. Interestingly, if I put the TV and home theater receiver on a completely different circuit on the other side of the house, I still get the black screen every time the oven cycles. I wonder if it's EMI. The TV and receiver both seem to work continuously when this happens.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I still get the black screen every time the oven cycles.

How old is the oven? Maybe it's very old and something inside is broken, causing radiation to escape?

 

[Chaotic42]

How old is the oven? Maybe it's very old and something inside is broken, causing radiation to escape?

8-10 years old. I have a new beefy HDMI cable on the way, so we'll see. I tried wrapping the old one in aluminum foil, but no luck.

It's really weird, it didn't happen at all a couple of weeks ago when I was using the oven like crazy, now it's back.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I haven't totaled it up yet, but today's spending may exceed $1,200

 

[snoopy7548]

I haven't totaled it up yet, but today's spending may exceed $1,200

Yeah, those dildos aren't cheap.

 

[Chaotic42]

Yeah, those dildos aren't cheap.

Is it 1200 terrible ones or one amazing one?

 

[Red Squirrel]

In that price range you're getting into the higher end territory and often they'll have an ECM motor and bluetooth, but you save in the long run as they are built to last and are more power efficient.

 

[BoomerD]

8-10 years old. I have a new beefy HDMI cable on the way, so we'll see. I tried wrapping the old one in aluminum foil, but no luck.

It's really weird, it didn't happen at all a couple of weeks ago when I was using the oven like crazy, now it's back.

Makes me think it's your oven...maybe a bad ground or neutral...either where the plug connects to the stove, or the actual plug itself...or even where that circuit connects to the breaker box.

 

[Chaotic42]

Makes me think it's your oven...maybe a bad ground or neutral...either where the plug connects to the stove, or the actual plug itself...or even where that circuit connects to the breaker box.

Yeah, something is going on. I got the multimeter out and between the HDMI cable of the receiver and one of the devices it plugs into, I get 44V AC. Between it and another device, I get 23V AC. I do not get the issue if I plug the device directly into the TV. I'm guessing the receiver isn't properly grounded? Electricity isn't my strong suit. Going to do some more testing tomorrow and maybe publish the results. I wonder if some voltage controller has gone bad in there. This happens for multiple cables plugged into the receiver, not just the one.

 

[BoomerD]

in 2021, I bought a set of two 48' Atomi string lights from Costco. Put them up on my back yard fence, installed the Atomi app, got them working, (Kind of a PITA) and all was good...for about 6 weeks...then one string developed a mind of its own. When the timer shut them off, no matter what light setting, color, or on/off they were set for...the last 6 or 7 bulbs in one string went to multi-color...and wouldn't even turn off with the app. (I could, obviously un-plug them and they'd go off, but as soon as I plugged them back in...same stuff.) Also, no matter what I did, the bulb housings kept filling with water whenever it would rain. (water and electricity? hmmm)
Finally, after fighting with them for several weeks, then just unplugging them out of frustration, I contacted Atomi. They gave me some troubleshooting tips...none of which worked. I gave up on them. Fast forward to this past November, I tried again...no luck. So...I contacted Atomi again. This time, they agreed something wasn't right and sent me two strings of their "new and improved" lights. So...I took down the old lights, strung up the new lights, battled with their fcked up app to get them installed...and VOILA! They're not perfect...but better. By Christmas, I noticed water in some of the bulb housings again...and one of the bulbs (next to the last in the string) wouldn't shut off, wouldn't change color, just did what it wanted.
Contacted Atomi again...and sent pics in the email. Again, "Oh...that's not right. Let me send a replacement string." In the mean time, THAT string started working right again...<pulls hair out> But now, the other string is doing the same shit.. ONE bulb, (again, next to last in the string) won't turn off, won't change color...and had a bit of water in the bulb housing..

Why the fck can't they make these things waterproof? The last sets, the bulb housing was hollow and held quite a bit of water. In the new bulb housings, there's only a small "cup" directly under the LED that holds water, the lower part of the housing seems to be solid.
AAARRRRGGGG!

 

[igor_kavinski]

Why the fck can't they make these things waterproof? The last sets, the bulb housing was hollow and held quite a bit of water. In the new bulb housings, there's only a small "cup" directly under the LED that holds water, the lower part of the housing seems to be solid.
AAARRRRGGGG!

Your beta testing is helping them improve

 

[IronWing]

Modern iPhones are designed by incels. Touch it, it gets turned on. Look at it, it gets turned on. Tell it “no” and it still gets turned on. Battery life is crap until you figure out how to castrate the damn thing.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Touch it, it gets turned on. Look at it, it gets turned on.

That's actually a fairly common smartphone feature adopted across the industry. Since people have stopped using watches and mostly tell time by looking at their smartphone screens, the "touch it and it turns on" feature comes in handy.

 

[lxskllr]

I like my Motorolas. Touch it, and you get a low power brief display of the time, and notifications with the detail you've allowed. My battery's three years old now, and I'm still short stroking it, and have way more than enough power to get through the day. I charge to 70%, and on a heavy day, I might get down to 40%.

 

[sdifox]

I like my Motorolas. Touch it, and you get a low power brief display of the time, and notifications with the detail you've allowed. My battery's three years old now, and I'm still short stroking it, and have way more than enough power to get through the day. I charge to 70%, and on a heavy day, I might get down to 40%.

This just in! lxskllr has menstrual cycles synced to his Motorola phone!

 

[igor_kavinski]

I like my Motorolas.

Past Moto X and current Moto Edge user here. Not much to complain about, other than Whatsapp killed the Moto X with its paltry 16GB storage and it started freezing a lot (probably due to NAND wear issues) and so had to get the Moto Edge.

 

[lxskllr]

My biggest complaint is their shitty update policy. The G series phones are as close to perfect as an android could be for my purposes. The price is great, they do everything I need them to do, and the shitware is minimal. The addons they put on top of android I actually find useful. I use the double chop to turn on the flashlight just about every day.

edit:
Forgot expandable storage and a headphone jack.

 

[QueBert]

1 of my roomates is hard of hearing, and he blasts his computer so he can hear it. He watches Youtube every day and about 90% of what he watches is that older car mechanic dude with the super annoying voice. I swear he's had to have watched every video that guy has made. I can't hear it in my room but anytime I go into the kitchen it's all I can hear.


I want to stab my ear drums out.


*EDIT* I just googled "annoying older car mechanic on Youtube" and his name's Scotty Kilmer. This is exactly what Google AI came up with

If you're thinking of an annoying older car mechanic on YouTube, the most likely candidate is Scotty Kilmer; he's a well-known automotive YouTuber who often comes across as grumpy and overly critical in his videos, frequently complaining about modern car designs and pushing a "back in my day" narrative.

Key points about Scotty Kilmer that might fit the "annoying older mechanic" stereotype:

Even AI knows his ass is annoying, AI is the future.

 

[sdifox]

My biggest complaint is their shitty update policy. The G series phones are as close to perfect as an android could be for my purposes. The price is great, they do everything I need them to do, and the shitware is minimal. The addons they put on top of android I actually find useful. I use the double chop to turn on the flashlight just about every day.

edit:
Forgot expandable storage and a headphone jack.

I am on G Stylus 5G 2024.

 

[lxskllr]

My main phone is a 2021 stylus 5G, and my internet phone at home is a 2024 5G Power. I'm still keeping an eye on Trump's clown show, and haven't ruled out getting a new phone, but what I'm leaning towards is switching my main and home phones. I like the Power, and all the home phone has to do is be a hotspot, so updates don't matter. The Stylus is still working great. It's just out of support.