What first world problem did you have today?

[MongGrel]

The Varmint Cong can be sneaky little buggers.

 

[Imp]

The Varmint Cong can be sneaky little buggers.

It's crazy, sounds like Charlie is everywhere.

 

[Red Squirrel]

My mouse trap monitoring contraption is getting dirty and rusty and the contacts arn't working properly. I just went up to check because all 3 alarm points were showing as tripped, 2 of them since like May. Sure enough got 2. I reset them all but only 1 of them is resetting the alarm properly.

I will have to rebuild it, but it's so dirty I kinda don't want to work on that thing. I think I'll just throw the whole thing out and build a new one.

Was funny though, when I was pulling the mice off they were coming out in pieces. It made a similar sound as breaking celery.

 

[Eli]

My mouse trap monitoring contraption is getting dirty and rusty and the contacts arn't working properly. I just went up to check because all 3 alarm points were showing as tripped, 2 of them since like May. Sure enough got 2. I reset them all but only 1 of them is resetting the alarm properly.

I will have to rebuild it, but it's so dirty I kinda don't want to work on that thing. I think I'll just throw the whole thing out and build a new one.

Was funny though, when I was pulling the mice off they were coming out in pieces. It made a similar sound as breaking celery.

D:



Pics of mouse trap monitoring system?? That sounds pretty badass lol

 

[Red Squirrel]

D:



Pics of mouse trap monitoring system?? That sounds pretty badass lol

Older pic of before it got nasty:



Wiring going to server room:



What the alerts look like:



Sends me an email too.


I need to set one up in my other attic actually, for all I know, there's probably some in that one too. It's so seldom that it does not really bother me as much as it should, but I really do need to figure out how they're getting in especially if I ever decide to sell in the future. Some people completely freak over that.

Next one I setup, I'll make it so the traps can easily be replaced. Those ones are glued in place. The nice thing is that those victor traps have been around forever and the design never changes, so whatever I do I can always count on them being the same and not having to change my own design. The fact that they're copper makes it easy to set up as a normaly closed loop.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I used victor rat traps out in the yard to capture voles who'd set up shop next door and dug under the fence to tear up the yard. They followed the first moles this year and started digging into their tunnel network around the house. I ended up baiting them with peanut better and caught all 8 of them. Too bad catching moles isn't as easy or I'd have them all too.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I think I also have a dead mouse in my other attic, I can really smell it in the kitchen area, and it's very specific to that area, so it's not just the mice I threw in the trash (further away).

That means I need to move all the crap that's in the hall closet so I can access the attic, and try to find the mouse in the blown insulation.

Might be easier to just use some kind of air freshener. I really have no idea how they're coming in, and why it's in spurts like that.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Amazon PrimeNow has mustard and brats, but not buns.

 

[Mixolydian]

Had a 3 hour nap. Still cranky.

 

[CZroe]

Finally got an AC adapter to test my Atari 800 and the TV's RF input was bad.

Finally got another TV and I just get a black screen when Atari Basic is inserted.

Cleaned and reseated all the RAM cards and everything. Memo Pad is the only thing that works (power on with no cartridge).

Considering that Eastern Europe was still buying Atari 8-bit series PCs in 1992, I'm not sure this counts as a first-world problem.

Side note:

Please don't do this to built-in non-replaceable cables. Even if you don't break them, you leave them a tangled kinked-up mess when they unravel and they are now impossible to loosely loop like they always should have been.

 

[Svnla]

LOL @ Red Squirrel. You surely are a nerd (in a good way) with that mouse trap system. A computerized/automated with alarm at that.

 

[MongGrel]

I forgot to buy Hot Chinese Mustard at the store yesterday.

 

[CZroe]

Older pic of before it got nasty:



Wiring going to server room:



What the alerts look like:



Sends me an email too.


I need to set one up in my other attic actually, for all I know, there's probably some in that one too. It's so seldom that it does not really bother me as much as it should, but I really do need to figure out how they're getting in especially if I ever decide to sell in the future. Some people completely freak over that.

Next one I setup, I'll make it so the traps can easily be replaced. Those ones are glued in place. The nice thing is that those victor traps have been around forever and the design never changes, so whatever I do I can always count on them being the same and not having to change my own design. The fact that they're copper makes it easy to set up as a normaly closed loop.

Relying on the flipper to make a circuit seems like the wrong way to go. There's a good chance that the trapped mouse will insulate the contacts or that the leads will sheer from the force. A normally-closed momentary switch that is released when triggered seems like a better idea.

 

[MongGrel]

Relying on the flipper to make a circuit seems like the wrong way to go. There's a good chance that the trapped mouse will insulate the contacts or that the leads will sheer from the force. A normally-closed momentary switch that is released when triggered seems like a better idea.

That or have a few pet laser cats

I'd hope the Squirrel is over his cold, he seems perkier these days.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Using the contacts of the trap itself was fairly reliable, as even if the bar flings back and makes contact, having it just sit on the contact by it's own weight creates too high of a resistance that it can't overcome the pull down resistors. Though now my issue is that the traps have corroded over time from the peanut butter and mouse guts that it does not make proper contact even when spring loaded. I may very well change the design for the next one. I was actually thinking a laser that goes across all traps, as any mouse would block it. The laser just needs to go slightly above the traps. Then it would just activate like once a minute or something. Though the idea was to keep it fairly simple so the whole thing can just be tossed once it gets too gross. I think the next design I'll make it so I can easily swap just the traps but keep the rest in tact. Instead of soldering directly to the traps I can use crocodile clips. The nice thing with normally closed loop is if a mouse decides to chew the wires it will set it off too.

I think I need to build another for my lower attic though, pretty sure I have a mouse in my wall right now, it smells. :/ Going to just wait it out, don't really want to be punching holes everywhere. I think the two attics are connected, but not sure how easy it is for a mouse to get from the lower one to the higher one (one with traps). The nice thing with the lower attic is that part of the wall has access to it, so I'll just make a small hatch in the wall that I can easily pull out, kinda like a drawer, but just have it seal very well with good magnets or something.

That or have a few pet laser cats

I'd hope the Squirrel is over his cold, he seems perkier these days.

Oh yeah that cold surprisingly did not last as long as they normally do for me. Was gone within about a week or so. Normally summer colds last me like a month. I just hope I don't get another when I go camping, that's when I caught the one last year and it ruined the rest of my vacation.

 

[CZroe]

Too many people want the thing I want and so the website is down. The vendor can't even update the site to start selling them because it's hit so hard. Oddly, this is a kit requiring electronics skills, so I'm very surprised demand is this high.

 

[Charmonium]

Too many people want the thing I want and so the website is down. The vendor can't even update the site to start selling them because it's hit so hard. Oddly, this is a kit requiring electronics skills, so I'm very surprised demand is this high.

Soldering isn't an electronics skill. Even I can solder . . . . . I can even de-solder. Not saying I won't cook a component and release the magic blue smoke though.

 

[Imp]

I set up my speakers but haven't plugged them in because I still need an RCA to 3.5mm cable that won't be here until tomorrow. I could have bought one down the street but it wasn't the one I wanted...

And my contact lens got stuck in my eyelid. I was ready to go to the emergency room. Sat down, "fingered" my eyelid, and managed to get it out. Happened in the shower and I was initially disappointed that I lost a brand new contact lens.

 

[CZroe]

Soldering isn't an electronics skill. Even I can solder . . . . . I can even de-solder. Not saying I won't cook a component and release the magic blue smoke though.

I never said anything about soldering, though it does involve that too. Even so, I can drive but that doesn't mean that driving isn't a skill. It's a kit that mainstream users are paying for professional installation services to install, so I am not wrong when I say that the DIY kit is not intended for mainstream users.

Desoldering PPU, desoldering CPU, assembling interposers, recapping the RF module, modifying the casing, modifying the cable, ... Did I mention that it takes a very special screwdriver to even get started (NEC External Line Head)?

It's simply not a mainstream kit.

Edit: I nabbed one! My brother was almost checked out with one too when they went out of stock.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Reminds me when the Nexus 4 came out. It was sold out in minutes. I was pissed, because I was actually in the market for a phone, but I did not want a contract or to pay $900. Clearly, I was not the only one. They came out with a second batch about a year later and I had managed to snag one. Still my current phone. I'll pretty much keep it until it dies or something. Sometimes I look at newer phones just for fun, but I feel it's not something I really want to spend money on.

 

[Imp]

I keep getting YouTube ads for Crest... Probably because I googled why it felt like skin was peeling out of my mouth after using it. Yes, that'll really make me want to buy more.

 

[shortylickens]

I have too much free time this weekend and my sleep cycle is off.

 

[Sonikku]

Deciding I'm going to return Star Fox Zero but I've never done a return over ebay before. Shipping is on me. What mailer do I need to ship something this size?
http://i.imgur.com/ZFY2JSC.jpg
really don't feel like spending $5 seeing as how there's a restocking fee on top of it.

 

[Imp]

I bought Bose speakers... and I liked them. They're definitely not as good as my 2.1 + receiver bookshelves, but $125 today's money versus ~$700 a decade ago and 70 lb lighter, ya this is good enough.

And I peeled off some decade old tape from a wall. *shudders* I used masking tape on top of some electrical tape. The masking tape's adhesive melted onto the electrical tape, made a gooey mess.

 

[CZroe]

I keep getting YouTube ads for Crest... Probably because I googled why it felt like skin was peeling out of my mouth after using it. Yes, that'll really make me want to buy more.

I've had my mouth suddenly shed a layer of skin. I've asked doctors and dermatologists about it but they don't seem to have a clue.

Basically, I'll just be talking and I'll feel the top layer of skin slip off my lips and cheeks. It feels like a slime but if you wipe a dark washrag across your cheek you'll see that it's a film of skin that quickly dries to the cloth. I usually go many months (sometimes years) without it happening and then it will suddenly happen a few times in a day or several times over a few days.