July's Joyous Jabber

[Monstera deliciosa]

My mini-rave: My kitty Lily turns 17 today. She's not the first cat I've had who reached this age, but she is the first to do so in good health.

Lily is 17 by Karen, on Flickr

[What Exit?]

She looks like she's still a young kitty. Hopefully she's peppy and fun.

[Zeener Diode]

She's a sweetums, lookit her. Congratulation reaching 17, that's no small feat.

[JackieLikesVariety]

Originally Posted by Monstera deliciosa

My mini-rave: My kitty Lily turns 17 today. She's not the first cat I've had who reached this age, but she is the first to do so in good health.

awwww, she does look good!

[C2H5OH]

Originally Posted by Monstera deliciosa

My mini-rave: My kitty Lily turns 17 today. She's not the first cat I've had who reached this age, but she is the first to do so in good health.

My Katie just turned 18 in March, and she was in good health at 17, and continues to be so, so it looks like Lily may give you a few more good years, yet. Katie's actually the oldest one I've ever had. None of the others made it to 18, although Phinkie* (pronounced 'Finky') was only 1 month short when she died. She was showing her age and poor health for over a year before then, so I knew she was living on borrowed time for at least a year. I tell Katie that her stretch goal is to live to 24 like Phinkie's sister did (We gave her to friends of ours whom we stayed in regular touch with, so I saw her sister on an occasional basis).

*Spelled that way because she was a girl, so I gave her a feminine spelling

[Diamonds02]

I’m enjoying the benefits of Calm gummies (magnesium citrate)! Puts me right to sleep and then I wake up and take a glorious morning shit.

Killing two birds with one stone!

[Radical Edward]

I made a friend in the Elder Scrolls MMO, he lives in Argentina. Either he is a saint for putting up with my grammatically inept Spanish, or I am better at it than I think.

[C2H5OH]

Why can't it be both? [/diplomatic nonny]

[Solfy]

Lily is beautiful! I love her eyes.

[scareyfaerie]

Originally Posted by Monstera deliciosa

My mini-rave: My kitty Lily turns 17 today. She's not the first cat I've had who reached this age, but she is the first to do so in good health.

She is beautiful, and the image of my late Ophelia who passed on at the ripe old age of 18.5yrs. Our old boy, Shadow, is approaching 20yrs now, we have to guess at his age because he came to us as an adult stray so we know very little about his background.

We thought we were losing him a year or so ago when he lost a lot of weight and lost interest in life. Whizzed him to the vet for a blood test, diagnosis was thyroid issues, medication ensued and the old boy is perky and back to being King Cat.

[Monstera deliciosa]

Thank you everyone for the nice comments about Lily. I would say she thanks you too, but of course she is a cat, and sees admiration as her due. She does sleep a lot more as a senior cat. But when she is awake, she still quite lively, plays with her favorite toy, chases the laser pointer, gets into mischief, and loves lap time.

[Diamonds02]

Awww! Sounds like a good candidate for an instagram or YouTube cat!

[Solfy]

Last year the Director of Marketing (who was recently fired) pushed us all to find ways to use generative AI like Chat GPT to work smarter, including putting the whole organization through training, and checking in regularly for success stories on how we've been using it.
So far I've found it really handy for creating a better resume, drafting tailored cover letters for job applications, and today, writing a resignation letter.
He was right! It's a real time saver!

Best irony of all: My last day is my 25th anniversary with the company.

[Jaglavak]

Woo hooo! Outstanding! Now remember, you want that paycheck stained with tears when they hand it over.

[Solfy]

I dragged my feet accepting and got another pay bump out of it. That probably means I should have aimed even higher with my opening number, but they exceeded my thoroughly researched expectations with their initial offer. I wasn’t holding out for more money, just for time to do next week’s interview.

It feels good to be wanted. I haven’t felt that way (at work) for a long time.

[wring]

Originally Posted by Monstera deliciosa

Thank you everyone for the nice comments about Lily. I would say she thanks you too, but of course she is a cat, and sees admiration as her due. She does sleep a lot more as a senior cat. But when she is awake, she still quite lively, plays with her favorite toy, chases the laser pointer, gets into mischief, and loves lap time.

congrats - I've been very lucky in that most of my kitties made it to very senior ages - anywhere from 17 to 20 years, except for Matt Russell, the bestest cat in the world (my avatar), who was only 7 years old when he died of heart failure. celebrating my black kitty who has been struggling with an eye infection since last September (coinciding with the bug treatments on my apt, I don't think it's coincidence), anyhow, after months of treatments, her eye is finally back to looking like the other one, and not showing any signs of redness, runniness or swelling/pain.

but I came here to tell of something else. You know that whole "seven degrees of separation' thing? well, tonight I found out that my friends (really they were Enzo's friends, but they've become my rocks since he died - he met them in college back in the stone(d) age), actually know, and have known since he was a young kid.... Nate Silver. Yes, that guy, the one that currently writes op eds for the New York Times and was the founder of the 538 website and so on - that same web site that I used to refresh several times a day around election times.

[JackieLikesVariety]

Originally Posted by Solfy

It feels good to be wanted. I haven’t felt that way (at work) for a long time.

congratulations!

[teela brown]

Ah, I finally figured out how to work the "ignore poster" function over at the Dope. I listed two people to ignore and now I don't have to look at their idiot posts. Bliss.

[Sputnik]

I just set up a new T Mobile 5G gateway, and unplugged my Cox WiFi connection. This post is over the 5G network.

I have a month to decide if I want to keep it as we’re one of the first in my area to switch over. So far I’m impressed.

If anyone is really interested, I’ll post what was required to set it up, and the comparative data speeds with 5G vs. Cable modem WiFi, plus the costs/equipment involved.

Hint: 0 swearing involved in the process

[JackieLikesVariety]

what are the benefits of 5G?

[dynamitedave]

Originally Posted by Sputnik

I just set up a new T Mobile 5G gateway, and unplugged my Cox WiFi connection. This post is over the 5G network.

I don't know if 5G is the same, but 4G users I've heard about start off with great performance. Then as more people sign up, congestion starts to happen at peak times as spectrum is shared, thus a limited resource.

[Sputnik]

5G benefits.
Price, it’s half the cost monthly from what we were paying. Saving us 50 bucks a month.
That’s the biggest advantage considering performance isn’t really different.
It’s speed is setting in at about 220 to 250 Mbps, so it’s slower but still fast enough to stream video on 3 devices ( our test results) they claim 5G has the ability to reach 1 Gbps. That’s extremely fast.
It was a snap to set up. It pretty much did all the work.
We got a two week period to test it then keep it or return it.
There is only one cord now. The power cord to the gateway. No more cables to run and dust. Just that one small power cord.

Disadvantages.
It would be easier to hack than a cable connection.
If the cell network goes down, so does the 5G network.


There are other reasons that don’t make much sense to me, so maybe someone else knows. Also, it’s actually a gateway between your home and the cell tower, then a WiFi connection from the gateway in your home to your device. So your 5G device won’t roam between cell towers. It’s like your WiFi now.

I don’t know how it will work when the customer base expands. We’re one of the first for this area. I suppose they will add more towers when necessary.

[C2H5OH]

OOPS... NM. Double posted, instead of Editing... Deleted the partially-edited failure

[C2H5OH]

Originally Posted by Sputnik

I just set up a new T Mobile 5G gateway, and unplugged my Cox WiFi connection. This post is over the 5G network.

I have a month to decide if I want to keep it as we’re one of the first in my area to switch over. So far I’m impressed.

If anyone is really interested, I’ll post what was required to set it up, and the comparative data speeds with 5G vs. Cable modem WiFi, plus the costs/equipment involved.

Hint: 0 swearing involved in the process

The most important question is 'what kind of customer service do they have'. We switched our land-line telephone POTS* service from Verizon (standard POTS copper wire) to our cable company (which, conveniently, was cheaper) because they both suck 'customer service'-wise, but now, we only have to deal with 1 shitty company, instead of two, every month. As soon as the installer guy had it installed, I asked him if I could call up Verizon and tell them to go 'fuck themselves' (in exactly those words). He laughed and said 'yes', so as soon as he left, I called 'em up, and told them that. They didn't try to sell me on retaining the service, because it was already a 'done deal'. They didn't have our phone number in their records, anymore, as a current customer. Number transfers propagate FAST, these days. It only took the CS woman a few seconds to punch that up. They might have kept us as a customer, if they had been that good, all the other times we had to deal with them. So they knew the customer was already gone. I'm surprised that we didn't get another bill from them, because of how bad Verizon is on 'customer service'. They still haven't come around to take their shit back (including the wire they insist ain't ours) back from our pole to theirs, (and it's been several years) but some time soon (the wire is in my way) if they don't take it down, I'll take the stuff on our pole off, watch traffic, and cut it all down from our pole where it won't block traffic, wind up their hardware stuff, nail it to the pole across the road, whewn it'll be their problem to deal with, instead of mine, and let them collect their hardware at their own convenience. Or not. It won't be my problem, anymore...

*Plain Old Telephone Service - Land-line.

[Sputnik]

It’s through T Mobile. They have been good in the past. We had Cox forever. At one point we has tv, voip, and internet. We hated their customer service, so cutting the last of the three services, and being done with them, feels good.

[Radical Edward]

I have been using the T-mobile 5g wifi since early this year and it has been fantastic. Never goes out like Comcast, speeds stay excellent, customer service is a 1000% improvement. Also comcast is literally the devil, so.

PS the device is cuter than a regular router.

[Jaglavak]

I'm just using the wifi hotspot on my phone. Works fine, the laptop and the tablet hook right up no problem. Not exactly blazing fast but at least they aren't Comcast, the Prince of Darkness.

[Sputnik]

One more thing… ya get a new IP addy when you change. I’m wondering what benefit that might provide to my sock drawer?

[JackieLikesVariety]

don't see how comcast could be more evil than spectrum.

[hajario]

The ones that started life decades ago as cable tv companies (it’s Cox where I live) are all evil. They started life as a pure monopoly and never lost the attitude.

[Solfy]

I've never had Spectrum, but I believe Comcast is the evilest of them all.
I dumped them over a decade ago. I also hate Verizon, but I hate Comcast more.

Mini rave du jour: MD got into her first choice of dorm!

[Random Precision]

Today's XKCD is a crossword and I solved it!

Well, technically I guessed it, but I did check a few answers at random and I think I'm right.

[Jaglavak]

Originally Posted by Sputnik

One more thing… ya get a new IP addy when you change. I’m wondering what benefit that might provide to my sock drawer?

Cell phones use DHCP to generate a new IP address every time you restart. However your browser fingerprint will spill the beans. And I think it blabs your MAC/IMEI/MEID number too.

[Sputnik]

Also email addy would have to change. But my old iPad up and died, so this one is an internet virgin. New sims etc. the problem is my desire to post on the dope is low. Like an ex-smoker wanting to be in a smoke fulled room low.

[Diamonds02]

If someone wants to be naughty on a cell phone, it’s a lot harder to do so these days. Forget doing it on an android or iPhone. They’ll need something like Graphene OS. Yank the SIM card and use a hot spot or Wi-Fi for the internet. Picking the right wi-fi might be a challenge. I believe Graphene OS has a built in MAC address randomizer. Manipulating your browser fingerprint can be possible. Having Firefox browser with some privacy-protecting extensions is a good idea. But there needs to be a delicate balance between using the right extensions and not making your configurations too unique and therefore a fingerprint easier to track.

Someone can flash Graphene OS on a phone themselves, but it has to be a certain type of phone. I think they’ll have to drop at least $450 on one. I don’t think you can use any iPhone for it. Pixels are ideal. And someone can run the risk of crashing a brand new phone trying to flash Graphene. Hundreds of dollars down the toilet. Or, if they’re adventurous, they can buy a pre-flashed phone from a supplier. And what I mean by “adventurous” I mean lazy and reckless. Those kind of phones are very vulnerable to supply chain attacks. No telling who got hold of those phones and what kind of bugs they added to that phone before it gets to you.

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

[wring]

successfully adulted today - last winter some time, the key to my car broke (it's one of those fancy/schmancy deals with a plastic hub and a metal key coming out and the plastic hub broke, rendering the key useless). had to get a ride back home and back to the car w/the spare key, called around to find out cost of replacement key dealership wanted $350 (included programming said key), I bought a housing online, figured it'd be no big deal to get it copied - um. it was. found a couple places, went to a kiosk type thing that ultimately said, no, you have to call blah blah, had called a couple of other key places, one gave me some guys number who said he'd meet me in a grocery stores parking lot... um. I don't think so. and again, costs were stupid - like $200 or more. discovered that my AAA membership would reimburse $100, and again called around. finally went to a place locally spent $100, got a replacement key to open and operate car, they got my other key reprogrammed to open and lock car remotely. spent way too much time getting the online reimbursement forms done (hopefully) for AAA but even if that fails, I'm counting it a success all around.

[Solfy]

My last vehicle had a "sidewinder" key. It only came with one since I bought it used. I lived with only one key for all the years I had it because I didn't feel like paying what they wanted for a 2nd. In hindsight I should have negotiated a 2nd key at sale time. In my defense, I had no idea they could be such a pain in the ass to procure.

My joyous jabber: My folks are all caught up on health screenings, all of which have come back clear. This bears remarking because prior to about 1.5yrs ago my mother hadn't darkened the door of a Dr's office in decades.

[Solfy]

Spent - beautiful evening under the stars listening to Patty Grifffin live. Live music is what puts me in touch with the ineffable. (gin helps, too)

[InternetBrowser]

Received a pay increase without a email from my employer about what it is and why but I will just be thankful

[JackieLikesVariety]

I really mean to remember to be grateful much more often than is actually happening.

I am dog sitting! life is MUCH better with a dog in it!

[picunurse]

We got a new refrigerator today! The old one hasn't had an interior light since we moved into this house. (I don't know when it went out, the 'fridge came with the house.)
This one looks like the second coming of Christ! We had to put it in a different place and that will take some getting used to but it new and clean and bright.

The one down side is the kitties don't care for change. This is a big change.

[InternetBrowser]

Got excused for jury duty, thank you