Author: DOuG pRATt

I’m a Grill Watcher

The old gas grill cover tore. They all do that eventually, especially in freezing weather, with the good ones lasting a few years. With a big snow storm forecast for tomorrow night, I wanted to get a new cover. I usually get grill covers at Ocean State Job Lot, but this time I went to Lowe’s, because it’s closer. Lowe’s ended up being a longer distance.

The first cover I bought today was supposed to be the right size, but it was too small. I returned the cover and got a refund. A bigger one of the same type was 15 bucks more, $45 vs. $30, so I bought a cheaper large cover for $25. The size was good, but it didn’t last a minute, because it ripped immediately. Back to Lowe’s I went for another refund and to buy the $45 cover. Tt’s okay, except it doesn’t have the side handles as shown on the box. All I care about is it fits and doesn’t get torn.

So, let’s see. That’s three 9-mile round-trips, for a total of 27 miles, compared to the almost 20-mile round-trip to the Job Lot. Can you tell I couldn’t think of anything else to write about?

Well, nothing, that is, other than Trump and Musk. Why are there kiddie programmers, with no financial system experience or expertise, looking at the Treasury’s payment system, unless they intend to do some coding. To what end?

That Musky Stench

This isn’t just a crime, it’s a coup. Next? Social Security. The first benefits to be cut will be for people on disability.

Musk’s DOGE granted access to US Medicare and Medicaid systems

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-aides-search-medicare-agency-payment-systems-fraud-wsj-reports-2025-02-05/

Musk’s DOGE operatives who are freely roaming around the Treasury’s payment system aren’t experienced, responsible professionals. They’re children.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/doge-musketeers-secret-team-elon-221351736.html

Another Mandatory Update

Google issued a mandatory update for my phone that crippled its battery. In return, I got a very good deal on a new Google phone. They didn’t even want the old phone in trade.

On the front porch yesterday morning there was a big box from Verizon, filled with equipment — a new router, DVR and STB. They don’t want the old gear returned.

I have 30 days to activate the new DVR before the old one is shut down. It isn’t clear that the router needed to be replaced, but I did it anyway. Compared to the old router, it seems to have better 5 GHz coverage and it adds Wi-Fi 6 support.

Protocol: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz
Driver version: 23.70.2.3
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 52
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 432/432 (Mbps)
IPv4 address: 192.168.1.183
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.1.1 (Unencrypted)
Physical address (MAC): E4-0D-36-EA-20-63

Losing the old DVR will be painful. It has a nice collection of movies in HD from TCM. Almost all of them are on an external 1 TB HDD I added a decade ago. It’s connected with a Firewire interface, but the drive also has a USB port, so it can be repurposed. I’d be amazed if its file system is readable on a PC.

I’ll look into disposing the old video equipment. I’m keeping the old router and its extender, as there’s some network experimentation I want to try.

So much technology that’s been working perfectly, but is now considered junk, and I’m being forced to retire it. *SIGH* This is why I am so pleased with Lyrion, the successor to Logitech Media Server. I was close to giving up on my Squeezebox Radios and the Touch streamer, but now Lyrion has brought the music network back to life beautifully.