TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

 Similar to this post , except switching to mobile data did not fix it.  Seems many people are having similar problems . In my specific case, my son was trying to buy Robux.  I was able to redeem his gift card using mobile data (as in this post ) but when attempting the purchase all I got was "Your Play balance can only be used in Canada". To be fair, I am using a VPN - with a Canadian ISP address.  Turning it off did not help even though I live in Canada and my DNS was correctly reported as being in Canada.  Every setting I could find said the account was in Canada. I was able to fix the issue by switching to mobile data, downloading the Roblox app on my own phone, signing in to Roblox as him, then paying for the Robux using my own payment information. I could theoretically have done the same thing via a web browser, except that Roblox did not allow purchase of the # of Robux he wanted via web.  (On mobile, you can buy 80 Robux; on web, there is no option...

I suppose this is now a Windows-only issue.   Problem:  iTunes stops at "Verification is required.  Please click Billing Information", or similar, but when you click the "Billing information" button, nothing happens.  Prevents you from buying anything. Solution: There is something wrong with your Apple ID that needs to be updated. The "Billing information" button is supposed to take you to a web page where you can sign in using your Apple ID, where you can view, edit and update your billing information.  However, the iTunes button doesn't always work, making it seem like iTunes itself is broken. Most likely there is some security or billing update that needs to be completed, like 2-step verification or updating your credit card information.  Neither of these can be done in iTunes itself; they both need to be done at the Apple ID web site. So, the solution is to: •  Go to appleid.apple.com and sign in. •  Check / update your security settings and b...

If you get this error, you can try signing back in again. In my case, I had started to sign in, but it went wrong and I closed the sign-in pop-up dialog.  Nothing seemed wrong. However, this left the Etsy site confused, even though I had opted to checkout as Guest.  Re-signing in using a Google account fixed the error.

Note: this affects ONLY the situation where you have a gift card FROM YOUR COUNTRY and are actually IN YOUR COUNTRY.  If you want a means to redeem a foreign card, or redeem a domestic card while in another country, look elsewhere.    This issue popped up recently on Google Play. Location services were off, but turning them back on did not help. What did work was turning off Wi-Fi and completing the transaction over mobile data. This might work for other countries, I don't know.

I rode an older Hypermotard in Europe, and really had fun.  Probably the most fun I'd ever had on a motorcycle, to be honest.  So I naturally wanted my own. Unfortunately, I'm too short to be in the Hypermotard club.  I was on tippy-toe the whole week in Europe, and it was not a good feeling.  I needed something shorter. Enter the late-model Hyperstrada.  Very much like the Hypermotard, but including panniers, all Hyperstradas after 2015 are 939s, and the "low" model.  After test-sitting one I knew it was OK for me. Don't get me wrong: this bike is fun.  Damn fun, actually.  And far more capable than I am capable of riding it. Unfortunately, it suffers from some glaring flaws that - somehow - nobody sufficiently points out. One is the legendary grabby clutch, a seeming constant characteristic of modern Ducatis.  That goes away once warmed up, but is irritating.  Still, no bike it perfect, and it's annoying but tolerable. Similar is the "...

Note: this post is for Lexus, specifically the 4th Gen Lexus RX350 (2016+).  I am ASSUMING the process is similar for other Lexus and Toyota.   TPMS on the Lexus is a pain.  On a GM vehicle, you do the following: Install the new wheels with their new TPMS sensors on the car Put the car into "relearn" mode; and Poke each TPMS sensor with a $25 activation tool . Done. Not so easy on the Lexus/Toyota.  The basic steps are: Read the ID codes for the existing TPMS sensors (for future use) Obtain the ID codes for the new TPMS sensors Program / load these ID codes into an OBDII-capable TPMS programming tool; and Connect the tool to the car to upload the new sensor IDs to the car ECU. The main issue with this is that many of the less expensive tools on the market will do only 1 or 2 of these steps.  You obviously need a tool that does all of them, and that means a more costly tool. Unfortunately, vendors use confusing terminology such as "trigger", "activation", ...

Skip to the middle to get to the things that you don't find everywhere else. Yes, there are a zillion posts about this.  None of them were actually complete, IMHO, so here we go.  For this example I will use: •  Donor:  2011 Ford Flex •  Recepient:  2016-2021 (4th Gen) Lexus RX350 Why?  The used Ford wheels were 1/4 the cost of new Lexus wheels. Bolt pattern :  Should be obvious.  Both cars use 5x114.3.   Bore / centerbore :  Ford is 63.4mm,  Lexus is 60.1mm.  As the Lexus shaft is smaller than the Ford wheel hole size, I need hubcentric rings / centering rings that convert 63.4mm to 60.1mm . Note that these rings are entirely intended to center the wheel during the mounting process, and do not bear any load once the wheels are torqued down.  So they can be plastic or a lightweight metal such as aluminum, no problem. Diameter :  Both cars use 20" wheels.  Important since too-small wheels will not clear the ...

I was badly misled by online information on this one.  I don't know if that's because a lot of people have overhead service or not, but whatever. Per Enmax, in the Calgary (non-downtown) area, the cost to update underground service to 200A is about as follows: •  Transformer on your property:  $4,000 to $8,000 •  Transformer is 1 lot away:  $8,000 to $15,000 •  Transformer is 2 lots away:  $20,000 to $40,000 •  More than 2 lots away, or 2 lots away and across the road: $50,000 to $80,000 Most of this is the cost of underground horizontal drilling and Hydrovac, which obviously increase (steeply) by distance.  Given this I expect the costs would be similar throughout Western Canada. About the only "good" news is that because they drill, there is no surface disturbance to roads or neighboring property.  But that's not any kind of consolation given the massive cost. This is for a single detached home in the 'burbs.  Heavily urbanized or...

Problem:  You have an old XP (!) or Windows 7 box.  Teamviewer no longer supports your OS, and/or is endlessly bugging you with "Commercial Use Detected!" nag-boxes. Solution:  Try AnyDesk . Why? •  It's free. •   It has a portable version - you can try it without installing a thing. •  It works on old operating systems (including XP (!)) •  It's pretty nice. Some features are pay-only, any the subscriptions ain't cheap.  But, so far, I've not found anything the free version lacks that I need. This saved a very old PC of mine after Teamviewer stopped supporting old boxen.  I need this ancient PC to run a prehistoric printer, with neither being supported by newer software.  AnyDesk saved it when Teamviewer stopped connecting in v15. [Update]:  Another free option is RustDesk.  I've not tried it myself; here is an article about it .

Problem: Per title.  Affected was Kodi Leia, but can happen to any Kodi.  May also happen to other media players.   Explanation:  This is a manifestation of the ED ID issue (also known as the "quarter screen issue") where: •  Windows is losing the EDID for the display device (TV, projector) when the display is shut off or disconnected. •  Windows then resizes the screen resolution to the "default" display device, which forces Kodi to resize as well.  This usually makes the Kodi display lower resolution (i.e. smaller). •  When the display is turned back on / reconnected, Windows re-acquires the EDID and changes back to the original resolution.   Kodi does not handle this gracefully.   The result is that Kodi gets "stuck" in the lower resolution, which manifests itself as a smaller (i.e. lower-resolution) window at the top-left corner of the screen.   Some people find that although Kodi is resized, it is still responsi...

There are obviously LOTS of ways to do this in pfsense.  This is just the way that I found, which seems to work. This rule should prevent an individual machine from "talking" using the default non-VPN WAN connection.  This will prevent it from sending any traffic if the VPN goes down.  Go to Firewall/Rules/Floating Action: Block Quick: Checked Interface: WAN Direction: any Address family: IPv4 Protocol: Any Source: Single host or alias / [set local IP address of host here i.e. 192.168.1.100] Destination: any Description: enter any description here [i.e. "Block this IP from using non-VPN WAN"]  Click "Save" Obvious notes: -  This only really works if the machine in question uses a static IP address. -  You can define multiple rules for different devices. -  You can set the rule to block a range of IP addresses by using "Network" instead of "Single host". This approach does not use policy-based routing and does not decide which machines u...

This was a quick test only, using a popular torrent client.   The Netgear is a recent (faster) example running the latest DD-WRT.  The pfsense box is an eBay i7-7500U special with the latest pfsense. Speeds are peak speeds through Private Internet Acccess (PIA) using AES-256 / SHA256 on their "Next Gen" network.  There were no changes to the rest of the setup between the two trials. Results: Netgear: 4 MiB/s  i7-7500U: 38 MiB/s That's almost a 10x improvement. Note I couldn't get these speeds using all torrents, as some of the sources are limited.  However, I know that the Netgear can't exceed 5 MiB/s no matter what, while the i7 definitely can do 38 MiB/s.  It's possible the i7 might be able to go even faster. From this, it does appear obvious that the Netgear is quite limited with respect to VPN crypto.  Obviously the i7 is vast overkill.  I got it since the price difference between the i3 and i5 was nominal and I really only feel like doin...

First parcel, no issues.  Took a little while to get the incoming ticket, but didn't think anything of it - I figured the delivery had been slow, and I didn't care.  Picked it up at DYK without any issues. Second parcel was Amazon, so I had a delivery date.  It took Montana Mailbox 7 working days (12 calendar days) to issue the incoming ticket.  I wanted the parcel earlier, so I sent an email 4 working days after delivery, to see if Montana could expedite it.  I never got a reply.  I was hoping to get at least a "Sorry, we can't help with that", but nada. MM is undoubtedly big, but I can't see them having a 7-day incoming queue.  So they obviously prioritize commercial traffic over individual parcels, meaning one-off packages will take however long they take. It then took another 9 days for DYK to just pick it up, plus an additional 2 days to get it to the correct office.  So about 15 working days, or 23 days total, until it arrived. Again, DY...

Check the wireless channel settings on your 2.4 GHz router. I had been messing with my network and had set one of my routers to 2.4 GHz channel 3, which resulted in significant interference (skipping, lagging) on my MX Revolution mouse.  Resetting the router to "Auto" fixed it improved it somewhat. Additionally, putting both my wireless APs on the same channel seemed to improve things as well.  They naturally did this themselves on their "Auto" setting, so I'm guessing it's somehow OK. This might apply to any 2.4 GHz peripheral, but especially older ones that don't use Bluetooth.  My MX is old and is non-Bluetooth. Alternatively: -  If your router is set to "Auto", try setting it to a fixed channel; -  Try moving the mouse receiver closer to the mouse; and/or -  Try moving the router further away from the mouse. These did not help my situation but are always worth a try.

Simple answer:   •  From a server to multiple clients, YES. •  From a server to a single client, NO. Why:  LAG/LACP does not combine several gigabit connections into a single fat connection.  This is because all traffic for a single IP address has to go through one physical connection.  It's just too complex to do it any other way.  So, a 4-port LAG is not a party line, where everyone can hear everyone else.  It's one person with 4 phones talking to four separate people each holding 1 phone - none of which can hear each other. This means that a 4-port NAS can shove out 4 Gbps in total - but only 1 Gbps to each individual client. (Yes, there are rare exceptions - just enough to make it unclear if LAG to a single client is really faster or not.  But it's not.) This doesn't make LAG useless.  It just means it's only useful where you have several clients connecting to the NAS simultaneously.  A single client can't take advantage...