Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Frag Maniac]

Bought ram for new PC on Saturday night and the website used the processing system for the bank my credit card is with. It offered two choices for verification:

1. SMS
2. Email

I chose SMS and it didn't send me a code. I have been here before with their system, it often doesn't give me a code.
I chose an option to go backwards to previous page and picked email. I got the email and entered the code. Payment appeared to work. It showed as fully paid on order.

Monday night I was looking at my bank account and noticed a red warning saying my account was restricted. I had to answer some questions before they would open it up. It asked me to install the banks app on my phone, which I did... that app then asked for 2 forms of ID I don't have. It also said If you don't have them, to go to a branch and give them what you do.

I went to bank the next day and explained it was their system causing the problem. I also showed them the ID they required, and they said it should be fixed now.
Next day I try to use my card at local shops and its rejected... I also noticed that on their website I couldn't transfer any money to other people to pay bills, there was no account attached from my end.

The red warning had said it could take 3 days to clear, so I was going to give them till Friday to unfreeze me.
I looked today and it seems to have been fixed now. I transfered some cash to my mum to test it and only difference is now it wants verification for every transfer but luckily I always got the sms if the bank sent them, its just if I bought something it might not work.

Glad that is fixed, I intend to spend way more next week buying the parts for my new PC. Probably a good thing it messed up now. And not next week.

My online purchase woes lately are with one of the larger Ford parts vendors. These guys are the only ones I've found that have a 4/5 star rating, but it's starting to look like that only applies if the part you get is in usable condition. I bought 3 door window weatherstrips for my vehicle, the 4th was on nationwide backorder for some time. The first 3 came in fine condition and have been installed. The 4th came in unusable condition. The small 3" mounting strip, which has a screw pillar and is supposed to be bonded (heat welded I believe) to the plastic frame of the weatherstrip, was unattached, just sitting loose in the bag.

The first person in their RMA dept I spoke to said she would submit the RMA request to their parts techs, and that they would email me, possibly asking for pics. Instead they sent an email saying I need to either take the defective part to a Ford dealership and have them install a new one under warranty, or get a proof of purchase certificate from them then have Ford verify it's defective. I called both the biggest Ford dealer in my area AND Ford Motor Company Customer Relations, and they both said the only parts they warranty are ones that are bought and install by a Ford dealer.

I had to argue at length with the online vendor's RMA dept manager, and for most of the conversation she was insisting Ford warranties their own brand parts regardless where you buy them from. At some point she finally realized (or stopped trying to BS me), that the Ford dealerships have nothing to do with this purchase, so she asked me to send some pics. I can only hope they'll acknowledge that the pic I took shows the mounting strip sitting loose in the bag is not how the part should come. These parts come sealed in a whitish colored plastic (which if opened cannot be returned), but you CAN see that part is not attached. I also included a pic of my old driver side strip proving that mounting piece is supposed to be mounted to the strip.

I've not gotten a reply yet, but that may be a good sign, as the ones they sent promptly were nothing but what looked to be a 3rd party Ford part vendor unaffiliated with Ford trying to dodge their own QC issues. If I don't get a response by Monday, I'm going to call back Tues and see what they have to say. This is stress I don't need right now, especially given what these mostly plastic parts cost. I must say though, this was the only strip of the 4 that was not only on back order for some time, but also given a different part number, so it could be part of the problem is Ford is having them made in a different factory and needs to check the QC better. Their idea of doing that though is probably "Send any that are bad to 3rd party vendors, maybe that will scare customers into thinking they have to pay dealership prices to get good parts."

On a humous note, which I find to be the best medicine when one is stressed, when finishing my drive today I saw a guy in a sporty looking little Subaru with a bumper sticker on it you don't normally see on such a car. It said Old Driver. When I drove up next to him in the adjacent lane at the stop light, he didn't look that old to me, no signs of grey hair or whiskers. I wanted to yell out my window "You don't look that old!", but I just laughed.

 

[DXCHASE]

I dont post much in here, but this threads gonna fly away lol. I be missing some stories here.

 

[BeardyHat]

@Frag Maniac

Sounds like a nightmare! I absolutely hate ordering parts online; have only done it a few times, but the one time it's been wrong, it was very wrong and I don't want to repeat that.

Apparently going from a HDMI graphics card to a VGA screen is not the same as going from a HDMI screen to a VGA graphics card, so I'll need to make sure I get the right adapter. Though I might check our second hand store and see if they have a VGA monitor for a couple of bucks instead.

Ah, right.

I'm pretty sure I've got a couple of PCs lying around with VGA outputs. If I can turn up a proper cable, I'll plug one in and see if I can get it to output to a modern display and let you know.

Whenever I have time that is. My weekend is about to ramp up here and I'm not sure I'll have a ton of time, but we'll see.

I actually have no clue what Windows system is on there now. If I had to guess it's Windows XP.

I'm not sure if I'll actually use this for anything, but it does have a DVD drive, so that's something.

I would still like to get a PC that can play games that are a little more recent, without spending a lot of money on it. I'm hoping I'll have some time tomorrow to look through my options, both new and second-hand.

Just sounds like it's from the right era to do Win 98. I have a fascination with building a Win 98 gaming PC, but I struggle to think of anything from the era I want to play that also doesn't already work on a modern machine.

As for newer stuff, my go-to suggestion is always a used Office PC for a few hundred bucks and a cheap, used midrange GPU and call it a day. Not sure what prices look like where you're at, but going used seems very affordable to me over here.

 

[Frag Maniac]

@Frag Maniac
Sounds like a nightmare! I absolutely hate ordering parts online; have only done it a few times, but the one time it's been wrong, it was very wrong and I don't want to repeat that.

It certainly was feeling that way yesterday, but if it goes as the first gal I spoke to said it should, I'll get a prepaid shipping label to send the part back, and hopefully they'll check the replacement part as I requested before shipping it out. I get the feeling this gal really SHOULD be managing their RMA dept. Fingers majorly crossed though.

 

[Colif]

TIL 30cm is the amount of distance light travels in a nanosecond.

I am sure that will come in useful one day. Sure makes me feel slow.

 

[Colif]

I'm not sure if I'll actually use this for anything, but it does have a DVD drive, so that's something.

It might be easier to just move that to another PC than to get the old PC working
If you lucky Windows is not password protected, as otherwise you stuck.

I left the entire weekend to do my homework and had it finished in 3 hours. I had guessed it wouldn't take long but you never can tell until you start. One question took 20 minutes which I hadn't expected when I started. If I had known, I might have done that part on early Monday morning.

I have to do an audio recording for it tomorrow so I couldn't hand it in yet. This is the first online course I have ever had to do which includes audio or video recordings as assignments. Just as well the people I know are willing to help. At least the scripts for the helpers are already created, I just have to fill in the gaps. Its actually easier that way, their pre scripted lines give me clues as to what I should say.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Just had what has to have been the largest earthquake we've had in my lifetime.

My wife yelled, "What's happening!" I said, "I think it's an earthquake." My other thought was that the maybe the nukes had started hitting because it was so loud at first that it sounded like an explosion.

Edit: Actually it wasn't the biggest earthquake we've had. The epicenter was just a lot closer. But they are saying it was a 4.5. I can't imagine what a big earthquake would be like.

 

[Colif]

Maybe a 4.1 if its the latest showing here

Latest Earthquakes

earthquake.usgs.gov

Australia generally doesn't have those anymore, most of our exciting stuff happened millions of years ago.
Pity really, it sounded like a fun place

 

[Zed Clampet]

Maybe a 4.1 if its the latest showing here

Latest Earthquakes

earthquake.usgs.gov

Australia generally doesn't have those anymore, most of our exciting stuff happened millions of years ago.
Pity really, it sounded like a fun place

Yeah, they upgraded it to a 4.5. As I said above in an edit, it actually wasn't the strongest one we've had. The epicenter was just much closer, about 60 miles away. After experiencing that, I can't begin to imagine what the huge earthquakes in California must be like.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Maybe a 4.1 if its the latest showing here

Latest Earthquakes

earthquake.usgs.gov

Australia generally doesn't have those anymore, most of our exciting stuff happened millions of years ago.
Pity really, it sounded like a fun place

I was going to say, the dinosaurs were lucky enough to see it, but I'm sure they didn't feel that way. More like, "Oh my GOD, this is the end of us all!"

 

[Colif]

This is fun
I finally have the cash I need to buy parts
Visit both sites I was ordering off.
pick parts out to buy
get to payment stage again and what you know, my banks payment processing pops up again and only choice, due to amount, was sms. So I select it.....
minutes pass. No reply.
Both sites had same result
After being frozen out of my accounts last week, I wasn't going to push it.

I can't even spend the money now that I have it.

I have made another note for the bank, this time with a screenshot of the screen that fails. Maybe that will give them a clue as to what to change, its not the telephone number on my account that is wrong, I get sms from the bank for every transaction now.

lets just ignore I said that, The problem was my phone, sometime I blocked my banks sms codes... no idea why. Anyway, I am to blame.

 

[Zed Clampet]

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/l8UDM4bOhpU?si=fcWe7z7icSm08C8G

 

[Frindis]

I would have outsmarted them both by just dragging the crate.

 

[Zed Clampet]

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

View: https://youtu.be/LaJN5W2FzLs?si=xGbM4aO1zzUtvPhj

Near the end it is over-the-top hilarious to me.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I FINALLY seem to have lucked out with a part order for my 2008 Escape. I've been wanting to replace the driver door seal, especially now that the tear at the bottom of it is several inches long. This vehicle uses a rail on the body to mount it, vs on the door. The plus is they tend to stay put better than a lot of door mounted ones, but can also wear at the bottom if your foot drags over it. This was no doubt partly because the gal that owned it previously commuted with it, and it's a slightly tall vehicle to get into. I have to admit I've a few times dragged my foot across it too though, especially after a workout when my legs are still a bit pumped from the spin bike. My excuse is I'm just getting old! LOL

My online searches showed the part is discontinued, and I couldn't find anyone who had it. Then I checked with a couple local dealerships, one nearest me, but one an hr and a half away on the Olympic peninsula. The one on the peninsula said they had one in stock for $141. The one nearest me didn't have one, but said a dealer in Utah had one. The Utah dealer didn't have one, but referred me to 2 dealers that did according to Ford's database, one in Ohio, and one in Missouri.

I called the one in Ohio first thinking it might be a bigger dealer with more stock. They not only said they had one, but it was listed with the original of 3 part numbers given to this part through it's revisions. Not only that, they said it was only $41! So I ordered it over the phone thinking it's a whole lot better in fit and price and less hassle than trying to make a universal fit one work. Sometimes you just have to forget the problems you've had with such things, check as many sources as you can, and hope for the best.

That said, still waiting to hear back from the RMA dept of the other vendor I got the bad door weatherstrip from, but it's not even been a whole 2 business days since they asked for pics. Fingers still crossed that it goes well. I ended up ordering a Hybrid battery filter, cabin filter, and an engine air filter a couple days ago from Amazon too. I checked all 3 after I got them yesterday and only a slight amount of dust was on the Hybrid Battery filter, the other two looked completely clean. So I may hold off on replacing those and maybe get more mileage out of my full syn oil too. The filters are easy to replace though, and all three cost about half what Grease Monkey charged me just for the engine and cabin filters last oil change.

 

[Zed Clampet]

As a pizza snob, I'm ready to declare that Urban Pie Pizza Co makes the best frozen pizza in the US and probably the world. In fact, it's better than all the pizza chains, like Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, etc.

 

[Pifanjr]

As a pizza snob, I'm ready to declare that Urban Pie Pizza Co makes the best frozen pizza in the US and probably the world. In fact, it's better than all the pizza chains, like Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, etc.

It seems to be $10 per pizza. We have a frozen pizza here that's about as expensive and it's indeed better than all of the crappy pizza chains, but we also have a good pizza restaurant that's much better than any frozen pizza.

 

[Frag Maniac]

It seems to be $10 per pizza. We have a frozen pizza here that's about as expensive and it's indeed better than all of the crappy pizza chains, but we also have a good pizza restaurant that's much better than any frozen pizza.

A painful reminder that the frozen French Goat Cheese and Marinated Vegetable pizzas that I used to get for about $5-$6 not long ago are now $10. I keep telling myself it's OK because I only eat half of one each meal, not sure that mentality is working so well.

 

[neogunhero]

Nothing Ear (a) - 3 Week Update

Well, I'm only a week away from deciding if I will keep or return these earbuds. They have been a bit of an annoying journey to come to my conclusion, with lots of issues with random pausing/playing, slipping out of my ears, and generally being uncomfortable. I really wanted to like these earbuds however, so I toughed it out a bit longer and finally made up my mind to keep them.

The pause/play issue was fixed early, there was a setting in the Nothing app that is supposed to automatically detect when the buds are in or out of the ear. The slipping issue was fixed with buying some foam eartips, which sucks a bit since they are $15 on top of the $100 I paid for the earbuds, but they seem to work a lot better than the silicone. As for the pain and discomfort... it's gotten better, I think my ear sort of warped itself around the buds, but it is definitely not as bad as when I first got them. I can go over an hour with them in my ear without them slipping or causing pain. There is still the occasional pressure in my ear, but easily fixed with a slight adjustment of the bud.

They aren't the perfect earbuds by any means at all. They have a ton to like about them, but also a lot to get annoyed with. This is a lot more effort I normally put into a pair of earbuds to make them work, but I didn't want to give up on them so easily. After all the tweaks, they are very comfortable, have great audio quality, battery life is insane (they go for about 5 hours on a single charge, and I only have to charge the case itself once every week-two weeks), and they are very well built. I wouldn't recommend them to everybody, but for the right kind of sicko like myself, you could enjoy them after some tinkering.

 

[Zed Clampet]

It seems to be $10 per pizza. We have a frozen pizza here that's about as expensive and it's indeed better than all of the crappy pizza chains, but we also have a good pizza restaurant that's much better than any frozen pizza.

Oh for sure we have a number of very good pizza restaurants that make better pizza than is possible for a frozen pizza. The biggest problem with frozen pizza is the crust. On this Urban Pie pizza, the toppings are very good, but you can't put a real crust on a frozen pizza, so that's what ultimately lets it down. The other day I was just scraping the topping off and eating that by itself and giving my dog the crust. Of course that's the least healthy way to eat a pizza. You have to eat three times as much toppings to get full. But the crust isn't all that bad, really. I was mostly trying not to have to use any more insulin. But it's definitely what keeps this pizza from being great.

 

[Zed Clampet]

MYSTERY​

@Pifanjr @Kaamos_Llama and anyone else interested. I have a small photography mystery that I thought you might want to think about. If you don't have the interest or the time, I won't be offended.

There's something weird about photographing people. You see photographs of people and think, "This doesn't look like them."

First of all, let's set the technology stage. AI face swappers are now extremely sophisticated when it comes to recreating someone's face from a picture. For the best face swapper, which is being used to recreate actors (with their permission) for commercials, mall you need is one photograph of someone. It doesn't matter what expression they are making. They can even be lying in bed and looking partially away from the camera. Just any picture. And the swapping AI can look at this one picture and change it in any way you want. It can change the angle, the profile, the expression, etc. and it does this perfectly. The new picture is immediately identifiable as the person. It does this all from a single picture.

But here's the mystery. Let's say you have 100 pictures of someone. For whatever reason, these pictures will be on a spectrum of recognizability going from nearly unidentifiable to exactly as you see that person. You would naturally expect AI not to be fooled by this. You would expect AI to easily recognize this person from any of the pictures and that you could use any of those 100 pictures and it would produce the results you were looking for. But that's not the case. If you use a picture from the unrecognizable end of the spectrum, then the face swapper is going to make unrecognizable face swaps.

So the question is, how do you take a photograph of someone that actually doesn't look like that person?

Somehow great photographers know how to do it. There is a photographer on Instagram who specializes in boudoir photography for the purpose of raising a woman's self-image. With permission, she'll post post pictures of her photo shoots. First she shows a picture of the woman when she arrived at the studio. Then she shows the boudoir photographs, and it's astonishing. You can't recognize the women at all. You think, "How in the world..."

I have some ideas on how this happens, but I'm curious as to what others might think.

 

[Pifanjr]

MYSTERY​

@Pifanjr @Kaamos_Llama and anyone else interested. I have a small photography mystery that I thought you might want to think about. If you don't have the interest or the time, I won't be offended.

There's something weird about photographing people. You see photographs of people and think, "This doesn't look like them."

First of all, let's set the technology stage. AI face swappers are now extremely sophisticated when it comes to recreating someone's face from a picture. For the best face swapper, which is being used to recreate actors (with their permission) for commercials, mall you need is one photograph of someone. It doesn't matter what expression they are making. They can even be lying in bed and looking partially away from the camera. Just any picture. And the swapping AI can look at this one picture and change it in any way you want. It can change the angle, the profile, the expression, etc. and it does this perfectly. The new picture is immediately identifiable as the person. It does this all from a single picture.

But here's the mystery. Let's say you have 100 pictures of someone. For whatever reason, these pictures will be on a spectrum of recognizability going from nearly unidentifiable to exactly as you see that person. You would naturally expect AI not to be fooled by this. You would expect AI to easily recognize this person from any of the pictures and that you could use any of those 100 pictures and it would produce the results you were looking for. But that's not the case. If you use a picture from the unrecognizable end of the spectrum, then the face swapper is going to make unrecognizable face swaps.

So the question is, how do you take a photograph of someone that actually doesn't look like that person?

Somehow great photographers know how to do it. There is a photographer on Instagram who specializes in boudoir photography for the purpose of raising a woman's self-image. With permission, she'll post post pictures of her photo shoots. First she shows a picture of the woman when she arrived at the studio. Then she shows the boudoir photographs, and it's astonishing. You can't recognize the women at all. You think, "How in the world..."

I have some ideas on how this happens, but I'm curious as to what others might think.

I'm not very knowledgeable about photography, but I know that something like the angle of the lens and distance to the face can have a pretty massive impact on how a face looks on a photograph.

Source: https://www.upworthy.com/camera-focal-length-lesson-explains-why-selfies-dont-look-right-ex1

 

[Zed Clampet]

I'm not very knowledgeable about photography, but I know that something like the angle of the lens and distance to the face can have a pretty massive impact on how a face looks on a photograph.

Source: https://www.upworthy.com/camera-focal-length-lesson-explains-why-selfies-dont-look-right-ex1

Well, that's a hell of a lot simpler than my explanation. I think I'll go with this.