Recent content by Mercutio

Any car I own is going to get filled with things most people would never guess is valuable, and it will full time look trashed. Photo stands and lights, tons of random cables and plain cardboard boxes with random PC hardware. There won't be visible tools. My T420 is in there someplace, sure, but...

I mean that's probably a different state's troops... But really, state government actively wants Gary to go away, even though it loves the taxes from all the industrial output here. We're not getting shit from the republican supermajority in Indianapolis. We never have. I have also heard that...

Option 1 is highly dependent on my dad being willing to sell. In the past he's said he wants to keep it for the same practical reason I have one: They're great to just pile crap in, which is awesome when you're bringing home a load of whatever from Home Depot. His "main" car is a '25 Grand...

Random aside while I'm sitting in the dark and contemplating my car options: When the hell did Corvettes hit Ferrari pricing? $250k for a ZR1? Corvettes? The car that divorced boomers who never wear anything but khaki shorts and polo shirts, drive? Where is Clocker? I have so many questions...

I have a dream of getting an actually fuel efficient vehicle. To double my fuel economy would be quite the blessing. I probably put $200 worth of gas in my car every month at current prices. Which is kind of gross, now that I think about it. Part of my desire for a physically smaller car stems...

I love my Element. Truly. Irrationally. It's not comfortable but it's practical. The cargo capacity to overall size of the vehicle is insane. And there's nothing else like it. But now I do have to think about something newer. It's time. Option 1: My dad's Element. It's 20 years old, but it has...

Gary is in national news now because of our situation. The current goal is for near-complete restoration of service by the 25th, a full two weeks after the storm. The reason this is so controversial is that our local Power Company, NIPSCO, initially left Gary off its announced schedule of...

Here's a hilarious project I should not have to have: Firefox recently made some security changes such that sites accessed via HTTP are disallowed from storing certain kinds of local data. Plex Web normally uses HTTP and expects to store things in exactly the way Firefox won't accept any more...

One of the funny things about my current situation is that I'm using a laptop with the hot spot on my phone until the battery on the laptop gives out, then switching to another laptop. I brought six laptops with me to charge at my office. My favorite old guy is a Thinkpad T470s which apparently...

It's a Solix S2000 that was in a package deal with 200W of random solar panels. I live on the beach. If I have to go babysit everything just to get it all charged, I will. The deal for on offer looked great to me. I've already brought it up to full charge once off the wall at my office. The...

Being used to no climate control is normal for me at least. My office did get power back, so I've at least been able to get somewhere with decent internet and lights that are on. I bought a couple of these guys as well as my power station and honestly, no notes. $30 for a huge battery that can...

My part of the world has just had terrible storms. Sustained 90mph winds. There are a million people in Northwest Indiana and Chicago's with suburbs without power. I don't expect to get power back for a couple weeks. They aren't running TRAINS here because of all the crap on the tracks. This...

I don't exactly jump at the chance to go to baseball games, but the place where White Sox play is uniquely awful. Wrigley field has a Red Line stop directly next to it and it's a very old place full of character. The Sox place is like bench seating at a McDonald's. I wind up at a baseball game...

I've been using bifocals since I was six. I can't get contacts in my eyes, either. Other people can't get contacts in my eyes. My vision can't be corrected to 20/20 with glasses, so I've chosen to favor my mid- and near vision

I bought an $80 thing off Amazon with one of those Realtek chips on it. It's plugged in to a 10Gbit USB 3.2v1 port. It works-ish at faster-but-variable 5Gb+ speeds. I think performance depends on how hot it is. It's the only 10GbaseT device I own, and I have it sitting on an AMD Wraith Spire to...