The Advice Thread

[Crazy Cat Gentleman]

10 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

Don't look at yourself in the rearview mirror. 

 

7 hours ago, casimir said:

Remove the rearview mirror.

stop shaving.

[Motor City Sonics]

Anyone have a recommendation for a roofer I could trust.    I live in Dearborn.  

[Biff Mayhem]

14 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Anyone have a recommendation for a roofer I could trust.    I live in Dearborn.  

I don't but if you need a wake up call.....

[oblong]

15 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Anyone have a recommendation for a roofer I could trust.    I live in Dearborn.  

I do not but if you are not a member of the Snow Woods facebook page look that up and ask there. My advice is stay away from any company that advertises.  A good company doesn't need that and those that advertise are usually 4-5 times higher.

I got new gutters with leaf guards for a good price. He operates just on word of mouth.

 

 

[Edman85]

I can't recommend liberal use of blocking/muting/ignoring on social media enough for mental health purposes.

[CMRivdogs]

16 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Anyone have a recommendation for a roofer I could trust.    I live in Dearborn.  

Stay away from companies going door to door because they are doing houses in the neighborhood. 

[Edman85]

20 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Anyone have a recommendation for a roofer I could trust.    I live in Dearborn.  

If you have a friend who flips houses, ask your friend for advice on these kinds of things.

[Biff Mayhem]

My advice is to try a reel mower. People powered, it’s great exercise, good for the environment and quiet. 
 

I’m not going to attaching my striping wheel to it so I lose that but the cut is magnificent. 

[oblong]

When booking a car rental and you need something of a certain size, book one size lower. Chances are you will be upgraded given inventory on site that day. I was reminded of this as I am reserving now. Prices for airfare were higher but car rentals seem a lot lower than last year. 

[chasfh]

Do you use Microsoft Outlook to download your Gmails? I do. Did you lose access to that ability today? I did.

For the past decade or so, if you wanted to use Outlook for your Gmails, you had to allow your Google account access to "less secure apps" which, apparently, Microsoft Outlook is one. That's risky, I guess, because if you allow that for one app, you allow it for all, and hackers could etc etc.

Starting today, Google is no longer allowing that. Google actually sent an email last month saying that we might lose this access as of May 30. (They apparently gave us a couple of extra days grace on it.) Rather, Google would prefer you use 2-step verification, that kind you see when you attempt to log into something on whatever device and then you get a text to your phone with an additional verification code to complete the login. Secure, perhaps, but also a pain in the butt.

However, neither Google nor Microsoft even sent a workaround on using Outlook. It would be completely impractical for you to use a second verifying code every time you wanted to download mail. I tried calling Microsoft because I am a 365 subscriber, but they've shit-canned all their support phone reps and pushed everything to online support which, as everyone knows, is practically always insufficient when you need someone to tell you what the hell just happened.

BUT: I just happened to stumble across a forum thread describing how to get around this new barrier, and so far, it works great. It's a bit of a pain to set up, but if you want to keep using Outlook for your Gmail—and I sure do, since I have over ten years of email history for ten separate Gmail accounts attached to it—then you have no choice.

So, long story short (or tl;dr, as the kids of 2009 say), here's the process to reconnect your Outlook to your Gmail:

Google Help Center 2-Step Verification > Signing in with 2-Step Verification > Sign in with App Passwords

• Login to Gmail Account: "myaccount.google.com"
• On left, choose "Security"
• Enable 2 step verification. You will need a cell phone or access to some other device for verification codes.
• Afterward, click on the back arrow to get back to Security home page
• Having done that now app passwords will appear under 2-step verification
• click app passwords
• click select app and select mail
• click select device and select windows computer
• click generate and a 16 digit code will appear like so: #### #### #### ####
• highlight and copy to clipboard
• go to Microsoft Outlook and paste that code into your password line, which you will be prompted for
• click on remember and save

Edited June 2, 2022 by chasfh

[chasfh]

Your Outlook will play nice with Google from now on and you will find the less secure apps setting is already disabled (in fact, disappeared).

Here is the link to this same thread:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/outlook/gmail-less-secure-apps-being-locked-down/m-p/3280433/highlight/true#M11009

[Deleterious]

Some culinary advice.

Sharpen your knives.  The most dangerous knife by far is a dull knife.  

Rare steak is perfectly fine.  Hamburger, not so much.   A hamburger needs to be cooked well done.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Deleterious

[oblong]

I remember you telling us that on the old board and ever since I always ask for it well.

I had a great steak over the weekend at a place in Dearborn called Mint 29.  Best one I've had in a very long time.  Nothing special, just an 8 ounce filet but damn it was good.  That place has been there for a while now but our first time going. 2 drinks, an appeitizer, 3 sides, and two steaks for just under $200 is not bad I don't think.  

[gehringer_2]

22 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Some culinary advice.

Sharpen your knives.  The most dangerous knife by far is a dull knife.  

Rare steak is perfectly fine.  Hamburger, not so much.   A hamburger needs to be cooked well done.

And if you want your knives to stay sharp don't put them in the dishwasher with the silverware!

if you want a rare burger you can always grind your own sirloin.   🍔

Which makes me wonder --  how common is it for people to have a meat grinder in their kitchen anymore? They were de rigueur in grandma's generation's kitchens. We don't have one, though we have a KitchenAid stand mixer that has one available as an attachment.

Edited June 7, 2022 by gehringer_2

[Deleterious]

32 minutes ago, oblong said:

I remember you telling us that on the old board and ever since I always ask for it well.

I had a great steak over the weekend at a place in Dearborn called Mint 29.  Best one I've had in a very long time.  Nothing special, just an 8 ounce filet but damn it was good.  That place has been there for a while now but our first time going. 2 drinks, an appeitizer, 3 sides, and two steaks for just under $200 is not bad I don't think.  

Added it to my list.  I am a sucker for those industrial looking places with the exposed HVAC, brick, and huge windows.  Even though they are usually pretty loud with all the hard surfaces.  The menu looks good.

[djhutch]

3 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Some culinary advice.

Sharpen your knives.  The most dangerous knife by far is a dull knife.  

Rare steak is perfectly fine.  Hamburger, not so much.   A hamburger needs to be cooked well done.

 

2 hours ago, oblong said:

I remember you telling us that on the old board and ever since I always ask for it well.

I had a great steak over the weekend at a place in Dearborn called Mint 29.  Best one I've had in a very long time.  Nothing special, just an 8 ounce filet but damn it was good.  That place has been there for a while now but our first time going. 2 drinks, an appeitizer, 3 sides, and two steaks for just under $200 is not bad I don't think.  

I can't eat a steak any less done than medium. I can do a burger medium well, but I don't get the rare steak love. That's why I can't stand prime rib.

[chasfh]

Medium-rare for steak, medium for burgers.

3 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

And if you want your knives to stay sharp don't put them in the dishwasher with the silverware!

Why not?

[gehringer_2]

Just now, chasfh said:

Medium-rare for steak, medium for burgers.

Why not?

because they get banged around which kills the nice edge you put on them with a diamond steel. Steel, cut, rinse, put back in the block. The only surfaces I want my knives to see are the block and the cutting board. We do have serrated utility sort of knives that don't get that treatment, but the good forged chopping and slicing knives do.

[Deleterious]

Also invest in a good maple end grain cutting board. Keep a plastic one around for raw meat.

[Shades of Deivi Cruz]

14 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Also invest in...

Wrong thread...

[Deleterious]

You can read restaurants health inspection reports online.  Not every county has theirs online but mots of the big counties are here.  Kent County being a big one that doesn't participate.  But I heard they are in the process of putting theirs online as well.

Select your county and search.  If you want to be specific put a name in.  It is a bit odd because the names are the official names the business is registered in.  So you could have Inc. or Corp. in the title.

You can also type half names to bring up a list.  Select Washtenaw County then in name type "zing" and it will bring up a list of the Zingerman properties.

If you have kids their schools should also be on here.

https://swordsolutions.com/inspections/

[John_Brian_K]

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

You can read restaurants health inspection reports online.  Not every county has theirs online but mots of the big counties are here.  Kent County being a big one that doesn't participate.  But I heard they are in the process of putting theirs online as well.

Select your county and search.  If you want to be specific put a name in.  It is a bit odd because the names are the official names the business is registered in.  So you could have Inc. or Corp. in the title.

You can also type half names to bring up a list.  Select Washtenaw County then in name type "zing" and it will bring up a list of the Zingerman properties.

If you have kids their schools should also be on here.

https://swordsolutions.com/inspections/

Do I use that on our favorite go to places to eat.....part of me says no, because if they are bad for some reason I will not be able to go back, but on the flip if they are our favorite it means we have eaten there hundreds of times with no issues.

 

[Tigeraholic1]

So I have had directv for a long time.  Always had Sunday ticket, move to directv stream and I love it with my 1Gig fiber internet. However I just found out that since directv merged with att the stream service was not part of the deal. I am out of market for Detroit how can I get the feed consistently?

[Deleterious]

I would like to dive into some home automation.  Any recommendations on smart locks?  WiFi compatible, ability to make temp key codes, geofencing would be some features I am after.

I would also take recommendations on thermostats as well.  

[chasfh]

Do not insure your Amazon purchase with an Asurion extended warranty. Yeah, i know, you already knew that. So did I. I thought this was a special circumstance that warranted it.

I had previously bought a (much too expensive) docking hub for my laptop setup that started to fail in less than a year, and I was out well over a hundred bucks. So I bought a new hub from a different company for cheaper, and which I extended through Asurion with a three-year extended warranty for eight bucks.

Within six weeks (beyond the return policy limit), the sound input on the hub failed. When I plug my speakers into the hub, the sound is supposed to come through the speakers. It no longer does.

I contacted the company, Mokin, twice asking for technical support or a replacement, and got no reply. They are a Chinese company, which may or may not have something to do with their lack of responsiveness.

So I contacted Asurion. First of all, it's likely you won't be able to handle the issue online by yourself because, as in my case, you may not even see your product listed.

Luckily they have a chat app so I was able to successfully process the issue through that. But here's the deal with that:

First of all, you don't get a replacement product through Asurion. You get an gift card and you get it for the amount of the product only, not any taxes or shipping you might have paid. So that part of the money is gone.

Secondly, unlike Amazon itself, which might send you a replacement product before you have to send the defective product in, Asurion will send the gift card only once they have received your product. So you need to trust this company hardly anyone has ever heard of to follow through on that part of the deal.

But lastly, and the best part, is that once you process this transaction, your contract with Asurion is completed. You do not get to apply it to any replacement product you receive.

So I spent eight bucks on an extended warranty that terminated within six weeks because I had the temerity to leverage the warranty once.

Stay away from Asurion.