DanZemke

Hi, Please explain what you mean by crashed. Does it totally turn off without displaying any error messages? Please explain what you mean "constantly". How many minutes between crashes? When you are on the road, are you using any type of external power?

That sounds like a discount program, and I don't think it's the primary purpose of Supplements. Medicare Supplements can reduce deductibles and co-pays. But the primary focus is classic insurance: spread the risk to reduce the expense for the unlucky. I did quite a bit of research on the web before I signed up for the first time. Here's the current version of the price chart I used to select my provider for the 6 years I've been covered by Medicare. CT 2020 Medicare Supplement Prices I've been with the same insurance provider (Globe Life) for the last 6 years. I started off with a Plan F HD, and transitioned to a Plan G HD for this year. I'm not trying to promote the insurance provider I selected (although I am happy with them). Mentioning their name is just to show that I chose the lowest priced insurance supplier. For Supplements, unlike Advantage Plans, the insurance coverage of a particular Plan type is identical across all suppliers.

Our Federal rules governing payments for Medicare Supplements are the same, regardless of the the price charged for a Supplement. I'm still amazed that many of the "name-brand" insurer's charge, and get, 2 to 3 times the lower price suppliers. Theoretically, there could be more financial risk for a lower priced supplier. But if they fold, you have a government guaranteed free pass to shop for another supplier without underwriting. And I suspect, but have not confirmed, that if a Supplement supplier fails, the process would be similar to that for a failed bank - keep the consumer whole.

I'm 71 years old

Jay, Good for you and her. I'm single and have been insured with a High Deductible Medicare Supplement policy for 6 years. My total cost for the Supplement policies over that time period has been $3500. I've never received any reimbursement, nor did I expect to. Fortunately, I'm still very healthy - no medical conditions and no need for any medications. I chose a path which would not be constrained by my insurer's network of hospitals and doctors. To me, my choice was to go with catastrophic health insurance without the risk of out of network charges. I've paid home owners insurance for over 40 years and haven't received any reimbursements. And, I paid off my mortgage 10 years ago. but still kept paying the insurance. Insurance is a waste of money, until you become responsible for costs that are a substantial portion of your net worth. I'm happy with my choice and you seem to be happy with yours too. I hope it remains that way for both of us.

You misunderstand what these supplements are. They're not like vitamins, they are an additional form of financial insurance. Medicare only provides partial insurance. If you get really sick, like cancer, all of you savings can be wiped out. A Medicare Supplement starts paying when Medicare stops. So Medicare + a Supplement pays more of your medical expenses.

In addition to their DB of signatures, they also do a "'heuristic" scan to try and find potential attacks that aren't in their DB. In my case, they often attempt to quarantine a tiny program that modifies itself (the exe file) on exit. My assumption is that this is because it is self-modifying code. Fortunately, they also use a white list so it's easy to exclude protection that isn't helping.

Yep, I got bit, even though I knew better, a long time ago. I became pretty anal about verified backups. Image backups for the OS and apps are automatically verified after generation. Almost all of my "user" data has a dictionary of checksum digests in each directory. Sort of a poor-man's ZFS. And of course, I have multiple copies in different locations.

Derek, I was not trying to disparage Defender with "faint praise". See the clarification in my last post.

RV, Kirk's original question was: "do you still run anti-virus software and if so, free or purchased and what program?" It's clear that you, I, docj and several others use Windows Defender and/or Malware bytes as our primary anti-virus software. To me, that's our clear and simple answer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ P.S. My earlier statement about Windows Defender "for individuals" was not intended to disparage it. I retired from IBM after 32 years. No Fortune 500 business is primarily relying on Window Defender as it's primary protection against virus or malware attacks. Big targets have multiple layers of defense. But virtually all Escapees users aren't big targets. So, as I previously stated, I use and recommend Windows Defender (preferably Window 10) as the my primary defense . I recommend it for all Escapees that use Windows PCs.. Malware Bytes Premium for PCs provides an extra layer of protection that I also chose to use.

RV, It's unclear to me what you mean in the quote. The Feb 20 2020 version of the AVTest lists both Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Premium as below average. I wasn't able to find anything on that site (which I've visited many times before) that changes my recommendation for individual Windows 10 owners. Windows Defender is good enough for most. I also use MalwareBytes Premium, but I bought licenses when they were much less expensive (one-time payment for lifetime license). Malwarebytes has blocked a few websites which I have appreciated. It's also disabled progams on my PC several times, all of which were false positives.

Kirk, I think the reason is that the default software that comes with Windows has become good enough for most. What we're left with is reports that are basically advertisements for features that seldom provide a significant benefit for individual users (as opposed to business users).

I use "Windows Defender", which comes with Windows 10 and gets frequently updated for free. It provides real-time protection (i.e. prevents installation of bad software) and scanning (i.e. verifies I've not been infected). I also periodically back up an image of of the OS on each of my systems, because all systems are capable of becoming infected, and removing malware can be very expensive. I also use MalwareBytes because of a positive experience I had with removing the last virus that infected one of my PCs on 2/2/2014. For MacOS or Linux users, your odds of getting infected is less than mine has been, so I probably wouldn't worry about anti-virus software. Kirk - what kind of new computer did you buy?

An Epson V800 costs about $800, will resolve 6400 dpi, when scanning 35 mm slides. It also costs about 4x as much as the linked device and is very cumbersome to use for lots of slides. And it's MUCH slower. And it too, is only supported up to Windows XP. IMO, that's a pretty clear indication that there is no longer a viable market for consumer slide/photo scanners. DPI and color depth can be important specs for scanners, but they are pretty much useless for devices like the linked one. It's not a scanner. It's a camera sensor in a box with a light, preview screen and some controls. It's specs say it uses a 20MP camera sensor and that the resolution max is 5472 x 3648. But that information isn't very useful in differentiating likely output quality from other devices. I still think that the linked device, or some other sensor-based one, is a better fit for his needs than a scanner. But I also suspect that you're right, and that for some slides, higher quality would be worth paying for. To the original poster: Suggest you buy something like the linked device and digitized all of your slides with it (maybe weeding some out via a preview screen). For those that you wished were higher quality, send them to a service to get them.

Barb, Yes, I did misunderstand - sorry.

After poking around on what's available for slide scanning, I agree. Frustrating, but IMO, it's time to move on. I too trashed all my floppies and zipdrives and my first computer (an Apple II). This seems to be a reasonable possibility (I have no personal experience with it). And you may be able to sell it for 30-50% of your cost (assuming it is still working after scanning 3000 slides). https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00O46B7TY/ezvid02-20 P.S. I don't usually buy product insurance policies. But if I were in your shoes, I might consider the $22 one for the linked product. Your needed volume of slides is probably much higher than their average customer. Assuming the terms do not exempt your protection for "excessive" usage, it may be a reasonable hedge.

Barb, Sounds like it might be too late for you, but I'm posting this mainly for others who may be in a similar situation. My understanding is that eventually, you will be asked to return the money. "You" being, who ever cashed the check, or owned the account the money was deposited in. I realize that with some estate trusts, it may be so difficult to recover the money that those tasked with retrieving it would give up. Still, my advice to most folks in a similar situation, until the murkiness clears, is to put the money in a savings/checking account and don't spend or donate it for a "reasonable" amount of time. Technically, I suspect that would be the statue of limitations, but practically, it probably less. That said, given the amount of money involved, donating it to charities, is likely to be much better at repelling collection efforts, than using it to buy wine. 🙂

I decided to seriously look into SKP co-ops in the early summer of 2018. After a fair bit of research, I decided I was most interested in Evergreen (WA), Park of the Sierras (CA), and Saguaro (AZ). Park of the Sierras required me to stay there before, they would accept my deposit. That attitude was a non-starter for me (echos of excessively bureaucratic home-owners associations). So I signed up for the Evergreen and Saguaro waiting lists. It appears to me that it will be another 1 to 2 years before I will be able to become a member of either community.

i've chosen not to buy a TOGO and the associated AT&T data plan. In my case, I already have superior cellular and wifi hardware. And my current data plans are large enough to meet my needs. 25 GB/month on a Verizon plan through FMCA, and unlimited through an AT&T Mobley plan. But for many full-timers, the AT&T $360 per year (unlimited plan) seems VERY attractive. The TOGO seems to be easy to install, and good enough for most folks.

RV_ Good info. I prefer a full keyboard for typing more than a few chars. And have been underwhelmed, by the apps I've tried, for transferring photos to my Window's big storage drives. After I migrate from my old Moto G4+ to the Pixel 3a I just purchased, I'll give the Your Phone app a good try. Thank you!

docj, "Maybe everyone already knows this". I didn't. Thanks for the useful tip. 🙂 update: for me, I preferred just setting the color to red. I tried bolder settings and didn't like them. The problem I seemed to be having increasingly, was being able to locate the cursor, even when moving it around. The red fixed that for me. Again, thank you.

I agree with Carlos - yes.

I am seriously interested in what your solution was. I purchased several lever controlled, stainless steel pins and have evaluated various locking pins. You are the only one I've found that has used something other than bolts to secure their ramps. Please tell me, and others, what worked best for you, and why. Thanks, Dan

Sounds like a wise choice. Although the bamboo-based straight ones have their charms, the newer plastic circular ones are probably more appropriate for space constrained RVers. 🙂 BTW, "Android Pay" was rebranded as Google Pay (aka G Pay) in early 2018. Unfortunately, I have an old Moto G4 Plus that does not support NFC. But largely because of your posts, my next phone will. Thanks, Dan

Alloy, Appreciate the info, especially about the EMS. I have a Progressive too, so you probably saved me significant time and frustration. Thank you! Dan