Chalkie

1 hour ago, Tulecreeper said:

I understand.  That would never work in our case because we will never be in any of those states as we know no one there.

OK, but they don't have to know that. In Texas if you happen to be 70 or over you can get a permanent exemption from jury duty. 

This has happened a couple of times to us and friends. In all instances it was as simple as contacting the Court Clerk and explaining that we were traveling and would not be available. The response was to just let them know when were back in the area and could serve on a jury. 

16 minutes ago, Darryl&Rita said:

Ain't nobody goin' question why a magic fuse fixes the "problem", when most of these fires weren't in vehicles with a trailer connected? Why is there a draw on that circuit, sitting in the driveway? Is my battery going to go dead over a long weekend, sitting? A 15 amp draw will easily kill that battery in short order.

Good point. I figured it might be improper wire routing that was causing a short and then a fuse was not blowing to protect the circuit. As far as killing batteries, I know that when a door doesn't get properly closed the dome light will kill the battery in a day or so. Now I wait until the light goes out before walking away.

5 minutes ago, Lloyd said:

The fix for most of these is to downgrade the "trailer" fuse from a 30 to a 15 amp fuse. 

Thanks for that info. I had wondered if it was a case of improper fusing for the wire size involved.

On 3/18/2023 at 5:11 PM, RV_ said:

This was the first I heard of "Jugging."

I had never heard of it before either. I found an article in the Austin-American Stateman paper about it though from last year.

Quote

If you're planning to withdraw cash from a bank anytime soon, you might want to take extra care because authorities are warning of an increase in robberies targeting those visiting financial institutions.

As of July 26, five dozen people had been victims of robberies after leaving banks with cash this year in Austin, according to authorities. A combined amount of more than $500,000 in cash was stolen.

Investigators call this type of crime "jugging," which is when a robber waits at a bank, check-cashing store or ATM for someone to withdraw paper money.

The article goes on to say:

Quote

Those who carry cash bags or have cash in hand are especially at risk, according to Austin police.

It would appear that perhaps it was the bag that triggered the incident in Ken's case. I rarely get cash for anything and when I do I rarely need very much so I generally get cash back at HEB or Walmart.

On 3/23/2023 at 9:30 PM, Ray,IN said:

I've always thought it very odd the  DoD prefers Google chrome web browser to all others. Every time I sign-in to the Army MyPay website I get a message that I'm attempting to sign-in on an unsupported web browser and it may not work properly.

That's interesting. While I generally use Chrome, I just tried logging into the Navy MyPay (I never realized there was any difference) using Brave and Edge and got no such warning.

1 hour ago, RV_ said:

Maybe it was that one T-Mobile storefront we did business with but there was a giant breach at the same time then with our personal data exposed too I found out the next week or so.

My experience is anecdotal and one data point but I would read the fine print and get in writing that you can get a full refund within 7 days if they do not work or you are unhappy with them. 

As counterpoint to this we have had T-Mobile since around 1995 or so when it was called VoiceStream. In all that time we have never had a problem that that was not resolved in a timely and professional manner, in fact, in couple of instances equipment was replaced even though it was past warranty expiry. We are on the 55+ plan and that gives us unlimited talk/text/data and mobile hotspotting. We have used it seamlessly in Scotland, Ireland, and Mexico. 

By all means read the fine print as that is a good policy any time you are entering an agreement, although T-Mobile has no real red tape other than that you need pay for a phone that you have on the payment scheme in full if you cancel service.

As to that data breach, this is from T-Mobile:

Quote

The information obtained for each customer varies and may include full names, dates of birth, phone numbers, billing addresses, email addresses, and account and line information (such as billing account numbers, codes for rate plans and features, and number of lines on the account).

Passwords, SSNs and payment methods and usage or call records were NOT affected. NO unauthorized account changes or charges or other fraudulent activity has been detected that is connected to this event.

3 hours ago, Kirk W said:

I wonder if someday they will find some way to standardize so that each one can talk to the last one's transponder? In this age of electronic media, one wouldn't think that it would be that difficult. 

Found an interesting quote on just that topic. 

Quote

“To be very clear, it's not a technology issue,” said former U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Florida). “This is a bureaucracy issue.”

Everyone wants to protect their turf (and job).

1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

The E470 authority had 2 different bills for out travel out and back and both were sent 4 times to the wrong address, then turned over for collection. They used the address that we had 5 years before when on that road.

Yes, they are horrible. When we lived there I kept getting billing notices for my son's truck. I had briefly been on the title so he could get a loan. That was short term and I was removed from the title. They insisted that I was owner of the truck even after presented with a copy of the updated title. It took hinting that I was going to the local TV station's investigative reporter before they admitted that they were not working off a current DMV database. 

Well....

On 3/13/2023 at 10:53 PM, slockfox said:

This is just me as i use my camper while working out of town and prefer electric hookups and have a backup generator.

On 3/14/2023 at 10:49 AM, Kirk W said:

 Do you expect to be able to travel with that trailer?

The comment suggests that will be used for travel although I could be wrong.

I'm sure there are some that would label carrying pets in the trailer as some sort of cruelty, but the wife's folks left their two cats in the fiver while traveling and in all sorts of weather. The cats would find warm spots in the cold and on warm days they left the roof vents open and the temps would never get too warm. The cats much prefered the trailer to the truck. 

17 hours ago, myfirstRV said:

How do you deal with health insurance while on the road? 

I am a single healthy male in my 30's. I do not have income.

I am considering either Medicaid or marketplace insurance. Are there issues demonstrating eligibility without being physically present in your state? How has your experience been receiving coverage in different states while traveling?

I do not yet have a domicile, though I'm considering SD since it seems to be the easiest to obtain domicile. I am open to all options. What is the ideal state for healthcare eligibility?

Every state has differing requirements for Medicaid eligibility so you will need to determine which is best from that aspect. Also Medicaid generally does not cover non-emergency health needs out of state. 

South Dakota, Texas, and Florida are considered to be the most RV friendly states.

2 hours ago, docj said:

OTOH yesterday I read that Verizon is claiming that ~200 million people in the US have access to "ultrawideband 5G" which it is defining to including both "mm wave" and "C-band" 5G and it is supposed to be a lot faster.

I don't doubt that but for an RVer that is a deceptive number. In looking at their coverage map the only places they show 5G Ultra Wideband is in population centers of around 500,000 or more. 

1 hour ago, fpmtngal said:

5G can make a big difference as far as internet speeds, but it depends on both location and carrier.  My phone has always been on a T-Mobile and a few years ago I added a cellular iPad that’s on a Verizon plan.

Yes! And when people try to tell me how horrible the T-Mobile coverage is, I just smile and move along as there is no point in arguing about it. When T-Mobile claims they have the largest 5G network, they do, although some would argue that part of that is not true 5G. T-Mobile is using Band n71 (600 MHz) for what they call Extended Range 5G and as any who know about radio propagation the lower frequencies have greater range. Our phones rarely ever show 4G LTE service as any where we go it is 5G or 5GUC. The UC stands for ultra capacity.The plan we are one includes unlimited hot spotting data usage and it is more than adequate for streaming. 

8 hours ago, 2gypsies said:

I heard one report of the woman going for a facial procedure.

And the New York Post says one of the group was going for a "tummy tuck", so why were they there? The suspicious part of me is wondering if they weren't there for some other less savory reason. 

The cloud is the way of the future. What worries me from an RVer standpoint is the internet is not always available and sometimes when it is it is marginal. Hopefully Microsoft will hold off on pushing this until such time as other projects, such as the T-Mobile/Starlink partnership, come to fruition so that internet will truly be available everywhere.

13 hours ago, GlennWest said:

No idea how that could happen.

I have no particular idea either but to overlook the possibility seems to me to be a direct challenge to Murphy. 😂

17 minutes ago, GlennWest said:

How can that be a safety issue? 

The most obvious in my mind would be the possibility of the awning coming open unexpectedly, saying going down the road or on a very windy day. 

3 hours ago, RV_ said:

"Run your generator at least once a month.

This is the same thing the owner's manual on my son's Cummins Onan gas generator says. He runs it on gas as he has a toyhauler and therefore has fuel in the gas tank on the RV. He also puts Stabile in the gas in case he cannot start it once a month like in the winter. 

2 hours ago, justRich said:

Windows 11 disabled the ability to record video from the desktop.

 

It is not entirely disabled, you need to open the game bar to access the recording shortcuts. 

4 hours ago, durangodon said:

Microsoft wants to be like Apple so bad.  They want you to buy into their unified ecosystem.  Apple requires that you create an Apple identity and use it on every Apple device. 

On Windows 10, when doing initial setup on your new MS laptop, you can just turn off the wifi and you can go by the sign-in screen by agreeing to do it later.  Is that still the case with Windows 11?

While I generally agree with your sentiment it actually was alright. We now have her laptop set to backup on One Drive which it was never was before. 

4 hours ago, DanZemke said:

It's not clear to me, who decided, that my new PC would have its contents encrypted.  Was it Microsoft, Lenovo or both?  It was not me. 

Assertion: Many Windows Home users are frustrated by the need to have two IDs for their personal PC. They don't need that, for their phones.

My wife's relatively new laptop with Windows 11 Home does not have bitlocker turned on, it is a Dell. That suggests to me it may be Lenovo that made the choice to turn it on.

Your assertion left me a slightly confused. Are you referring to way back when a setup left you with a user account and an admin account? That has been a while. When we set her laptop up initially we did have to create a Microsoft account for her in the course of the process. It was something we had never done in the past as there was really no reason for her to have one. In the end she had a single login that was an admin account. 

23 hours ago, RV_ said:

New! Fusion 100 GB

^$124⁹⁹

/mon.
for first 6 months! ^*

Reg. $174.99 Offer ends 03/29/2023

$100 Prepaid Card via Rebate ^***

25mbps
down

 

That is an interesting comparison. With Starlink we are currently at 825 GB of usage and the month isn't out and when I ran a speed test this morning I was getting 91mbps down. Makes the price of the Starlink attractive.

54 minutes ago, pjstough said:

Pure capitalism, supply and demand at work.

Yep, and if it helps Starlink get more satellites up there I am all for it. For us it is still the best deal for the amount of reliable internet we use. We have a number of devices that would likely overload our phones and when we leave the house we would then lose access to devices that rely on constant internet like our security cams outside and the one inside that lets keep an eye on the pup.