Posts made by redmed

@mistercheap Just got my rebate. I bought it at a independent drug store, so it is not limited to specific stores.

I have been using a magnetic mount
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-360-Car-Magnetic-Mount-Holder-Stand-For-Mobile-Phone-iPhone-8-HTC-/162859584632?hash=item25eb300c78
So far it seems to work out the best to allow me the best access .

First check your connections at the TV & antenna. If the connections are not corroded check https://www.solidsignal.com/ for a better antenna.

I have been using two of these with Windows Media Center for years. The only way I know of to use two different antenna’s on one TV show recorder. Each antenna is pointed at a different metro area giving me maximum flexibility of station choice.

I ended up getting a LG V20. No edge activation issues, replaceable battery and supposed to be very tough. I may keep this V20 for awhile. The only downside so far is no notification led. That has been easily rectified by “Missed Notification Reminder”.

8606 IRA stuff. I’m sending via snail mail first thing Morning.

Went to do my taxes and wanted to send it in as quickly as possible. So I decided to do them online to be faster than sending the forms via snail mail. I spent a few hours answering all the questions and just as I was about to finish a message came saying that they are waiting for a form from the IRS and they will email me when I can finish. They expect it will be in another eleven days. Funny thing is I can find the form on the IRS website. .

Thanks, What I’m looking for is a list describing what each of the website connections is/does.
Would be great to be able to printout the list so I can quickly reference it while I’m setting uMatrix to my prefences. Right now I have to google each. What a pain.

I have just switched from uBlock Origin to uMatrix and wonder if anyone knows of a list that help identify the different website connections. Or a guide to uMatrix.

@mom2jel said in Still Use Windows Media Center?:

Question: is there any benefit to using WMC (or Potplayer / Plex) over Tivo and Chromecast?

We get Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, and even Plex on our Tivo; my boys like using Chromecast for sports (we only have antenna tv).

I have Tivo but find WMC much more convenient to use especially with the mouse. Plus I’m not restricted with web access. I’m not limited to what Tivo allows.

@mom2jel said in Still Use Windows Media Center?:

@cacher said in Still Use Windows Media Center?:

Daum potplayer

I’d never heard of it, here’s the link for anyone else curious.
https://potplayer.daum.net/

Yeah Potplayer is great for videos and music.

@backsplatter said in Still Use Windows Media Center?:

Are you connecting the laptop directly to the tv you want to watch recorded shows on?

Yes the laptop sits on top of my stereo rack right next to my TV connected via the HDMI cable. Extra advantage is I can connect to other stuff like netflix, prime but I have a hard time keeping up with what I record. This December, when many shows stopped new episodes, I usually get to catch up with my recorded stuff but this year I’m still backed up on unwatched stuff and the new stuff is starting up again.

I’m still using WMC. In fact I just bought a new laptop that is dedicated to WMC. My other 5yr old dedicated WMC laptop’s fan just died. I ordered a new fan and then that laptop will be a backup. I live between two metropolitan areas and have two HdHomeRun tuners connected to different antenna’s connected to the WMC laptop. Each antenna is pointed to a different metropolitan area. This gives me a great variety of channels. I also use a wireless mouse to control the WMC. I don’t know what I will use after Microsoft fully abandons W7 and Windows Media Center. I have a TIVO but find it cumbersome compaired to my WMC setup. I’m going to have to start investigating another system that I can connect my two HDhomeRun tuners to. Maybe Plex? Or Daum potplayer?

Do you still use WMC (Windows Media Center)?
If not what did you find that is better?

Glad to have the colors back!

Don’t forget to send a note to your senator/congressman congratulating them for doing something and not hiding from their own shadow.

Looking to get a new phone and planned to get a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S8+. Then I talked to a guy that has a S8 and he told me that he regrets getting the phone because whenever he grabs the phone it thinks he tapped it because the screen curves around the edges of the phone. He also has to be very careful because the curved glass is very easy to crack if the phone is dropped. He hasn’t found a case that gives the S8 adequate protection because of the curved glass edges. Now I’m nervous about getting a S8 and looking at the LG V30. Is the Samsung S8 as troublesome as I was told?

@cpaynter said in How will the new tax bill affect your taxes?:

@principalmember said in How will the new tax bill affect your taxes?:

There has been a lot of crying about the property tax/state income taxes being limited to 10K (effectively can’t even do it since you need a big mortgage to overcome the 24K std deduction). But personally, for the high earners, not being able to deduct state income tax may be wash since the new rates are lower at the higher end.

Sure, for the high earners it’s great. But for those of us <$160k AGI, we’re seeing our taxes increased. I thought this was supposed to be a tax break for the middle class? What’s middle class now, a minimum of $200k?

Waa Waa Waa The rich get more benefit from the tax break! The rich pay more taxes, so of course they are going to benefit more from any tax break. Instead have every citizen pay the same amount regardless of income. That would the most fair.

@my4mainecoons said in What’s Best Option for Paying Dental Bill?:

@mommyofhandk Doubt national health insurance would pay for implants. My uncle was a consultant living in Toronto for a few years but he would cross back to the U.S. for medical care.

My wife was going to get implants until she talked to a group of seniors that had implants. Of six seniors that had implants only one senior was satisfied with the implant. The other five had complications after a few years and four had to have the implants removed.

Will the new tax bill affect how Social Security is taxed?
Currently if a couples
"Combined Income"
Your adjusted gross income
+ Nontaxable interest
+ ½ of your Social Security benefits
= Your “combined income”

   > $32,000 50% of SS is taxed   > $44,000 85% of SS is taxed**

Has the new tax bill affected this?

Just so you know, the maximum spousal benefit your wife will get is half of the benefit you’d get at your FRA of 66. Delaying to 70 will still benefit you, but it won’t increase her spousal benefit beyond that.

“The maximum benefit for the spouse is 50% of the benefit the worker would receive at full retirement age.”

Thanks for that info.
I did not know that and will have to adjust my figures in my spreadsheets. This probably will not affect my choice to wait till 70 though. The main reason I’m waiting till 70 is that my wife’s family has a tendency to be long lived. Most of her relatives have and are living past the 100 year mark.

@uncamikey said in Social Security Restriced Application:

SS benefits are actuarially equivalent, regardless of the age they begin. I.e., if your age at death is estimated to be 84, then whether you start at 62, 66, or 70 makes no difference, the total amount received is the same. If you end up living less than that, you’re better off taking benefits earlier. If you live longer, you’re better off waiting until 70.

Did you read that in a government publication?
I have ran quite a few spreadsheets and if we start collecting when my wife turns 66 and I wait to collect my full amount at 70 we will reach parity at at age 75 years and 7 months of age. So I am only behind 9 years and 1 month after that I pull ahead by $469 a month or $5628 a year. Worth waiting for. Plus the added tax benefit of my IRA withdrawals from less income from SS keep that IRA money in a lower tax bracket for nine years.

Delayed SS increases @ 8%. Try to get that at a bank. Plus the increased SS payments will (maybe) also be increased by cost of living adjustments. The larger SS payment will have a larger cost of living adjustment due to the larger amount of the payment. Plus I am also dribbling out IRA funds to rollover into a Roth account. Adding SS funds now would push those IRA funds into a higher tax bracket. For a few years now I have be rolling over just enough IRA money to max out my standard deduction. That allows me to roll those IRA funds over tax free.

My wife turns 66 soon and will apply for her Social Security. I’m 67 and waiting until I’m 70 so that both me and my wife can claim my higher Social Security amount. I recently found out that I can claim a restricted application for a spousal benefit to collect half of my wife’s Social Security. This will allow me to collect half of hers while my Social Security will still increase until i’m 70. Then when I reach 70 both my wife and I can claim on my increased Social Security. Does anybody know of a problem with this plan? Is this the best way to maximize our retirement income stream?

@skh12 said in Internet Radio App:

i use mixlr and i like amazon music (included with prime)
and pod casts for specific shows

Thanks but I’m too cheap to pay when I can get for free.

I have been using RadioDroid on my LG Stylo. I like the amount of radio stations available. That there is no commercials. Most important is that RadioDroid will automatically pause when I turn the car off and restart next time I start the car. What RadioDroid lacks is that it does not transmit the song/artist data to the screen of my car and the screen controls (on the phone) are small and hard to tap while driving. I recently started using Audials and thought I had found the perfect internet radio app. The station selection is almost as good as RadioDroid’s and the phone’s screen controls are just what I wanted when in “Car Mode”. The only disappointment is that when I shut the car off Audials does not pause but starts playing thru the phones speakers. I have to manually hit pause myself before putting the phone in my pocket. There must be some better App. Any Suggestions?

@redmed said in Post your favorite Apps thread:

@miserly said in Post your favorite Apps thread:

There are many. Ifttt.com now on Android. Haven’t played around much yet.

Started with IFTT then found Llama. Then when I went to Android 7 Llama did not display icons correctly. I’m trying both Sfen & MyProfiles+ and as of today can not decide which one I will settle on. Sfen is free. MyProfiles is free but limited to three rules. MyProfiles+ is not limited.

Found MyProfiles+ is causing my Bluetooth to act erratically. Sticking with Sfen.

I find Simplenote great to pass information from my laptop to my phone.
I use Waze as my main GPS.
I use RadioDroid to entertain me as I drive.
GasBuddy, Yelp, Tapatalk, RVparky and Trucker Path.

@miserly said in Post your favorite Apps thread:

There are many. Ifttt.com now on Android. Haven’t played around much yet.

Started with IFTT then found Llama. Then when I went to Android 7 Llama did not display icons correctly. I’m trying both Sfen & MyProfiles+ and as of today can not decide which one I will settle on. Sfen is free. MyProfiles is free but limited to three rules. MyProfiles+ is not limited.

@hbg1 said in Bought a New Windows 7 laptop.:

@redmed said in Bought a New Windows 7 laptop.:

W10 does not have WMC (Windows Media Center) something I use everyday and would impact my quality of life if I lost it. It came with W7. In W8 you had to pay extra to get it. It is not officially available in W10 but there is a way to add a hacked version of WMC into W10. I have a W7 laptop in my entertainment center that it’s main purpose is to run WMC. It also acts as a repository for common data that the other computers in our family accesses. Other W7 things like working with restore points are becoming less obvious to use and I’m afraid will be dropped in future versions of Windows.

I also have a WMC Windows 7 machine still running. Can you tell more about the hacked version for Windows 10? I’ve been wondering what the options will be after I’m forced to move to a Windows 10 machine, hopefully many years from now. Thanks!

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=97&t=10774
This is a good start on info from TheGreenButton forum.

W10 does not have WMC (Windows Media Center) something I use everyday and would impact my quality of life if I lost it. It came with W7. In W8 you had to pay extra to get it. It is not officially available in W10 but there is a way to add a hacked version of WMC into W10. I have a W7 laptop in my entertainment center that it’s main purpose is to run WMC. It also acts as a repository for common data that the other computers in our family accesses. Other W7 things like working with restore points are becoming less obvious to use and I’m afraid will be dropped in future versions of Windows.

@mikie said in Windows 10 - free?:

I used the Windows Media Creation Tool from the OP’s post and installed on a spare, older computer just to see if it would work. It did, but was not activated. Then i wiped that clean and loaded an old copy of Win 7 that I had a product key for. I then booted to the Win 10 USB and started that install again. It asked for a product key and I put in the Win 7 one. It apparently liked it cause it continued with the install. I did choose a new install and not to upgrade from an older version. When the install was complete, it said Win 10 was activated. So apparently, the free Win 10 offer from months ago is still in effect, if not officially. I guess instead of first loading Win 7, maybe I could have just tried putting in the Win 7 product key during my first Win 10 install. Who knows if that is sufficient. Thanks, OP.

Good to know.

@ma-barker said in How to buy a new car, PhWF (FWF) style:

We may not be like the rest but we pay for our vehicles in cash; the last one we bought brand new from the dealership was in Q4 of 2015. Our style is tell the salesman we’re paying in cash, this is all I’m willing to pay for X vehicle in your lot. We have no trade in and this is the car we want; the color of the car is the only factor negotiable. If you’re not going to lower the MSRP to meet our price, let’s not waste each other’s time. We usually cut the back n forth negotiations to 45 minutes and then I stand up ready to go when the boss comes up and say we have a deal.

We’ve done this twice now and paid no more than what we were willing to part with. For those asking why we buy brand new, the price difference of the certified used were just a few hundreds so I’d rather buy brand new but according to my price which I’ve researched prior to making an offer. We’re well aware that vehicles depreciate as soon as they roll out of the parking lot but we still stick to brand new ones.

I agree the difference between a good deal on a new car and a deal on a used car is not that great if your buying a vehicle with a high trade in value. ie Honda, Toyota
Plus you get a manufacture backed warranty.

Very interesting and informative.
I just did a cash deal by first doing a test drive and as I was walking out the door the sales manager offered a deeper discount. I told him I would consider it and left. The next day I was at the dealer to make the deal but things got slow like three hours slow. Involved another test drive of the exact vehicle. I knew this was to wear me down on the trade-in value and sure enough the trade-in value was low. As I was walking out the door over the trade in value the salesman relented and gave me my price. I knew he wanted me to give, in due to the time already invested in the deal, but since I was willing to walk I think the time the salesman invested worked against him. I thought I did good but your plan probably will produce a better speeder result.

Used X-Change PDF viewer in the past
Switched to FoxIt PDF
Went back to X-Change PDF viewer:

Used to fill in information in Menards rebate forms B4 printing using X-Change PDF Viewer. Then switched to FoxIt PDF and all of a sudden I could not figure out why I could not fill in the rebate forms like I used to. I tried changing the settings in FoxIt but couldn’t get it to work like B4. Recently, after reading this string, I remembered that I switched from X-Change PDF viewer to FoxIt PDF. I changed back to X-Change PDF viewer and can now fill in the rebate forms and print them out. With FoxIt PDF I had to print the forms. Then fill in each form by hand. A tedious, repetitive, frustrating thing when I knew there was a better way. Great Thread!

@honkinggoose said in Best Safe Way To Pay Google Play:

@cpaynter said in Best Safe Way To Pay Google Play:

The safest way to pay Google play is to enter your credit card information directly into Google play.
Honestly, I think people worry about the wrong things.

I’m not worried, but Google is watching.

When your CC is compromised like mine was, you will worry.

@frugalfreak said in Post your favorite windows software thread:

@redmed pup in cute or malware?

In cute

@louis-redfoot said in Best Prepaid Card?:

prepaid visa debit? available at any supermarket, where the gift cards are located. you can refill them too.

Great. Now I’ll have to go into the supermarket instead of waiting in the parking lot listening to music.

@cpaynter said in Best Safe Way To Pay Google Play:

@redmed said in Best Safe Way To Pay Google Play:

What is the safe way to pay Google Play to keep your CC & bank info out of the cloud?

Um, since a great number of physical stores now use the cloud for processing transactions, what makes you think that most of your in-person transactions aren’t ending up in the cloud?

As for fraud, i believe it’s safe to say the majority of cc fraud arises from data acquired from brick and mortar transaction processing, not online. The crooks may use the card information information online, but you lost it in a store.

Aside from which, with a cc, you’re protected 100% from fraud.

The safest way to pay Google play is to enter your credit card information directly into Google play.

Honestly, I think people worry about the wrong things.

Chris.

I know privacy is non-existent today, but I still try to limit the exposure my financial information has.
Over ten years ago I drove my parents to the airport and dropped them off. I only stopped briefly at the curb to let them out and give them a hug. Two days later I got a coupon in the mail for parking at that airport. I had not been at that airport in at least 10 years. I’m pretty sure my license plate was rec ordered and my address was sold to the parking company and others. At that time I knew privacy was impossible but I still try to limit the exposure of my financial information.

@lowpricewanted said in Best Safe Way To Pay Google Play:

Why not buy a Google play card at the grocery store? Many stores count the purchases towards their reward programs.

Didn’t know there was a Google Play Card.
Thanks

@louis-redfoot said in redpocket:

@ctcarl damn! tello doesn’t like my vertu … their paygo is the best i’ve seen

at this point i have a $3/minimum-month t-mobile paygo (10c per text/minute, no data) that i almost never use. i’m always home and i use google hangouts via ipad for free. essentially i pay $3/month just to have a mobile line open.

Was interested, but see you have to pay every month and it’s $3 + tax & fees. Too much hassle. Once a year is hassle enough. I have had my PagePlus account for 4+ years pay $80 (or less if I can find a deal) once a year. Plus any unused minutes rollover. My account currently has over $200 credit, so for the limited amount we use it, this is my wife’s phone that she keeps in her purse. Our other unlimited Verizon phone is our main phone. For a second phone it works perfect for us.

Sticking with PagePlus. It’s on the Verizon network and is only $80 a year. Only $6.67 a month, find something cheaper than that.

@honkinggoose said in Best Safe Way To Pay Google Play:

If I understand the question, in order of safety

1. Never provide your cc or bank info to Google
2. Provide Google with a rebate or gift card number
3. Use a virtual cc number

FYI, in a moment of insanity, I used Google Checkout many years ago when they were offering all sorts of discounts and never suffered any ill effects … other than a sore backside from the many times I kicked myself for trading my info for a handful of silver.

I agree. Now I have figure out how to get a virtual cc.

What is the safe way to pay Google Play to keep your CC & bank info out of the cloud?