An Added Benefit of my Insignia FireTV

Back in September I switched out my inexpensive off-brand 4K TV for a little better known off-brand one. I have to admit that while the picture is better on my new TV that works as my computer monitor, I almost took it back for a serious issue. Occasionally I would wake my computer from sleeping only to have to unplug my HDMI cable from the computer and plug it back in. Fortunately I have figured out what is going on and have fixed that. The problem is not with the TV but with my keyboard. I need to hit the "Return" key on the keypad to fully wake up the computer, not the regular keyboard "Return" key. I've been doing that for 3 days and it works like a charm. I have not had to mess with HDMI cables at all.

The reason for my post today though is because of a feature that got set up by default but I doubt I would have set it up on my own. My new Insignia TV comes with FireTV from Amazon. When I set it up, I put it on my home network so I can use it as a streaming platform. Doing so connected the TV to all of my smart home devices like my Ring doorbell. Now when someone comes to my front door and presses the doorbell button, a picture-in-picture display appears on the monitor and shows me who is there.

Thinking about setting that up, I probably would have passed on that feature. My thought process would follow the lines of I could always pull out my phone and check there. Interestingly enough, I prefer to have the screen magically appear for about 10 seconds and show me who is at my front door. It comes up on a part of the screen that I rarely use and doesn't really get in my way. Even then, I am sure I could move it but the default works perfectly.

Normally I prefer to set up new features myself instead of having them set up automatically for me. This is one exception to that rule and I am glad the FireTV software knew I would want it. This week my wife has had a lot of visitors and it is nice to know I can remain in my home office every time the doorbell rings. 

Fat People on Airplanes

My wife and I returned from visiting our son in Ohio yesterday morning. For those interested, I did not have any issue with my son's compressed air canister for his avalanche air bag. It sailed through the TSA screening without incident. On the way out, we had the second exit-row seats as they have the advantage of more legroom and still being able to recline. I also learned something on that flight. One of the passengers required a seatbelt extender. In other words he was too large for the regular seatbelt. When that happens in an exit row, the flight attendant needs to put the large person in a different row. Fortunately someone gladly switched with the unfortunate passenger.

Then on the way home, my wife and I got split up. We still found ourself in the second exit row but we both got stuck in middle seats. Unfortunately we both got stuck between large people that oozed out of their own seats and into ours. It happened on both sides of us. This had me thinking who is at fault for squishing me on a 4-hour flight. Is it the problem of the individuals for being too fat or is it the airline's fault for not accounting for larger passengers?

Fortunately we have the source of all knowledge at our fingertips. The first thing I did was look up the design specs for plane seats and discovered we adhere to a standard set in the early 1960's. Airplane seats are ideal for anyone 5 feet 10 inches or shorter and weighing under 180 pounds. I can see that as being appropriate back then but now people have gotten much larger. I have a great story about an overloaded boat in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World, but that is a story for another time. 

I next looked up the average size of American males and females. The average weight of an American female is 171 pounds, which seems kind of heavy to me but still under the 180 pound design of airplane seats. The average American male weighs 199 pounds, well above what is expected on planes. Unfortunately there is no federally mandated minimum seat size and I think that is part of the problem. The airlines don't have an incentive to make their seats any larger than they are now.

Fortunately most airlines require people above a certain size to purchase a second seat. It has to be purchased before the flight and cannot be done at the last minute. Furthermore, Southwest and Alaska airlines will refund the second seat price if the flight is not completely full and there are extra seats available.

For your reference, my wife is smaller than me and also weighs less. I am a comfortable 5 feet 8 inches tall and weigh 160 pounds. I should fit comfortably in plane seats and so you know it is a problem when I am getting squished on both sides.  

 

Bringing an Avalanche Airbag on a Plane

Soon I will be headed to Ohio to visit my youngest son and his family. My son had 2 requests for this trip: bring a pair of skis he has at my house and bring his avalanche airbag. Now skis are easy to bring as the airlines are ready to handle them, especially out of Salt Lake. The airbag poses a unique challenge for airplane travel.

I don't imagine a lot of my readers know what an avalanche airbag is and why a skier would need one. Think about a bag of potato chips and how the largest ones always seem to be at the top of the bag while the crumbs sink to the bottom. The same thing happens in an avalanche where the largest objects will rise to the top and the smallest sink. The idea behind an airbag is that you instantly become larger and should float to the surface of the sliding snow and not sink to the bottom where you can quickly suffocate. In order to inflate the airbag, my son's bag has a canister of compressed air. FAA guidelines restrict any container of compressed air even though there is one for every life jacket under every seat.

I have never taken an avalanche airbag on a plane but my older son has and I vaguely remembered what he went through. The first thing is you have to let all of the compressed air out of the cylinder. Standard maintenance requires you do this once a year anyway and so I went into a room with lots of space. I put the backpack on and pulled the trigger cord. A large hissing noise ensued and I expanded to twice my normal size. As I write this I wonder if an avalanche airbag would be a great bear deterrent.

I took off the backpack and found the release button to empty the air out of the inflatable bag. Then I removed the canister before folding up the bag and repacking it like one would a parachute. Now that I had the empty cylinder, I didn't know what to do next and so I went to the source of all information: the Internet. I did a search on flying with an avalanche airbag and made sure to include the manufacturer's name. The result came back with step-by-step instructions on how to disassemble the cylinder and bring everything through airport security. Furthermore it listed the two airports in the world where you will have the most problems: one in Canada and one in Germany. Oh and if you are going to Japan, just leave the cylinder home and rent one when you get there.

The important thing I needed to know is to unscrew the top from the cylinder so TSA can inspect the inside of the empty cylinder which looks like a small metal water bottle. The top contains the release valve and a pressure gauge so you know if you have enough air in the cylinder. I tried with all my might to unscrew the top only to be thwarted by Bubba who cranked that sucker tight at the factory. I had to enlist the service of my wife and together we unscrewed the top so everything is now ready to head to the airport when that time comes.

The last helpful hint I got from the Internet said it is okay to check the airbag but carry the cylinder on the plane. That way you can explain what it is to TSA. Having heard horror stories about passengers called back to baggage check-in because of questionable items in checked bags, I will be sure to heed that advice. After all, I don't want to miss my flight dealing with questions. If I run into problems, I'll be sure to post a follow-up entry. 

First Snow of the Season

I slowly started waking up this morning when my phone started going crazy with text messages. Given the massive amount of rain we received last night, I figured it related to snow in the mountains. Sure enough, that is the primary subject of all those messages.

My son made the mistake of showing my 7-year-old granddaughter webcam pictures of the snow up at Alta. She responded, "Can we go skiing today?" My wife immediately shot back that her grandfather would take her, implying that there is no minimum amount of snow I wouldn't try to ski on. I will confess that the thought did cross my mind until I took a closer look at those webcam images. No we need a lot more snow before I'll brave the conditions. Fortunately we are expecting more precipitation through Wednesday. Unfortunately my schedule won't let me be able to take my granddaughter skiing until Friday afternoon and the snow might not be around then.

The Internet has given us a number of tools to help us know what is happening in the world around us. While it is easy enough to look out the window to see what the weather is doing, we can also use websites to see what the weather is doing anywhere. While I use it to check local ski resorts, I can also check out snow conditions in Colorado, France, or even Japan. For those that don't like the snow and cold, you can check beach webcams around the world. One of my buddies constantly has a webcam up on his computer of his favorite surfing beach in Hawaii.

This access to instant information had me remembering how I used to get ski-resort information as a teenager. Mobile phones didn't exist nor did digital cameras that make placing images online so easy. Now that I think about it, "online" didn't exist either. We didn't have the benefit of websites. We did get a daily newspaper though and could find all sorts of information there. If the paper didn't have what you wanted to know, you either did without or gave someone a phone call. You just needed to know who to call. 

My Mac Doesn't Want to Run the Newest Version of GIMP

The downside of a visit to Japan for work is that I spend a lot of time doing an expense report. I spent the week collecting receipts and then sit down to organize them when I return home. I know some of my colleagues take pictures of the receipt with their phones the moment they get them but I wait until I have a large workspace. I have a well-tested system for making sure I don't forget anything and am reluctant to change it.

I have a nice flatbed scanner that I use to digitize all of those receipts. Then I use use GIMP to edit those images before submitting them in my company's expense reporting system. I make sure to cut out any part of the image that is not needed and it makes for incredibly legible receipts.

Yesterday I went to start GIMP on my Mac only to be told an updated version of the software is available. I try to always use the latest version and so I installed the new one. Unfortunately I did not install it from Apple's App Store and so MacOS didn't want to let the program run. Normally I can just right-click on the application icon and that forces it to start. Yesterday that didn't work. I did a quick search and found that I needed to run the following command using the terminal:

xattr -cr /Applications/GIMP.app

I had to enter the administrator password to get the command to run, then right-click on the icon and select the "Open" option. That forced GIMP to run and it came up nicely. I quickly trimmed receipt images and then completed my expense report in a timely manner.

GIMP may not be as good as Adobe's Photoshop but it has all the features I need to do the image editing I need. Furthermore it is free and does not require an annual subscription. Should you find yourself needing to do some simple photo editing, I highly recommend it.  

Airline Apps

I spent last week in Japan with my wife and youngest daughter. I decided to try something new and flew through Honolulu on the way there. I didn't realize it adds 5 hours to the trip, not including the layover and so I probably won't do that again unless I spend a week or so in Hawaii before continuing on. When I boarded the plane the first leg of the trip, I discovered I had been upgraded to first class. That surprised me as it has been a long time since I have qualified for a first class upgrade on Delta Airlines. Furthermore I got upgraded to a lie-flat seat so I could sleep comfortably on the flight.

The upgrade surprise encouraged me to download Delta's specific application for my phone in the hopes I would not be caught unaware again. I have always resisted installing apps when I can get all the information I need from a website. Apps take up space on your phone and I would much rather use that space for something else. The only downside of the website is that it doesn't push updates to you and so you board a plane not knowing your seat has been switched.

I used the plane's WiFi to install the app and set it up. Then I could use the app throughout the rest of the trip. I used it to check in for my return flights home. I also upgraded my seats to Economy+ and gave my daughter those seats for the way home. While I have been to Japan many times, I have always used a paper ticket to go through security there. This time I didn't print anything and just used the ticket on the app. It worked flawlessly.

It has only been a single trip and I cannot definitely say that the app gives me anything I couldn't get from just going to the website. I'll keep using it for my future trips and see if there are any enlightening features that makes me want to keep it. If not, I'll remove it and free up space on my phone. 

My Cheap 4K TV Died

During the Pandemic I bought a new Mac computer and then paired it with a very inexpensive 4K television that I purchased from Walmart. Today that monitor died suddenly. One moment I was typing away and then the whole screen went blank. I tried turning it on and off again with no luck. I even let it sit for awhile but it truly died.

I can't say the death of my TV/Monitor came unexpectedly as it showed signs that end approached. A few days ago I noticed flickering in the middle-left of the screen. It only happened when the monitor had been off for awhile and then I turned it back on. Once the TV seemed to warm up, the flickering went away. That warned me it would soon bite the dust so I started looking at local deals for the best TVs.

My last TV/Monitor came from Walmart and so I started there at Walmart.com.  I didn't see any good deals and so I headed to my usual Internet search engine and quite a few options in the $150 range from Best Buy showed up. My local Walmart is right next to Best Buy and so I figured I would start at Best Buy should I need to rush out and purchase something. That is where I headed today when I got the black-screen of death.

I have to say that I didn't have any problem finding a parking spot as it seemed relatively empty on a Thursday evening. I pulled up near the front and walked right in. I quickly found the TV isle as it takes up about a quarter of the store. It took a few seconds for the salesperson to find me and ask if he could help. I told him I needed a 4K TV at 43-inches. He explained they don't make them that small. I told him they did and I had seen it online. Then he said that I would probably return it in 2 weeks because I would blow out the speakers. I explained I only needed it for a computer monitor and didn't care about sound.

Best Buy had several TV's that met my criteria and I could choose from a number of them. Ultimately I decided to go with Insignia even though the salesperson tried to up sell me a Sony or Samsung. I told him I work for Sony and get a really good deal on them but don't want to spend that much for a computer monitor. That brought up a whole other conversation I did my best to ignore. The guy had to get a forklift to grab my potential new purchase from the top shelf and so I helped him by moving a few boxes of other TV's out of the way. Once I had it, I headed to the checkout and paid for it.

I got home and unboxed the new TV so I could set it up and finish the work I started before my old screen died. I plugged everything in and had to go through a rather advanced setup as it is also a SmartTV. I really just wanted to get back to my work. Eventually the setup finished and I could see my old work. I almost brought the TV right back to the store because it looked awful. The text did not look crisp and I thought I the resolution got screwed up. I fiddled with settings on the computer but didn't have any luck.

Next I tried the settings on the TV. This is an important piece of information: Insignia televisions have a number of different picture modes:

• Standard
• Movie
• Dynamic
• Natural
• Game
• PC
• Custom

I started trying all of them to see which one looked the best. As you might guess, everything came into focus the moment I tried "PC." I would even go so far to say that it is significantly better than my old Walmart TV.  I am very pleased with my purchase and hope it lasts 6 years like my last one did. After tax, the total purchase came to $161.15. I think that is a bargain!