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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 22, 2017

Been going to yoga. Turns out when it's not Bikram bullshit run by GirlyGymBros so they can listen to whitesnake while doing downward dog it doesn't suck. I, on the other hand, do.

Been going to physical therapy. Last week my PT girl observed that my running form sucks because one of my legs points out. I observed that I told her this the previous week and that further, it points out from the hip, it points out more when I'm under stress, and that chiropractic makes it point straight for a while. I then asked her if I should maybe go see a chiropractor. She looked at me stupidly. Seeing her again tomorrow and if she doesn't get her shit together I'm bailing and finding another.

Been logging all meals (usually I go up to dinner and stop because logging meals is a drag and I've been doing it since 2011). Logging everything, I'm running about a 700 calorie-a-day deficit and gaining a pound a week, all the while being cranky, light-headed and despondent over low blood sugar. Meeting with a nutritionist Friday who is going to go through the rigamarole of assuming I'm lying, because that's what medical professionals do when you present them with something they don't understand - assume you're lying. Fuck all doctors everywhere. At least we now know I don't have a tumor. But I guess that makes me even more of a liar. I have to spend six months with a nutritionist before I get a referral to an endocrinologist.

Been logging bugs for Google. My wife and I run Project Fi because theoretically, we should always be reachable which matters when you deliver babies for a living. Which makes it suck all the harder when one of your wife's expectant moms has to call an ambulance because Google Fi won't connect EIGHT phone calls and three texts. So the birth center's first official birth was a transport because Google. We're at about four hours of testing now, roughly a dozen bug reports, and we've been able to confirm that not only does Project Fi not connect calls when it decides to get on "xfinitywifi" (even when it's got full bars on T-Mobile) it also won't connect to anything, at all, ever, if you tell it to connect to Sprint. As in, if it thinks it's on Sprint, it won't pass phone calls even when you're on Wifi. When I mentioned to Google that I have more testing with their product than I do with Avid, and Avid gives me about $20k worth of software in response to my efforts, they were unmoved. Fuck Google, too.

Been trying to sort out a goddamn magazine subscription. I went from having two magazines on two names for one year each to having one subscription and one cancellation with no refund. When you get on their website they won't send the form until you select your country. THERE IS NO PLACE TO SELECT YOUR COUNTRY. I had to reach out over a goddamn Facebook message.

Our open house is this weekend. We're spending $30 each for munchies for whoever shows up because we're catering it. At least then it will be fucking done. Of course, our contractor started grouting the backsplashes... and then fucked off somewhere so the counters are covered in grout but the tiles are not. He's got 48 hours.

And i'm supposed to be mixing this fucking movie but instead, I'm trying to get my wife's phone to take calls, my dad's "gift" to actually arrive correctly and the rest of my unemployment money to arrive because fuck you you have to re-file every three months because you're a freeloading insect, the Republicans said so.

And now I'm going to go for a run, and try to turn my leg the right way, and get a spasm in my hip, and then go put together Ikea furniture instead of, you know, working on the shit I get paid for or finishing the goddamn book because when you work for yourself, that means that everyone values their time above yours.





goobster  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ya know... I wonder if the police/black helicopter guys have a Stingray installed in your area?

I've anecdotally noticed a "pattern" that in certain areas with ample wifi and cell signal, calls not being connected, SMS messages vaporizing into thin air, etc... and I wonder if the Stingrays are not so good at passing on valid data as they are at collecting it...

Because, these problems seem to occur in areas police find "interesting"... like Rainier Ave, and a wide stripe on either side of Aurora Ave in the north end (where meth heads are making product in quiet little residential subdivisions), etc.

I wonder if they can trace the signal path your data is traveling?

Either way, it's gotta be goddamn frustrating.

Here's a way to figure out where Stingrays are operating: http://www.citylab.com/crime/2016/10/racial-disparities-in-police-stingray-surveillance-mapped/502715/

The ACLU is also tracking their use: https://www.aclu.org/map/stingray-tracking-devices-whos-got-them

kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's a lovely, if dystopian vision. unfortunately this is all on Google.

1) Things started going pear-shaped after the March 7 update.

2) Rebooting the phone does not improve performance.

3) uninstalling Google Fi, resetting the SIM card and reinstalling Google Fi does not improve performance.

4) I can be running and streaming Google Music over T-Mobile but I can't send or receive calls if the phone thinks it's talking to xfinitywifi.

5) Attempting to force it onto Sprint causes it to brick to the point where it won't even accept dialer codes until it's been soft reset.

6) A stingray that stays in one place is called a tap. Stingrays move around and, therefore, would cause intermittent problems. I, on the other hand, have 100% repro.

7) The issue is also displayed at my wife's work four miles south in the heart of Mountlake Terrace, three full miles from 99.

dublinben  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Have you attempted to tell your Android to forget the xfinitywifi network, and never connect to it?

kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The phones work if they are not connected to Wifi.

If they are connected to Wifi, all bets are off.

Telling the phones to never connect to xfinitywifi is not a long-term solution as the major benefit of Fi is wifi calling and 80-90% of the wifi hotspots you find, particularly at my wife's clients' houses, are xfinitywifi.

Further, it all worked in February.

goobster  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hey, my T-Mobile iPhone works great on both wireless and cellular networks!

Ducks and runs away...

kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

How's it work out in Monroe? Say, if you're driving to Jay's house?

'cuz both me and the wifey had T-Mobile iPhones and the TMO signal goes to nothing. Sprint? Sprint works out there but it doesn't work in lots of other places. Meanwhile we've literally got a 50' ATT tower in the parking lot but people on Verizon bitch that there's no service. So duck and run away all you want, but understand that we had to bail on that exact configuration because the minute you cross the slough you are radio silent and that's no good when you deliver babies for a living.

kleinbl00  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  
This comment has been deleted.
goobster  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well... that's Monroe, man. Might as well be the Moon!

(Honestly, I turn off my phone when I go to Jay's, because the battery will die as it panics and continually, fruitlessly, hopelessly scans for signal... and receives none.)

But then, I'm a writer. I don't run a birth center. So powering off my phone is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. For days at a time.

kleinbl00  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Right. If you did deliver babies for a living, you'd discover that home birth mothers have a startling proclivity for living on the moon. More than that for my wife to accompany me out there she has to call everyone who might possibly go into labor over the next however-many hours and give them an alternate contact person (another midwife) to call with questions or concerns. And then as soon as we're back in cell coverage my wife has to check all her voicemails (usually under a dozen) and check in with that alternate midwife.

cgod  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Go to settings and see if you have an option called something like "Sprint Wifi Optimizer". Turn it off if you do, it automatically tries to connect to Sprint partners like Xfinity.

Just a suggestion.

If you have an Xfinity account you can delete your device in your account setting but this might cause more problems than it fixes if she needs to do it every time she uses Xfinity wifi.

Might be Google's fault but it might be other shit messing with Google.

kleinbl00  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Google phones don't have any of that shit.

cgod  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I've had coustomers who's devices frequently leap into Xfinity wifi instead of the shop wifi. I guess it's a thing. Maybe Xfinity forces it somehow? They'd like all your data.

It's only been 1 out if 100 people it seems to happen to. Have you tried a different brand of phone yet?

kleinbl00  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's a known problem.

    You go into a bar. Standing in the doorway, you say, loudly, "Hey, Mike!" 22 people named "Mike" turn around and stare at you for more information. You, lacking Mike Murphy's last name, say, "Hey, Mike!", again to 22 angry Mikes who all try to answer you at the same time in a mass confusion as they are all Mike. Everyone is lost as you can't talk to 22 people simultaneously. That's what Comcast has done to crash wifi across America. Every Comcast wifi hotspot has the SAME EXACT SSID, "xfinitywifi".

    So, your stupid Windows/IOS/Android/Apple computer calls to connect to "xfinitywifi". At my local Waffle House, 15 of them all answer my call SIMULTANEOUSLY and, usually, nothing even connects. If one does connect, in the off chance one is a little stronger than the rest, the first time you send data to it, they all start calling and calling trying to reconnect. We sit with a professional networking program and joke about how stupid this is from this giant communications company that should, but doesn't, know better. Unless you can get close enough to ONE xfinitywifi that obliterates the signals from all the other xfinitywifi stations on the channel (1 or 6, sometimes 11), it WON'T WORK! As usual, when trying to describe this to tech support who know how to configure cable boxes but have no idea how 802.11(x) wifi operates, trying to get the Comcast beast to CHANGE the SSIDs to something UNIQUE, such as "xfinitywifi + the last 4 hex characters of that modem's MAC address" is like trying to push a 2500 pound elephant up a hill. Every hotspot having the same SSID must be ok or the Comcast beast wouldn't have done it. So, expect wireless wifi in every Comcast city in America to become a nightmare of stations all with the same SSID crashing and crashing and trashing wifi for everyone, not just Comcast's inop customers unless FCC does its job.

Starbuck's can pull it off because although they're everywhere, there generally aren't more than three per block. On the other hand, the birth center backs up against a 22-unit apartment building and unless you buy your own modem, every single Comcast customer is bleeding out "xfinitywifi" giving your phone around 11 SSIDs with the same name.

I can watch the "xfinitywifi" signal jump 20dB as my phone chooses between three or four of them.

Project Fi only works with Google or Nexus-branded phones because only Google or Nexus-branded phones will run dual-band on a single SIM. Your choices are 5X, 6, 6P, Pixel or Pixel XL.

Also, if your router is running damn near any kind of security, it'll take an extra second or two over barely-secure xfinitywifi. My laptop does it often, even though I'm less than five feet away from a rock-solid Netgear Nighthawk. It's the security.

veen  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Then how does eduroam solve this problem? I have solid wifi on all campuses in the world and throughout all campus buildings with no issues like this, through one single 'eduroam' SSID.

kleinbl00  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ever set up an Airport Express? Simple as fuck, right?

How bout setting up an Airport Express to extend an existing network? utter shitshow, right? I'm not even sure they let you do it anymore. Take it from me - it takes about five hours of experimentation the first time, then pretty much every time you change something, expect to spend another couple hours.

Wanna see how Eduroam does it? It's on the Wikipedia page:

    The eduroam service uses IEEE 802.1X as the authentication method and a hierarchal system of RADIUS servers.[15] The hierarchy consists of RADIUS servers at the participating institutions, national RADIUS servers run by the National Roaming Operators and regional top-level RADIUS servers for individual world regions. When a user A from institution B in country C with two-letter country-code top-level domain xy visits institution P in country Q, A's mobile device presents his credentials to the RADIUS server of institution P. That RADIUS server discovers that it is not responsible for the Institution_B.xy realm and proxies the access request to the national RADIUS server of country Q. If C and Q are different countries, it is in turn proxied to the regional top-level RADIUS server, and then to the national RADIUS server of country C, which has a complete list of the participating eduroam institutions in that country. That national server forwards the credentials to the home institution B, where they are verified. The 'acknowledge' travels back over the proxy-hierarchy to the visited institution P and the user is granted access.

You can build a mesh network with Ubiquiti or Ruckus or whatever. You pay more. a Unifi is like $90 a node, compared to the $25 you pay for consumer shit. But it allows you to have everything working in concert - adjust the power, hand signals off from WAP to WAP and most importantly, put credentialing and access at one centralized location.

On the other hand, when you open up your Comcast router it has a 2nd network built in, on the same frequencies, at the same power, as your own personal SSID. The only thing Comcast has control over is whether or not your credentials let you on.

It matters a lot less when things are well-spaced but when they aren't, look out.

raisin  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, I'm curious about this as well, currently on eduroam wi-fi with no problems.

dublinben  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It sounds like a better, albeit more expensive, solution for you would be good old Google Voice and multiple cell phones. You can have a single GV phone number ring through to your phones, and if you're on both AT&T and Verizon, you'll have service anywhere there's running water and electricity.

kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Once more, with feeling:

    1) Things started going pear-shaped after the March 7 update.

After yet another hour of troubleshooting, the latest version my phone now sees is Feb 27 and it appears to be working as advertised. The Play store still shows March 7 as the latest build but they've locked my phone off from grabbing it and lo and behold, we're back to where we were when things worked.

I honestly don't understand how this became a discussion about how I don't know how to phone. It's frustrating verging on insulting.

For the record? I have a 16-instance SIP gateway on 90-minute battery backup with a (not-yet-configured) failover from Comcast to Frontier that records voicemails and sends them as .wav files over email to hit my wife's phone on T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular or Wifi all because in Washington paging networks use the same frequencies and towers as cell networks which means they provide no redunancy which means I effectively needed to roll my own 5 nines reliability paging network out of off-the shelf componentry and fuckin'A, up until Google rolled an update (an update I've now spent five hours, six emails and fifteen bug reports unfucking) it all worked gangbusters without having to pay for two f'n plans. AT&T? GSM. Verizon? CDMA. TMO? GSM (and they share most of AT&T's towers). Sprint? CDMA (and they share many of Verizon's towers).

So sorry if this comes off as snippy but I legit assembled a goddamn 7-phone PBX in my apartment in LA to confirm all this shit worked and the problem isn't that the solution doesn't work, it's that google fucked up.

dublinben  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I never meant to imply that you didn't know what you were doing. I think it's ridiculous that Google can't get their shit to work. I think there's a reason why consumers are so hesitant to adopt real Google products (Nexus devices, Fiber, Fi, etc.) and your ordeal is a perfect example.

kleinbl00  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks. Google is trying to say "we fixed your problem all done!" and it's getting on my last nerve, especially as my "tech lead" is taking off until Monday.

snoodog  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I always wounder where the data goes. My work phone for example sometimes will make a call and you can actually hear someone else sharing your phone line. Theoretically the shared line stuff shouldn't happen on a digital phone signal so I wounder where the data goes.

kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Analog phone lines can easily induce signal on each other in areas where the lines are poorly insulated. If there's any analog switching equipment anywhere between handsets, one conversation can easily jump lines.

Ever seen one of these?

You plug the tracer into the wall, turn on the tone, and then wave the probe over this giant wall of shit

until the thing in your hand starts going "tweedleleedleeedleedleedle" and then you know which two of eighty gajillion wires go to that wall. But you never actually interrupt the circuit anywhere - that tweedling you hear is a magnetic field being generated over twisted pair.

steve  ·  2583 days ago  ·  link  ·  

hey man... that fox and hound is a fun little tool... It can be your best friend.

kleinbl00  ·  2583 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Fox'n'hound is a great name. I've always called it a "tweedler." Made sense because we called this a "thumper."

steve  ·  2583 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I had the fortune of learning most of what I know from an old ATT/Bell Labs dude. He called it the fox and hound.

I think tweedler is genius.

That thumper is the stuff nightmares are made of.

kleinbl00  ·  2582 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I told people at least a dozen times that it was to draw the sandworms out.

snoodog  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah I'd expect that on analog but on a digital blackberry I don't understand how that happens.

lm  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hey, I got one of those in a set of drawers I bought a while back...never quite knew what it was for. Now I'll have to see if I can repurpose it for something fun!

thenewgreen  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Thanks a lot asshole. I just snort-laughed on a plane and the attractive girl next to me looked over like I was crazy. Thanks.

    Been going to yoga. Turns out when it's not Bikram bullshit run by GirlyGymBros so they can listen to whitesnake while doing downward dog it doesn't suck. I, on the other hand, do.
kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

She wasn't that into you anyway.

Just like the GirlyGymBros.

SARVAGNASANA MUTHERFUCKER

oyster  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ever seen a massage therapist about that hip ? I mean I fixed this guys tennis elbow for at least a year without him needing to do any of the exercises or weird shit they do at pt. Just me 45 minutes a week massaging the arm and I'm a drop out.

I also follow this woman on Instagram that loves to point out when her clients lose weight from eating more. She actually had 3 pictures lined up once with her clients start, then progress from her plan followed by when the woman went on her own and cut calorie more. She got bigger that time. I bet she would believe you.

kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I first saw a chiropractor because a massage therapist opined that it was beyond his ability to fix.

oyster  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Was it caused by a break or something of the sort?

kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It was caused by stress.

Stress apparently causes some hip flexor or whatever to shorten. At its worst, my right foot at rest is about 80 degrees off of parallel from my left foot (or my pelvis, for that matter). It always has been; the school nurses always tried to get my parents to treat my scoliosis and shit until they eventually gave up and figured out they didn't give a fuck (see also: teeth). Giving it a good crack will reduce that angle by 30 or 40 degrees, and then the next time you might get another 15 or 20.

The pathway to chiropractic on that one was archetypal of the bullshit.

I went to see a doctor because I had plantar fasciitis and general pain while running. The doctor took one look at my chart and said "yeah, your feet would hurt a lot less if you weren't obese, lose some weight" and walked out. Then their assistant decided that maybe acupuncture would help with stress or something, and, since it was covered by my insurance, why the fuck not. The acupuncturist took one look at me and said "fuckin' A, dude, you need to see a chiropractor about that leg, also a podiatrist, here let me throw some needles in your temples 'cuz that's my jam" (except he was Chinese and his english was a lot more formal than that) and then the chiropractor fixed my leg but decided I needed to keep coming in once a week forever because that's their jam and the podiatrist, meanwhile, wrapped my foot, tried to give me cortisone injections and recommended that we sever a couple tendons to my toe because fuck you, that's why. After some cajoling he relented and prescribed me some righteous carbon fiber orthotics which were great and then I lost that job and lost that insurance and those poor orthotics had to last me another eight years. Meanwhile the running store in Los Angeles said "hey, you're running wrong, try out these weird ass shoes and also stop running like that" and then I broke a metatarsal.

Two weeks after the doctor called me fat? I broke a pedal off the exercise bike at the gym. Second in three months. I debated sending it to her and asking for her advice on how, exactly, I lose weight considering I was literally breaking exercise equipment, but never actually did.

It's one of my major life regrets.

ButterflyEffect  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Do you have any friends/colleagues/whatever who are good runners around Seattle? They might be able to direct you to some good PT's/Chiros/etc etc. Plantar fasciitis ain't nuttin' to fuck with.

kleinbl00  ·  2585 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Haven't had plantar fasciitis in ten years. Golf balls fix it. This current shitshow wasn't generated by any foot pain or anything, it was generated by a torn/strained calf muscle three weeks ago and then panic over the fact that if I can only run two miles every other day I gain a pound of weight a week therefore it is imperative that I be able to run my typical 10-15 miles a week.

ButterflyEffect  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ah, apologies, it sounded like everything had been happening concurrently.

Standing by my point of if you have this problem do something about it NOW for anyone else who might be reading.

kleinbl00  ·  2584 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah. The therapist this morning was actually convinced to go about and kinesthetically measure my pelvic offset. Lo and behold, I've got 5 degrees of splay just in my hip sockets alone. Changed her tune a little.