JT's Blog

I recently got a new LG microwave because my GE Profile started misbehaving and eventually died.  For the record, every GE Profile kitchen appliance I bought has failed, and that rant is for another post.

How to disable the annoying tones: hold down “Stop” and “Timer” for a few seconds.  The display will say “OFF”.  You will now have silence.  If you want to turn on the sound, use the same key combination and the display will say “ON”.

I appreciate the honest salespeople at PC Richard and Home Depot, who explained that all consumer grade microwaves will fail in about 5-6 years, so get the service contract. Lesson learned, these appliances are now consumables, and won’t last 18 years like the durable microwave my parents bought when I was a kid.  OK.  So time to buy something cheap.  I found this LG on sale for $199.

The electronic melody when it starts and stops is SO ANNOYING that it quickly became an issue in my home.  We wanted to punt this thing.  I went searching for how-to videos, and found several, but nobody had a video for this particular model.  I was inspired by this guy’s video, with a similar microwave.  After watching it, I tried a few key combinations, and after some quick trial and error, I found it: hold down the “Stop” and “Timer” buttons for a few seconds.  That will toggle the sound on and off.

The sight of police lights ahead prompt me to check my speed… 60mph.

I don’t really drive like a knucklehead any more.

Then the light Sunday afternoon traffic grinds to a rubbernecking crawl.

“You rubbernecking Idiots!” I share my disapproval tersely with my wife and kids… my condescending disapproval directed at the slowing mass of cars that snared me.

Unable to escape the moving roadblock, I relent and look to the other side of the highway; 495 Eastbound is completely closed. That never happens unless there’s an investigation… With a fatality.

And there it was. A white sheet draped over the unmistakable shape of a person, in the middle lane.

There was a makeshift barricade attempting to give the deceased some dignity.

Suddenly, I’m not in such a hurry any more. There was nothing surreal about someone who is no more, lying motionless on the cold, hard pavement. Friend, please take an extra minute to get where you’re going, so you *do* get there.

RIP stranger.

A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage and in the middle, a ladder with bananas on top.

Every time a monkey went up the ladder, the scientists soaked the rest of the monkeys with cold water.

After a while, every time a monkey went up the ladder, the other ones beat up the one on the ladder.

After some time, no monkey dared to go up the ladder regardless of the temptation.

Scientists then substituted one of the monkeys.  The first thing this new monkey did was to go up the ladder.  Immediately, the other monkeys beat it up.

After several beatings, the new member learned not to climb the ladder even though it never knew why.

The second monkey was substituted and the same occurred; the first substituted monkey also participated on the beating of the second monkey.  A third monkey was changed and the pattern was repeated.  The fourth was substituted and the beating was repeated.  Finally the fifth monkey was replaced.

Now, there is a group of 5 monkeys, none of which ever received a cold shower. Yet they continue to beat up any monkey that attempts to climb the ladder.

If it were possible to ask the monkeys why they beat up those who attempt to climb the ladder, no doubt their answer would be: “I don’t know.  That’s how things are done around here.”

Does that sound familiar?

In our lives, is there a way other than the status quo?

Source: some post on FB full of grammatical and spelling errors.

This might come in handy someday. Share so you can go back to it when you need to.

Clothes – Hand sanitizer
Walls – Toothpaste or hairspray*
Carpet – White vinegar
Wood – Rubbing alcohol
Dry Erase Board- Dry erase marker

***Don’t scrub too hard with hairspray, you don’t want to remove the paint!

-Source: some post on FB

Some time ago, I got a Brother HL-2270DW printer from NewEgg. The price, the ease of configuration and the performance were all excellent. Let’s be perfectly clear, I don’t print a lot – maybe an average of 15 pages per week. So when the toner light started flashing, I figured I could keep going for a few months, right? I mean, any self-respecting geek knows you don’t replace the toner until the print is completely faded. And even then, you take out the toner, shake it a little, and get 30 or 40 more pages.

So I was astonished to have the printer just STOP on me, after printing 6 of 9 pages of a PDF that I really need. While digging around on the web a little, I found a youtube hack using straws and fun tack. No thanks. But there was a great comment in there, that suggested going to the web interface and reconfiguring the toner settings from STOP (which is the default) to Continue. Wow… cheeky buggers. They must really want to sell more toner cartridges.

So problem #1, how do you find the printer?  I used a great utility called Angry IP Scanner which showed me all the “live” IPs on my WiFi network. After using my web browser to hit a few unlabeled IPs, I found it.   Problem #2, logging in: FYI, the default login credentials for the Brother HL-2270DW are: u/admin  p/access . If you set yours and don’t remember it, reset the printer settings and that will restore the defaults. You may have to go fish for the IP again though.

OK so there. Have fun.

And don’t wait so long to get new toner next time.

🙂