Marantz – Watch Out for Updates!

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Marantz NR1504

I’ve had a Marantz NR1504 for a couple of years at least. As you can see, it was released in 2013 and is no longer made – according to Marantz Tech Support.

My Marantz NR1504 Receiver recently took an update over the internet. Automatically. And the next time my Linux Mint System booted, the receiver refused to pass video from the Linux system. Dish Hopper and Sony Bluray player work fine. I thought the problem was the Linux Kernel Update that I’d done, so I pulled the machine out of the Entertainment system and attached another monitor to it thinking that I would need to re-install Linux Mint 18.2, but it came up fine with the other monitor. Also, I’ve swapped HDMI cable and used other Receiver input ports, and when the Linux system is attached directly to the Vizio Pseries TV, it works fine, in FREAKING 4K no less. Of course the NR1504 only supports HD, not 4K. In 4K the print is so small on my 65″ TV that I can barely see it. But it works fine and Youtube is also fine.

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Linux Kernel Crash – Need to Back Out

 

 

 

I accepted a software update of the kernel on my LM 18.2 system, and now it won’t boot. Probably someone rushed out a SpecterMelt fix or something. Anyway, I need to back out these kernels later than 4.4.0-98 so they aren’t boot options. If I restart now I need to go through grub advanced options to get system started.

How do I back out these recent kernels?

Update: Use the Update Manager > View > Linux Kernels to choose which ones you want and you can back them out.

Update Update: Not a crash at all. Linux was fine. The Marantz NR1504 took an update that blacked the screen. Linux works fine to other monitors and the 4K TV without problems on the latest kernel.

Thanks
:ww

Why Do My Toes Drag?

 

My toes are dragging. My little Lalafell has no trouble with this Carbuncle mount, but anybody else is too big for this mount.  These mounts are very nice, and it’s great that they glow. But, all the other mounts come in several sizes to fit the races. Looks like three sizes based on what we recently saw with the Holiday Bears.

 

The Lalafel on the left and the Au Ra on the right both fit their bears.

Also notice how these Chocobo mounts fit their riders:

 

The shot in the barn shows me riding the largest one since I’m Au Ra, and the fellow next to me is a Lalafell with his mount out as a companion. Looks like the little mount is about 1/2 the size of the large one.

And this wolf mount with a Lalafell rider came in some other size for a larger race. And, notice how the Carbuncle does fit the Lalafell rider.

 

 

Wonder if they will fix the Carbuncle Mount to fit all races.

:ww

Player Housing?

 

Here is a visit to The Goblet, outside of Limsa Lominsa. You visit any of the residential areas with a quest at level 5 called “Where the Heart Is”

Currently, player housing in FFXIV is a “Fixed” resource. This is odd, since nothing that is virtual need be limited.  In FFXIV, as you enter a residential area, you are presented with a panel with a number of “Wards”, each the same with the same layout and same houses. These are instances of the Ward and constitute the fixed resource. It also in some sense breaks the immersion experience of visiting housing, since one is aware of the fixed and overlapping nature of the housing by seeing this panel.

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Pellet Stove Fan Control

Pellet stoves can’t really, in my opinion, be controlled by a thermostat. They take a long time to start, and up to 30 minutes sometimes to shut off. And in my situation, I need a fan to blow the warm air into other rooms of the house. So, there is a pedestal fan next to the stove to blow the warm air to the rest of the house. But I had to manually start and stop that fan.

The problem is that if the fan is started with the stove, it blows cold air for a long time before the stove warms up. And when I shut off the stove, I have to come back later and turn off the fan, maybe at night when I just want to go back to sleep.

So here’s the solution. There are “Temperature Controllers”. I found several on Amazon. This one looks very fancy, but was only about $35. It can control heating and cooling of something and has a large wattage rating. So the fan is plugged into the Cooling socket and the temperature is set to 85 degrees. So the fan is always off unless the stove is hotter than 85 degrees. So when the stove is turned on, the fan comes on about 5-7 minutes later when the stove has warmed up, and when the stove is shut off, the fan shuts off up to 30 minutes later when the stove has cooled down.

Notice the thin wire sneaking over to the top left of the stove? That’s the thermo sensor that controls the controller.

Works great. Now I don’t need to worry about the fan at all. Just turn the stove on and off when I need it.

:ww

Watch Out. Rats in the Kitchen

I just had to replace an expensive kitchen faucet because a rat apparently chewed through one of the supply lines. See the little nip in the line on the right picture?

 

Apparently this is quite common. Rats seem to know that they can get a drink by chewing through a faucet supply line. Unfortunately, these very expensive faucets – about $300 for any of the major brands – all use nylon other plastic for the mesh around the supply lines rather than stainless steel mesh. As you may know, replacement supply lines for toilets and many other faucets are covered in a stainless steel mesh, which rats will not chew. But the supply lines on these expensive faucets cannot be replaced or easily repaired.

The rat only chewed a little hole to get a drink, so it drip drip dripped and I didn’t find it for a couple of days when I noticed water on the floor.
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So after a new $300 faucet and a $150 plumber’s visit, I have a new faucet.

Now there’s a big rat trap in the cabinet defending the faucet from rats.

Update: I had a brainstorm early this morning. I just bought this and will slide this over the faucet lines.

 

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That ought to keep the pesky rats off the faucet lines. So there.

 

 

 

Side Quests, etc.

Don’t forget to check out some of the side quests. While you don’t actually need them to level, even if your world is not on the “Road to 60” list, there are some that give interesting gear rewards and they aren’t nerfed like other games. In Tera, after a few changes, only the story quests give good rewards. The Zone Quests and Vanguard Requests in Tera used to give great XP, but now the Zone Quests give about 20% of a story quest and Vanguard Requests give very little XP, but give tokens that are good for gearing up. I’ve never seen what I would call Story Quests in Wow, so the quests in a zone pretty much give all the same level of rewards. Which is fine. No complaint here. 7-20 quests per level depending on your place in the game. Although, like I said, all that may change with “Level Scaling”. sigh.

Near Camp Drybone here in FFXIV, I ran across a side quest that rewards a nice weapon of level 20 for very little work. And side quests give about 1/2 the XP of the Story Quests, so two quick ones now and then can help a lot. I’ll keep my eye out for them when my gear is getting stale. Since I’m leveling pretty fast I’m not really psyched to learn and apply Materia to my gear. I’ll get back to that when I get high enough that the gear will last some time.

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Good and Bad News After Some Play

Here’s some more detailed reactions to FFXIV after a few more hours playing the trial.

I’ve played all the classes available to the Trial except Rogue and Pugilist. None of them seem over powered, but they all survive fine to solo the content up to about 20 – which is as far as I’ve played. This content contains lots of quests, solo instances and several dungeons, so the game play is quite varied early on as you level.

After sending Tank, DPS and Healers through the Novice training, I found it quite useful. It concentrates on party play, which prepares you for the four man dungeons. So not only do you get nice looking gear from the tutorials, but you get some valuable lessons too.

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Final Fantasy XIV

I’m finally getting around to trying this game and I waited too long.

FFXIV was released in 2013, so it came along after the other titles, which means it can be better looking and doesn’t have a low rez legacy. Wow was released in 2004, but got new models for characters with Pandaria in 2012. Tera was released in 2011. As you can see from those character creation screens, the models are beautiful and varied.

After the nonsense with Level Scaling showed up in Wow PTR, I looked around for something else to play and FFXIV has a free trial. The trial is limited in the standard ways: no cash shop – not clear why Trial’s shouldn’t spend money on the game -, no mail, no making parties, no private chat unless they chat you first, no friending unless they friend you first, and so forth. But you can play as long as you like with up to eight characters up to level 35. So here I am.

I don’t need to do a full-on review. There is plenty of youtube footage out there and plenty of detailed reviews. But here are my general impressions.

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