bobmacliberty

Isn't there some way to click a filter and only show posts from the original poster in a Cruise Critic thread? Or am I dreaming?

There's a table here summarizing features of the MVNOs in the US. Visible doesn't seem to have many restrictions...maybe an advantage of being part of Verizon. There are a LOT of operators listed that I've never heard of.

The great thing about Cruise Critic is that you're not forced to read anything. Those doing Live reviews can choose to post whatever they want to post. Whatever makes them happy...it's their review. You can choose to read or not read.

Anyone considering Mint or Visible (or any of the other Mobile Virtual Network Operators...MVNOs) should be aware of how they work and what restrictions you might face. They don't own their own network and instead pay to use the cellular networks of T-Mobile and Verizon respectively. This keeps the cost down for Mint/Visible and gives T-Mobile/Verizon an extra revenue stream. That's not typically a problem unless the main company is experiencing peak usage, in which case Mint/Visible customers would be restricted, not the main company's customers. You might see slower data speeds at peak times, or have a capped amount of high speed data per month forcing you into slower speeds for the rest of the month once exceeded. You may also not have access to some features like tethering, or the ability to get the latest and greatest phones. This is how they can afford to offer cheaper plans. I've been a Verizon customer forever (who has threatened to leave several times) so I don't have personal experience with an MVNO. I don't know how much these restrictions are a problem in real life. I would assume that most people who do not need much high speed data on their phone wouldn't know the difference. It would probably mostly impact gaming and video streaming. I'm not saying that you should not use Mint or Visible...only that you should be aware of the implications. Talk with the company to understand any restrictions before committing to anything. Both companies certainly seem to be doing well and must have many happy customers who appreciate the monthly savings. More info on MVNOs here, or a slightly deeper technical dive here.

I've had a prescription for Shingrix sitting on my desk since my last doctor visit about 10 months ago. I've just never gotten around to getting the shot. After all of this Shingles talk, I think I'll make it a priority. 😬

I think I actually prefer the Virgil Flowers series (although the Prey series is indeed great). Lucas Davenport has a small role in the earlier Virgil Flowers books as Virgil's boss, but they are mostly Virgil focused. I like how his character is not your typical cop.

Kraknog?

As @DeltaOne pointed out, you need to change how you think about stored shows, since there's nothing to delete. YTTV is pretty good at automatically marking a show as watched but there are a couple of situations that have tripped us up a bit: 1. If you stop watching a show when there's still a few minutes of commercials and maybe previews for the next week, YTTV may not think that you're done watching and won't change the show's status to watched. Edit: To help with this, I'm now in the habit of fast forwarding all the way to the end when I'm done watching. 2. If someone else using your account watches the show before you do, it will be marked as watched and therefore won't appear in the "New in your library" area. This happens to us for shows like Survivor that our daughter and SIL may watch before we get a chance. When it first happened, we thought YTTV had somehow missed recording it. If this happens, just go to the "Most watched" or "Shows" section of the library to find and watch the show.

Congratulations to your daughter and SIL! I've been to Oxford a few times. It's pretty easy to party there. 😁

What great news Mark! I'm sure the relief after all of that stress is tremendous. Enjoy your cruise!

I've got an iPhone so not sure about Android, but I'd assume it would be similar. Touch the part of the screen where the show is playing to pull up the timeline and controls. To the right of the timeline at the bottom, there's a square with broken lines. Touch the square to go to full screen. To get out of full screen, touch the same area that now looks sort of like a broken tic-tac-toe grid.

Hard to argue with that logic.

Distance definitely does matter, and it matters more for a 5 GHz WiFi channel than a 2.4 GHz WiFi channel. Signal strength drops off faster with higher frequencies and can be affected more by walls or other obstructions that attenuate the signal. That's why you'll often see things like WiFi doorbells, garage door openers, and outdoor lights use only 2.4 GHz WiFi...they want to ensure that the device will stay connected, even though 5 GHz can give you more speed. Adding more bandwidth from your ISP will probably give you a little more bandwidth at the far end of your house, but a better solution would be to get a WiFi mesh system for your house. A mesh system has a main router/WiFi access point and then you add another 1, 2 (for a large house), or even 3 (for a very large house) satellite access points that are spread around your house. The access points all talk to each other and the satellites essentially act as signal extenders, so that you would see nearly the same 150 Mbps at the far end of your house. You don't need a network connection for the satellite units, just power. We have a 3 piece Netgear Orbi system with the main device in the office, one in our living room, and one in our master closet. We probably only need 2 for the size of our house but 3 gives us great coverage all over the house and on our back patio. My daughter just got Alta Fiber (part of Cincinnati Bell) for her house and they provided a 2 piece Eero system. Your ISP may do the same if you don't want to buy your own. I think she pays an additional $10 per month for the satellite unit. Her main unit is in the front of the first floor, and she has the remote unit plugged into a bedroom upstairs in the back of the house. She gets a great signal everywhere. Google, TP-Link, and Asus also make good systems. If you buy your own mesh system, you'll see very large price differences depending largely on which version of WiFi you use. WiFi 7 is the newest and very expensive. Unless you're an online gamer looking for every advantage you can get, you don't need WiFi 7. You're probably good with WiFi 6 and might even be able to still find older, cheaper WiFi 5 systems that will work for you.

If you live within range of your local TV broadcast towers, you can use an antenna to get your local news and ABC/CBS/NBC/PBS "over-the-air" (OTA). Plug your zip code into this website and you'll see where your nearest towers are located. The site also recommends specific antennas but there are many antennas available (Best Buy, Lowe's, Amazon, etc.) in the $30-100 range that will work, depending on how far away you are from the towers. You can even purchase a box that will give you DVR functionality for your OTA signals so that you won't miss Survivor. 😁

I'm back in Florida, recuperating from helping my daughter move into her house. I'm too old for that...stuff. At my age, I'm supposed to write checks, not climb ladders and carry washing machines into a basement on a dolly. I also like being back where the temps are in the 70s, at least for a few days. Micheline decided to stay there and do more work. We didn't get the kitchen painted and there is still more cleaning to do. Not sure when she'll decide that she's done enough for now and give up. Momma wants her baby girl to be happy. 😁 I took a few videos when the living room and bedroom were at their best...before move-in day and the explosion of boxes everywhere. It's amazing what Scott's Liquid Gold Floor Restore can do to a hardwood floor. Untitled video (9).mp4 Untitled video (10).mp4

Adding to this...you won't see the currently playing show name at the top of the screen until you get there. Normally, Library/Home/Live will be at the top. Go up to where it says Library/Home/Live to see it, and then go up once more. It's a little strange. Another thing that we find useful is the ability to create a custom sort order for the Live grid. Since there are no channel numbers, you can rearrange the order of channels any way you want, and hide channels that you'll never watch. I find it much easier to do this on a computer (tv.youtube.com) than on a TV. Note that the custom sort order applies to all devices using that account. You can't have one sort order in the living room and a different one in the bedroom. We figured that out when my daughter created what she thought was her own custom sort. We couldn't figure out why ours had changed.

Since we've definitively ended that argument, let's move on to the next one. Is a hot dog a sandwich?

I'll bite. Best Christmas movie ever.

My guess...Drew, Austin, Dee in the final 3. Maybe Emily as the long shot, which would be incredible based on how she started. Now that the idea of Mama J being a threat is out, she won't make it.

I need to avoid CC on Wednesdays. 😡

YouTube TV doesn’t have a lot of content in 4k. A few movies and some series that we don’t watch. Most of our 4K viewing has been on Netflix and Prime. 4K is pretty clearly better if you have a large screen and are sitting close enough. I don’t know if the human eye can really see the difference on a smaller screen or from a distance. Edit: YouTube TV does have some sports broadcast in 4K. Looks awesome.

I think of CK as a half step up from the MDR. Kinda halfway between the MDR and a specialty restaurant.

I'll add to Harry's great summary that basic YouTube TV limits you to a max number of 3 simultaneous streams. That's probably plenty for most people but if your kid in college is watching something, your wife is watching something, your other kid is watching something in her bedroom, and you sit down to watch that baseball game that you've been waiting for, you're out of luck. We upgraded to the 4K Plus YouTube TV tier which adds 4K content (where it exists...not everything is broadcast in 4K) and unlimited streams. I think 4K Plus costs an additional $15 per month for a year, then jumps to $20 per month.

It's called AquaDome on Icon and is a little different. I think it might be better, but time will tell. It's all indoors so no weather concerns and it has other nice features. It's sort of a combination of the Aquatheater and Solarium on Oasis class, and the Two70 Lounge on Quantum class.