one of the dumbest car "problems" to exist
The other day I drove to a place about an hour away. The trip there was uneventful, save for some construction here and there where I had to slow for work zones. No big deal. The trip was uneventful other than it took an hour to get to the destination.
Side note: That stupid cable I bought for my navigation system worked perfectly. My Garmin DriveSmart 66 recognized it, and traffic data was received with no problems. That was good.
For the return trip, it was again uneventful, save for one thing. A warning light appeared in the gauge cluster, the TPMS, a.k.a. tire pressure monitoring system. I thought okay, no big deal, when I get back I'll add air to the tires and the light will go out.
I get back and add air to the tires. The light didn't go out.
Ugh... I know what this is, I said to myself. One or more of the stupid TPMS batteries in the wheels went dead. And when that happens, guess what? Money has to be spent to "fix" this.
If you look up TPMS sensors, most are not that expensive. However, you can't install them. Oh, no. Unless you have the ability to take the wheel off, take the tire off, install the new sensor and set your car's computer to recognize a new sensor is there so that stupid light goes out, then reinstall the tire to the car, yeah you're not installing one of these. A garage has to do it.
On my old cheap car, one sensor replacement has a bare minimum replacement cost of $135 when parts, labor and sales tax are all included at the time of this writing. And yes, that means $135 per wheel, which is close to what I just spent to replace one stupid TPMS sensor. Thankfully, it was just for one wheel, and that stupid TPMS light is now out.
There is no way to use a phone app connected to the OBD-II port to get rid of the light. Not possible. This is not one of those simple OBD-II reset things where purging a trouble code fixes this. If it were, I would have already done the reset myself.
On my car, the only true way to disable that stupid light is to literally unplug the gauge cluster, snip a wire to bypass the TPMS, reconnect that wire elsewhere so all gauges are properly recognized on car startup, and then it never comes back on ever again.
Will I do that? No, but I've seriously thought about it.
The reason that stupid TPMS light is such a dumb "problem" is because it isn't a problem. It's nothing more than a coin cell battery going dead that needs replacement. Yes, the same type of battery that goes into a Casio digital watch, usually a CR2025. When any one of those stupid coin cell batteries dies at any one of the four wheels, BLINK BLINK BLINK BLINK BLINK... there's the TPMS warning light in the gauge cluster. And it won't go away until a new coin cell battery is installed, which requires the whole sensor to be replaced, which is a minimum $135 cost per wheel.
It's a good thing my spare tire wheel does not have a damned battery in it. Some cars do.
I am absolutely not surprised at all that some people take a piece of black construction paper, cut it to size and tape it over wherever the TPMS light is in the gauge cluster. That annoying amber glow will still be there when the light comes on, but at least it will be dimmed and not in your face.
Why do some do that? Easy answer. Cost elimination, since TPMS "solved" a problem that didn't even exist.
Of the statistical data that exists for TPMS, the biggest claim is that having it saves fuel. Even if it does (which I seriously doubt), all the cost savings from not using as much fuel means nothing because they're eaten up by the cost of replacing the stupid TPMS batteries.
The only thing TPMS did was add cost to the car before AND after buying it. Manufacturing cost went up that you pay for, and a garage periodically has to replace batteries that you also pay for, multiple times, for the entire time you own the car.
And keep in mind replacing those batteries is a 100% useless cost since it does not affect how the car drives at all.
Do you know how to check the air in the tires for your car?
Obviously, you just answered yes. Nobody ever needed TPMS.
Another thing I'm not surprised by are guys who purposely drive cars made prior to 2008 to specifically avoid TPMS.
Generally speaking, most cars and trucks made before 2008 don't have TPMS. However, the only way to know for sure is to get the manual for the car as a PDF, then search it for tire and look for any mention of TPMS. If it's mentioned in the manual, then the car has it.
TPMS for me is right up there with daytime running lights and exterior LED lamp arrays for Crap We Don't Need In Cars. DRL does nothing but burn your bulbs out quicker, and LED arrays for things like headlights, turn signals and taillights means when any of them have to be replaced, the entire assembly requiring hundreds spent on technician service at a garage needs to be done instead of just buying a bulb and installing it yourself in minutes.
My car has no DRL and no LED-anything for exterior lamps. But it does have TPMS. Couldn't escape that one.
I've owned the car I do for some years, and this is the third time I've had to do TPMS batteries. It was never cheap. A few years back it was $65-ish per wheel, and now it's $135.
When I eventually replace the car I have, I may specifically seek out one made from 2000-2007. Spending $135 for a $1.50 battery that doesn't even affect how the car drives... total waste of money to replace a TPMS battery, every time.
Last thing I'll say here is that I'm glad I don't drive something like a Kia Telluride. How much is TPMS sensor replacement service for one of those? About $260-$275 per wheel. Screw that.
youtube's recent changes
I've been using YouTube a long time. How long? See the image. That long. That's a partial screenshot of what I see right now when I'm in YouTube Studio.
Yes, I remember the days from oh-so long ago when YouTube was independent and not owned by Google, had 1-to-5 "star" ratings for videos, direct messaging, the video description being on the right instead of below, only having 4:3 video format support, YouTube Groups... and heck, I even remember when a 10 minute time limit was imposed on uploaded videos unless you had a "Director" account.
I also remember the changes to how video views were counted. Originally, it was open season, and people that knew how cheated their way to "front page". I was not one of those people. YouTube obviously changed things so people couldn't do that, but over the years the way video views were counted changed several times.
Ultimately, what YouTube decided to do that stuck around for a while was a 30-second watch time requirement. If anyone viewing a video didn't stick around for at least 30 seconds, the view wasn't counted.
A month ago, that changed, and now a view is registered as soon as the first frame of the video is loaded.
In YouTube Studio, plenty of notice was given before this change was made, so it didn't end up surprising content creators, which was good.
Why the change? Answer: A new metric called Engaged Views, which is different from Views. For example, I have a video with 1.3K views, but the Engaged Views is under 400.
Did this change affect earnings for those with monetized channels? That I don't know. Too soon to tell. But I would think it's the Engaged Views that actually matter more to content creators now, because if Views are high but Engaged Views is low, that probably affects monetization... maybe? Again, too early to know for sure.
I do have one complaint, but it's a small one. Engaged Views is probably what matters more than Views. That being the case, when in YouTube Studio and you click Content and see your list of videos, the default view count column is still Views. That default should be changed to Engaged Views since it's the more important number. Like I said, small complaint. But since YouTube is really pushing this metric as the one to pay attention to, that should be the default view count column in the YouTube Studio Content area.
Or what would be even better is a hybrid column. Views/Engaged Views. If a video has 1,000 Views and 250 Engaged Views, then in the Content area the column shows as 1,000/250. That would be nice.
Something else caught my attention, and that's video ratings.
I mentioned the old school 1-to-5 star ratings above. YouTube ditched that years ago for like/dislike. When they first did this, there was a two-color bar below every video. Green for like, red for dislike. The colors were later changed, but I don't remember exactly to what. I think it was red/gray instead of green/red. Later on, the bar was removed entirely and only showed a thumb-up with the like number and a thumb-down icon with the dislike number. After that, it changed again to a thumb-up icon with the like count number, but no number next to thumb-down. And that's where we are now.
More interesting to me concerning video ratings is what happened in YouTube Studio on the desktop end. On the Content sidebar selection, the columns shown no longer include ratings. Are the ratings still there? Yes, but you have to load up the Analytics for a video, then click the Engagement tab, and then "Likes (vs. dislikes)" is seen. However, getting the dislikes count takes more effort. Under Likes (vs. dislikes), "See more" has to be clicked, then under Metrics on the left, Dislikes has to be checked, Likes unchecked, Likes (vs. dislikes) unchecked, then the dislikes count can be seen for the given date range.
I'm actually not complaining about this because the data is still there. It may take more clicks to get the number, but I still have access to it.
It is curious that video ratings almost don't matter at this point. Almost. Yeah, they still count as engagement, so I assume that's why ratings still exists. However, YouTube is really putting forward the message that it's the engagement that counts the most, ratings now is just a small part of that, and it's really not necessary to be seeing ratings in the default Content list view.
I think I actually agree with this, save for the fact Engaged Views takes an extra click. YouTube should do the hybrid column thing like I mentioned above.
Why do I agree? Less distraction. On one of my more recent videos, there was a dislike rating on there and I didn't even know about it. When I thought about that, I came to the conclusion of yeah, better to not see that in the default Content list view.
Seeing a dislike rating, even if just one out of a thousand, can affect how a content creator does things. It is altogether better to make it slightly more difficult to get that ratings info, because there's absolutely nobody that can get 100% likes on every single video they post.
no turns, no sale part 2
Some new information has come about concerning the new ultrawide models from Garmin.
I said prior that I might be mistaken and that on-map turns is actually there.
Good news: I was mistaken, and on-map turns is there.
Bad news: It was implemented in the worst possible way.
The new models I'm talking about are the Drive 7.1 and 8.8.
This is what happened:
From the introduction of the Drive/DriveSmart line in 2016 all the way to 2023, every Garmin screen had two ways of showing a turns list. While on a route, you either a) tapped the top text bar for a list of directions, or b) you tapped the bottom right and then selected Turns. Earlier Drive/DriveSmart models 5, 50, 51, 6, 60, 61, 70, 71 required you to add the Turns button to a pop-up layer from a configurable menu (you only had to do it once). Later models 52, 53, 55, 65, 66, 76, 86 had that layer changed to a separate menu with Turns always present as a selection. Regardless of how you got it, Turns was there.
The primary difference between the text bar way and the Turns way is that the text bar method was a full screen list of turns with no map. To see the map again, you had to tap a back button. With the Turns way, you had a turns list and the map at the same time, and the current street being driven on is still shown along with speedometer and additional configurable data field. Very convenient.
With the 7.1 and 8.8, that's changed. For the worse. Much worse.
There is only one way to get a list of turns now. Tap the text bar. Sounds convenient at first until you see what happens afterward.
When that list is up, 3/4 of the map is blocked, effectively making it useless. Also, the speedometer, speed limit, and current street being driven on is hidden. And the extra data field is gone too.
Now let's talk about the font size.
On the DriveSmart 76, the font in the text bar is large and legible. On the 7.1, the text bar font is now also the turns list font, and has been shrunken down almost to that of a Drive 52, a previous 5" screen model. Yes, that literally means Garmin reverted back to a font size for a 5" screen and slapped it on a 7" screen.
There is a "Large Navigation Text" setting, but the manual states:
Increases the navigation text size.
And that's it. Navigation text for what, specifically? Is that in reference to the turns list? That question goes unanswered.
But let's stay positive here and say it does make the turns list actually legible. That still doesn't bring back the speedometer, speed limit, and current street. It also doesn't change the fact the list blocks 3/4 of the map.
That's... bad.
Again, I'm better off just staying with what I have.
i ordered a stupid cable
Tech crap comes and goes. It's really annoying when you have a whole ton of a specific type of tech crap that either stops being made, or is really expensive to keep working. This one falls into the latter category.
I have a bunch of old Garmin GPS screens. I also have some newer models. The older stuff all uses mini USB, and the newer USB-C.
A problem I encountered is with a very specific charger cord, the Garmin GTM60. The GTM60 is a power cord with FM antenna for HD traffic reporting for Garmin screens that support it. Actually, I have two of those cords, both technically acquired "free". Over the years through buying Garmin screens, two came in at separate times with GTM60 cords. That in itself is kind of funny because in both instances, the cord was literally worth more than the screen itself.
To get full over-the-air HD traffic reporting, the screen either has to have a built-in antenna for it, or if it doesn't, you use the GTM60.
I have the DriveSmart 76, a newer model that uses USB-C. It does have a built-in traffic receiver, but only for the "lesser" RDS traffic reporting with no HD included. How to add in HD? Use the GTM60 cable, except there's a problem. The GTM60 uses mini USB and not USB-C...
...and this is where I had to make a stupid cable purchase just to get that HD traffic reporting back.
I had to buy a little USB-C male to mini USB female adapter cable. The damned thing was 20 bucks. It's Garmin part number 010-13199-01. If you look that up, I guarantee you'll say, "15 to 20 bucks for that?" Yeah, for that.
Could I have gotten away with the generic $7 version? Probably, but I went ahead and acquired the ridiculous $20 Garmin version just to play it safe. That itty bitty cable allows the GTM60 to power the DS76 along with providing it HD traffic reporting data.
What's the advantage of HD traffic reporting over regular RDS? It's basically the closest you can get to the info the Garmin Drive app provides without use of the phone if in an area that has HD coverage. With that adapter and GTM60 connected, now I have full HD traffic reporting receiving ability on the DS76 screen.
Getting HD back was the first reason I got the adapter cable. The second was so I could swap between my mini USB and USB-C screens without swapping charger cords. It's basically the same as using one charger cord for two phones, one with USB-C and the other with older micro USB. Add a small adapter so you get both connector types, and one charger cord can be used instead of two. Better to use a small adapter on a single charger cord instead of fumbling about with two full length cords, right? Right. That's basically what the adapter I bought does for my Garmin screens. For my Garmins, the adapter allows one charger cord to power and charge all the screens I have.
I label this as "really expensive" because 20 bucks paid for an adapter cord so small (it's literally just slightly longer than my index finger) is ridiculous. Even so, I bought it, own it, I got my HD traffic reporting back, and now I have an easy way to swap from older to newer screens and vice versa.
things i've learned about food recently
Break-and-bake cookies taste better than any cookie for sale in the grocery store, even if the break-and-bake is just plain chocolate chip.
Pre-cut paper for baking sheets is more expensive than the tear-off kind, but I gotta admit it's mighty convenient.
Knockoff Oreo cookies never taste correct. Only the ones by Nabisco get it right. I recently tried a knockoff Oreo and it tore up the roof of my mouth. Not terribly, but still, annoying.
Conversely, Nabisco Fig Newtons still suck. However, fig bars made by just about anybody else taste way better.
For salad dressing, combining Thousand Island dressing with something else, like, say, peanut sauce, actually tastes pretty good.
Jasmine rice, red kidney beans and sauteed onions mixed together spiced with salt, black pepper and paprika is still just as awesome as ever.