things i've learned so i don't get screwed buying tires
Every time I have to get new tires, I hate it because there are a thousand different ways to get screwed buying these things. I've been buying tires for close to 30 years, both for cars and trucks I've owned. In that time, I've come up with a few ways to get screwed less.
Yes, I said less. I just replaced a set on my car, but for the last set, I got slightly screwed even knowing what I know. The shop that sold me the set did a switcheroo at the last second and said, "Well, we couldn't get the tire you wanted, but hey, look at these! It's only $50 more for this set!" Like an idiot, I said yes, and they ended up being one of the worst set of tires I ever put on my car. THIS time around, I went back to what I know works and got exactly what I wanted.
This is what I do to get screwed less when buying tires:
I only buy from tire-only shops or a car dealership
I know some will say, "The DEALERSHIP?! Are you INSANE?!" It's not as insane as you think. In my experience, dealerships upsell less when it comes to tires, and they pretty much always have a buy-3-get-1-free sale.
Toyota dealerships do this all the time. With Toyota brand cars, sometimes the dealership will in fact have the best deal. Of course, this depends which brand tire is bought, and how good your ability is to say "NO" for all upsell attempts.
Other brands do the same thing. For General Motors, Chevrolet has 30-day price matching after the sale (or you can present the lower price at time of purchase) for BFGoodrich, Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop, Firestone, General, Goodyear, Hankook, Kelly, Michelin, Pirelli and Uniroyal tires. This means if another shop is found selling the tire desired at a lower price, the Chevy dealer will match it - as a rebate. Yes, that means a rebate process is involved, but still, it's a way to lower the price.
The dealership is never my first choice, but isn't totally terrible as a second choice. My point is that the deals at the dealership are there if you know how to find them.
Tire-only shops are my first choice, and for very specific reasons. They don't do oil changes or any other mechanical stuff a regular garage does. Tire sales/installation and some suspension (meaning alignments) stuff is what they do and only do. This means the only upselling that will occur will be just for tire stuff.
There is a very specific upsell automatically added in that can only be avoided if you know how to do it, which leads me to...
Tire warranties and "protection plans" are totally worthless
With the tire set I just bought, what I did prior was calculate the price online since the shop has a web site. I did the add-to-cart thing, installation/disposal fees and sales tax were all added in, and right at the end, an option was automatically enabled for some worthless protection plan. I unchecked that option, and the total price was $40 less. That may not sound like much, but it's a way to knock down the price, and I'll take it.
Armed with this knowledge, I went to the tire shop knowing in advance what the final price was. And SURE ENOUGH, right near the end of the purchase process, that stupid protection plan was automatically tacked on. All I said was, "No protection plan, please", and then I got the $40-less price I wanted.
You have to KNOW to do this, else that stupid plan is always added in at the particular shop I bought from.
I said protection plans are worthless. Here's why:
If you read over any tire protection plan or road hazard protection plan, oh yeah, sounds good at first. But read into it, then read about the process involved to actually use such a plan, and I guarantee you won't bother buying one.
Tire shops only offer basic protection, and only for the tread portion of a tire. If you get tire sidewall damage, you're screwed, the plan doesn't cover that and you absolutely have to BUY a new tire with no discount. If however you run over a nail and it's within the tread area of the tire, yes, that can be repaired and the plan will cover that. But why bother when that type of repair is either dirt cheap or FREE?
Road hazard protection covers more. Namely, both the tire and wheel.
If the tire gets punctured by a nail, or glass, or you hit a pothole really hard, the plan covers the repair. But again, ONLY within the tread area of the tire. If there's sidewall damage, nope, screwed again, you have to buy a new tire.
If the wheel gets damaged, such as getting bent to the point where no tire installed on it will hold air, the wheel can get replaced under the plan if you can prove it. And that's where a plan of this type gets worthless real fast.
If it happens you slam into a pothole where both the tire and wheel get wrecked, what must occur is that a claim has to be made per the terms of the hazard protection plan you have. Photo proof and all sorts of paperwork has to be submitted. Once submitted, the plan provider will DECIDE whether to cover the claim or not. And if they actually do DECIDE in your favor, it could take weeks to months to get reimbursed for what you had to spend to replace the tire and wheel. Oh, you thought you could just send a bill and not pay anything out-of-pocket? HAHAHAHAHA, no... that's not the way it works, you silly goose.
Before getting into tire warranties, the only "plan" that actually works is one you make up yourself. Specifically, buy two or four plain steel wheels that fit your car. You don't have to install tires on them. If it ever happens that you slam into a pothole and a wheel gets wrecked, you have a replacement wheel that you can take to a tire shop, have one tire installed and you're good to go. You can optionally have one tire installed on a spare wheel sooner so you have a full size spare at-the-ready.
I can absolutely assure you that you're far better off having a spare wheel or two rather than depend on some worthless protection or road hazard plan to actually reimburse you for tire/wheel damage.
Where standard tire warranties are concerned, they are, like with protection and road hazard plans, largely worthless.
Let's say you have a tire with a 50,000 mile tread life warranty, and the tire wears out at 40,000 miles. Now let's say you've done the tread measurements and can prove easily that yes, the tire did in fact wear out well before 50K miles were on it. All this being true, you should get a new replacement tire free or your money back per the terms of the warranty, right? Wrong. In an absolute best case scenario, maybe you'll get a check for 10% to 20% of the original purchase price. And that's ONLY if everything goes well with your claim, which could takes weeks to months to process. Will everything go well? No. You'll be nickel-and-dimed or outright denied your claim, you will not get any money back and will have wasted your time.
If you want a tire to last, do two things. Have a tire shop or dealership rotate them every 6,000 miles, and keep them inflated to the PSI (as in pounds per square inch of air pressure) stated on your car's sticker. This sticker is usually located in the door jamb. Open the driver's door, look for the sticker, and the tire PSI numbers will be listed there.
And to answer the question of "What is a tire rotation service?", this is when a garage takes the wheels off and moves the fronts to the rears or left front to right rear and right front to left rear (most car manuals state what the rotation pattern is supposed to be). Why rotate tires? To promote even tread wear. Your front wheels turn left and right from you steering regularly while the rears don't, so the fronts wear out faster. Rotate at regular intervals, and the tread across all 4 tires wears evenly. If you don't rotate every 6,000 miles, you get uneven tread wear and your tires wear out faster.
I do pay attention to rotations and tire pressure
Tire rotations are something I schedule by time instead of miles just because it's easier to manage. My tires are rotated once every 6 months regardless of how many or how little miles I put on in that span of time. If I were piling on many miles, then it would be once every 3 months.
Ordinarily, one or more of my tires will gain or lose a few pounds of air pressure from a seasonal change due to significant shift in outdoor temperature. This is completely normal. If the tire air pressure is +/- 3 PSI, I inflate or deflate the tire accordingly.
Also, I periodically look at my tires. If any of them look low, I check the pressure and inflate if necessary.
I do own a tire inflator, and it has paid for itself easily. If my car didn't have a place to plug one of those in, I'd buy an air compressor. And I also own a few tire pressure gauges since they're cheap.
It's true that on my car, I could drive around with the PSI off by as much as 9 pounds and be fine. In fact, my TPMS sensors don't trip a warning light on my dashboard until 10 PSI is gained or lost from the factory recommended PSI for a tire at any wheel. Even so, I periodically check the pressure anyway and adjust if the PSI is off by more than 3 for any tire.
I understand how long tires realistically last for
It is possible to eke out 60K or even up to 80K miles out of a set of tires. Years ago, the most I ever got out of a set was about 65K miles. I could have ran them longer, but didn't want to tempt fate and replaced the set. Bear in mind this was at a time in my driving life where I was putting on tons of miles every year.
These days, I switch out a set when they get up to 40K miles or slightly over. And the main reason for that is wet weather driving. If I lived somewhere where it was dry most of the time, I'd run a set to 60K and wouldn't think twice about it. But for rainy weather, running a set with over 40K miles is a bad idea. All it takes is a day when it just begins to rain when all the oils in the road wash up and my tire traction is gone.
Short story about that: At a supermarket in Florida, I had just finished shopping, got in the car and start driving to the parking lot exit. It was just beginning to rain. Nothing crazy. While heading to the lot exit, I had to stop for a reason (I don't remember exactly what for), and the car started sliding. No tire noise other than shhhhhhhh, and then, finally, I stopped. Nothing was hit and no accident happened, but this really stuck out to me because I had the brake pedal to the floor, the anti-lock did not kick in, and I had almost no traction. This was in Florida, on a warm day with very light rain, on a paved surface traveling at a speed of under 20mph. The surface got wet, oils in the pavement washed up, my tires were old, and my braking traction was gone. Yeah, I replaced my tires a few days later.
When people talk about tire traction issues, they think of major things like icy conditions, heavy snow, very heavy rain, hydroplaning and things like that. Consider the parking lot story I just told you. Again, it was a warm day, light rain, very slow speed of travel. You'd never consider that a hazardous driving situation, even for old tires. I certainly didn't. Now I know better.
I know most like-to-like tires act exactly the same
Like-to-like means "for same purpose". Obviously, a studded snow tire and a touring tire are significantly different from each other. Like-to-like tires however pretty much all act the same way, and there is no good reason to spend more money for something "better".
For example, take two all-season tires, the Pirelli P4 Persist AS Plus and Yokohama Avid Ascend LX. One is more expensive than the other.
Would I notice the difference on my car if I paid extra for the more expensive tire? I seriously doubt it.
Not only would I not notice any significant difference, but I'm also not afraid to jump between tire brands since consistency of tire quality basically doesn't exist.
I've bought tires that were great, and when they got to the point where they wore out, replaced them with the exact same brand, same size, same everything as the last set I had, and they've been total junk. I've also bought tires where user reviews said they were WORST TIRE EVER, bought them anyway, and they were great.
Again, there's no consistency with tire quality at all. There's also no point in being a tire brand loyalist.
You're just better off getting whatever is available at a decent price from a shop that won't screw you over. Get your tires, skip the protection/hazard plan crap, rotate tires at regular intervals, keep the air pressure close to what the sticker says on the driver's door jamb, and you're good.
how to encrypt and decrypt a tar, one-liner version
I do love one-liners that I can do on the command line in Linux, and this one has to do with TAR archives.
TAR, on its own, doesn't encrypt anything. This being true, a separate utility has to be used to encrypt it. The easiest one is GPG.
GPG is GNU Privacy Guard, and should already be installed on your Linux system. You can check this with which gpg. If you get a result of something like /usr/bin/gpg, it's already installed. If you get a blank result back, then you need to install it. Installing GPG should readily be in the main repository for your Linux distribution.
Let's say I have a folder called my-folder on the Desktop where I want to put all the files in that folder into a TAR and encrypt it with a password. I launch a Terminal and do this first:
cd ~/Desktop
After that, this:
tar -cvf - my-folder | gpg -c --batch --passphrase mypassword > my-folder.tar.gpg
The above will create the compressed archive my-folder.tar.gpg, and encrypt it using the password mypassword.
If you DO NOT want the archive compressed (which results in faster creation but a larger archive), --compress-algo none needs to be added in, like this:
tar -cvf - my-folder | gpg -c --compress-algo none --batch --passphrase mypassword > my-folder.tar.gpg
Obviously, change mypassword to a password of your choice.
To decrypt and extract the archive, put my-folder.tar.gpg on the Desktop and run this:
cd ~/Desktop;mkdir extract;cat my-folder.tar.gpg | gpg -d --batch --passphrase mypassword | tar -C extract -xvf -
A folder called extract will be created on the Desktop, and the contents of my-folder.tar.gpg will be decrypted and extracted to that folder.
Doing the same thing but with progress bars
When creating/encrypting, change -cvf to -cf and add --checkpoint=.1000 like this:
tar --checkpoint=.1000 -cf - my-folder | gpg -c --batch --passphrase mypassword > my-folder.tar.gpg
The result of this is that while the archive is being created, dots (as in periods) will show indicating progress until completed.
For extraction, pv will need to be installed, which means pipe viewer. This utility should be available in the main repository for your Linux distribution.
Change cat to pv and -xvf to -xf, like this:
cd ~/Desktop;mkdir extract;pv my-folder.tar.gpg | gpg -d --batch --passphrase mypassword | tar -C extract -xf -
During extraction, you'll see the progress bar.
don't use distilled water in a coffee maker
I learned this one the hard way, but fortunately I didn't wreck my coffee maker.
One would think that using distilled water would be better than tap for brewing coffee, right? That's what I thought. I was wrong.
While I do grind my own coffee beans, I'm not exactly what you'd call a coffee snob since I just buy the cheap whole bean stuff. I'm mentioning this for a reason. A few weeks back, I was in the supermarket and noticed some mid-grade coffee had been discounted. It was cheaper than what I regularly buy, so I said okay, I'll try this stuff.
After getting it back to the house, I ground some of the beans and brewed a cup. It did not taste that good, so I threw it out. At the time, I had a jug of distilled water, so I said screw it, let's try brewing this with the distilled and made another cup. The coffee then tasted better. Not great, but better. Then I said to myself okay, this coffee has been bought, I have some distilled water, and I'll just make coffee this way until I run out.
Not smart.
Here are the three reasons why distilled water is bad for brewing coffee with:
Distilled water is by its very nature tasteless. This is fine for cooking, bathing and of course drinking straight, but not-so much for brewing. Water with some mineral content in it does make for better tasting coffee. Some coffee snobs call that mineral content "notes" in the flavor. Take out the minerals and those notes are gone.
Distilled water can literally mess up the coffee brewing process. When using distilled water, this can cause coffee grounds to swell more, which in turn slows the water flow. What's the result of that? Bitterness from the water not getting through the grounds fast enough.
Distilled water can actually damage a coffee maker. When the water doesn't get through fast enough, the coffee maker works harder to brew. If that happens enough times, you end up with a dead coffee maker.
So what's the best kind of water for brewing coffee with?
Tap or filtered tap. And I suppose water labeled as "spring water" counts too as that has mineral content in it.
Ultra coffee snobs and professional coffee people condition the water used to a very specific ppm (parts-per-million) for "optimum" balance of minerals that brings out the best flavor...
...and I am absolutely not going to do that. All I know is "distilled bad, mineral good" for brewing coffee.
What I learned is that the fact that mid-tier coffee I acquired tasted slightly better using distilled water means it was bad coffee out of the gate. Decent coffee will taste correct with tap or filtered tap water. If it doesn't, that either means you just don't like it, or the coffee is outright bad. And that may be exactly what happened in my situation. That coffee must have been on sale for a reason.
I'm back to my old whole bean coffee and using tap water to brew with. Every coffee maker agrees with it, and the end result is that the coffee tastes good, just how I like it. I won't be swayed by on-sale stuff again, and just stick with what I know works.
i'm glad arcade machines are somebody else's problem
One time in my life I had an arcade machine in the house. It was a video arcade game, Mortal Kombat 3. I think I had it for a year or maybe slightly longer, then sold it. I've no regrets about that whatsoever.
Once or twice a year I'll go play some arcade machines. I enjoy the games, but I am VERY glad I don't have to maintain these things.
Back in the '80s when I was a little kid, there was a television show, Silver Spoons. A large chunk of that show took place in the main living room of a house. In the background on that set were a few arcade machines. Some were video, some pinball. I saw that, and thought wow, how COOL would it be to have arcade machines right there in the living room.
Well, I actually found out. Sort of.
I had that MK3 machine as I mentioned before, but I also saw games in other people's places too over the years.
In the '90s while attending college, I went with a friend to visit his friend that lived in an off-campus apartment, and in there was a Centipede machine. I thought hey, that's cool, but wow, that's really taking up some space. If I remember correctly, the guy who owned it even complained he couldn't run it too long because it would literally heat up the apartment too much.
I'd also periodically visit places (usually a friend-of-a-friend's home), and there would either be a room or a finished basement with a pool table there. That's not a pinball nor video game machine, but it's still something usually only seen in bars and arcades. Any time I saw one of these in a house, it was always unused. There would either be a cover over it, or if uncovered, there was always dust accumulated.
At this point I have zero desire to actually own an arcade machine, and it's not just because I briefly owned one before.
There are two realities when it comes to arcade machines, pool tables and other games like that.
The first reality is that the games were never built to last and specifically designed to be rented. A company would stock the games, rent them out to businesses for a few months to a year (usually with a service contract so a tech can be called in to fix a machine when it breaks), and that's the way it worked.
If you bring one of those games in your home, you have no service tech dude you can call for when the machine breaks. You are the tech. No thanks.
The second reality is that the games were made to be used in public spaces with people in them.
Something I found out with my own MK3 machine is that when you're playing an arcade game alone in the house, it sucks. You get this depressing feeling of emptiness. And yes, that was one of the reasons I sold the machine.
If you've ever been anywhere with arcade machines and the place is totally empty, then you know the depressing feeling I'm talking about.
For example, a few years back I was in an airport. As I was walking through the terminal, I saw a room with 5 or 6 arcade machines. Nobody was in there and I had free reign to all the games. I thought cool, I'll go play for a little bit. That lasted for maybe 5 minutes, because I felt that same depressing empty feeling kick in. I walked away from the machine I was using while still in play, thinking yep, this is no fun. I'm out.
Dedicating space in your home for an arcade machine and/or a pool table is a bad idea. The game won't get used, it will collect dust, it will fall into disrepair. All of that will happen.
Whenever I feel the need to play pinball or a video arcade game, that's something I go out to do. In the home, the only "arcade" machine I have is a Ms. Pac-Man mini. I find this far easier to deal with compared to a full size video arcade machine. The full-size stuff is somebody else's problem, and that's fine by me. I just play the machine and have no interest in putting that big thing in my house nor fixing it when it breaks.
And yes, they still make these if you want one. Fun thing to have, and takes up very little space. Very nice.
how to get a super short physical address
Navigation is wrong, and often. This is how to make it right, and also make it very easy to store locations for retrieval later.
Common navigation problem: You can't trust a physical address
It used to be that once a physical address was established, it was very rare that it would change. Whether the address was for somewhere residential (ex: a house) or commercial (ex: a business, government building or whatever), you used to be able to punch in an address and your navigation system be it Garmin DriveSmart (I use the 76 model), phone app or infotainment would get you to the right place.
These days, when you punch in an address, the nav system either a) won't find it, or b) find it, but direct you somewhere that's on the wrong side of the street and/or wrong parking area.
Two examples of this are mall stores and apartment complexes. In a mall, when trying to get to a specific storefront, you don't want 1234 Main St, but rather 1234 Main St Suite #567. In an apartment complex, you don't want 1234 Main St but rather 1234 Main St Apt. 567 - or - 1234 Main St Apts 500-600 so you can at least arrive at the correct building to find the apartment you're looking for.
Common navigation problem: Your favorites a.k.a. saved locations or travel history disappears
To note, this doesn't happen on a Garmin, ever. This is mostly a phone nav app problem.
On a phone nav app, it used to be that you could easily go back through your travel history to find places you've been before. You could also save locations easily.
These days, you truly have no idea if your travel history or saved locations will be there tomorrow. One little glitch is all is takes, and that valuable info is GONE with absolutely no way to get it back.
Solution: Short form GPS coordinates
This is how short it can get:
N28.0542 W82.4049
or
28.0542,-82.4049
If you copy/paste either of those into a map web site, you will see it takes you to the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa Florida.
Any location can be shrunk down to 12 or 13 digits.
Here's an example of a 13-digit:
N33.8126 W117.9273
or
33.8126,-117.9273
That's the location of the entrance sign to the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim California. And again, you can punch those coordinates in and be taken directly to that spot.
What's the point of using these?
These are short enough to easily send in a text message, write down on a little piece of paper you can keep in your car, or remember it in your head outright.
How to get the coordinates? Right-click on the spot you want to save using Google Maps or Bing Maps, then round up the numbers.
Looking at that Anaheim location again, the actual long form of that is this:
33.81260308822693,-117.9273000751936
This is ridiculously long and you'd never remember it. But you can remember 33.8126,-117.9273 or send that to yourself as a text message or write it down.
The best part: Coordinates do not change
Street name changes? Doesn't matter. Business name changes? Doesn't matter. Building changes? Doesn't matter. Roads around the building changes? Doesn't matter.
Your super short 12 or 13-digit set of coordinates will always take you to the right spot, every time.
Is a coordinate set an address you can mail something to? Technically, no, but in practice with whatever nav system you have, yes. Consider it a "good-for-humans address". Short, easy to remember, easy to store.
When addresses fail - and they do - use coordinates instead. They always work.