I’d have to check my logs, but it was something like spring or early summer. Honestly though the solar cycle has a much larger effect on propagation, and right now we’re near solar maximum so things are really hopping. At the beginning of COVID we were just starting to come out of solar minimum.

I haven’t been super active lately, so I can’t comment on how often you’d be able to make contact. But with some coordination it’s definitely doable. Especially if you get some decent metal in the air.

You still have US citizenship? You might be able to do your testing in the USA over zoom and use a reciprocal license, though I haven’t looked deeply into it.

I had a similar but very different experience. At the beginning of COVID my buddy and I got our ham radio licenses.

One of my earliest contacts was a guy in Japan, over 6000 miles away! Nothing between us but some wire strung up in a tree, and a couple of radios. Using the ionosphere to bounce our signals around the world.

So. Stinking. Awesome.

I’ve been hooked ever since.

It’s funny because it’s almost the opposite of your story, you were using the amazing new technology and infrastructure to make the trip. These days we take that very infrastructure for granted.

It’s fun to try doing it with as little infrastructure as possible!

Thanks for the recommendation!

I like the fold concept in theory, though it’s a bit exhausting protecting the screen all the time.

Being able to set the phone anywhere at an angle to take a picture has come in handy super frequently.

If this phone was full price though I think I’d be mad. I baby this screen line no tomorrow, and I’m diligent about keeping my pocket free of any dust and lint, let alone dirt or bits.

I’ve got a tiny scratch in the middle of the fold, and the entire fold area has long tiny cracks forming from folding. I’ve only had this phone for like 7 or 8 months.

My buddies broke in 30 days of buying it, and he had to fight to get it replaced.

Again, I like the idea, and I enjoy using it. But there’s still too many pain spots for me to make the jump. It’ll have to get a lot cheaper or a lot more sturdy before I’ll get another.

I had the original Galaxy Note and loved it. Then I went to oneplus one and loved it. Then I went Nexus 6 and liked it enough. Then I got the first Pixel.

I’ve been pixels ever since. But there was a deal on the Galaxy flip5, $0 up front, $300 over 2 years. I couldn’t pass it up, for the novelty if nothing else.

There’s a lot I like about this phone, but a lot more that I don’t. I’m looking forward to going back to Pixel when I can.

This phone is missing so many standard features, and so many others are locked behind Samsungs walled garden that I refuse to sign up for. It’s just a mess. I’m frequently frustrated.

I used to like the a400, had a few of them in service, but a few years ago I tried another one and it was terrible. Just… Slow… like an HDD. I did some research and apparently they changed something with the nand somewhere along the line. Did a bait and switch. I don’t remember the details but it annoyed me.

I actually needed to buy a budget SSD just today, and I got a BX500. We’ll see how it goes. I know not to expect much from a drive without DRAM, but at least I know that going in.

This happened for me with the scene in one of the new star trek movies where they play beastie boys while busting out of a cloud or something. Idk, it was a really cool scene, but I was mad that I’d already seen it in the trailer. It’s ludicrous. I still complain about it to my wife to this day.

Thanks!

This is very informative thanks. I’ve printed a lot of PLA on my Creality glass plate with no issues, but I recently started with PETG and it’s insane how much harder it sticks.

I learned through trial and error to only remove it while the bed is still hot, but even then it really sticks too well.

Is this legit? Or are you making a spaghetti joke? I actually can’t tell lol

Thanks, I thought of something even better. Slap Linux on that thing! Wipe the whole drive on “accident”. Linux is way more innocuous than pirate Windows 🤷‍♂️

Go with humility first, you screwed up. Follow it up with a joke about how you discovered a flaw in the configuration of work laptops, and now they can fix it to prevent someone else from being able to do that 🤷‍♂️ I think you’ll be ok

I would also like to know the answer to this

Not the same, you can’t pay friends directly with wallet. The core function that I use weekly is being gutted with no replacement.

Those other two are so frequently used for scams that my bank has a heart attack every time I try to use them. No matter how many times I call them and tell them to unblock my card, because it was definitely me sending that money, they’ll block it the very next time. I literally bought a checkbook (you have to buy those dumb things now?!) so I could more easily give people money… In 2023…

Google pay worked for me reasonably well for small transactions between friends and family. That’s literally what I use it for 90% of the time. I’m super annoyed that they don’t have a replacement for it.

Google strikes again, killing something I love.

But isn’t wallet only for tap to pay? I use Google pay to send and receive money between my friends and family literally all the time. Reading the email Google sent me, they only talk about tap to pay still working on wallet.

That’s fair

Same here, I was in on the preorder, and I’ve been burned too many times to want to do that normally

Yeah the extremeRate kit! I bought it but haven’t installed it yet. I don’t actually have a problem with the buttons as is, but it fell like an interesting change to make

That’s fair, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it lol

Thanks!