OT: Coronavirus and General O/T Thread

[Bench]

With all that said, I'm now looking to purchase a stationary exercise bike. Any recommendations?

What did you want to spend? I remember when the lady was looking to buy one, it was quite a huge range of features and prices. $200-$3000.

She ended up buying a Sunny brand bike with one of the really heavy flywheels for a little under $400. Zero complaints from us, however, the seat was unbearable so add a new one to the price.

It has no smart or digital features, which may or may not be a positive for you. I just throw on TV and ride, so I'm not a good person to ask if you wanted a bike for any kind of competitive training.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00467H5YW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_adkHFbQQ9G346


So I wouldn't get this one for an enthusiast cyclist. This is really a weekend warrior looking to keep the COVID weight off style bike. If I were all about cycling, I think I'd get something more high quality with more features.

Alas, it's all I really have experience with outside of whatever is at the gym.

 

[FabricDetails]

What did you want to spend? I remember when the lady was looking to buy one, it was quite a huge range of features and prices. $200-$3000.

She ended up buying a Sunny brand bike with one of the really heavy flywheels for a little under $400. Zero complaints from us, however, the seat was unbearable so add a new one to the price.

It has no smart or digital features, which may or may not be a positive for you. I just throw on TV and ride, so I'm not a good person to ask if you wanted a bike for any kind of competitive training.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00467H5YW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_adkHFbQQ9G346


So I wouldn't get this one for an enthusiast cyclist. This is really a weekend warrior looking to keep the COVID weight off style bike. If I were all about cycling, I think I'd get something more high quality with more features.

Alas, it's all I really have experience with outside of whatever is at the gym.

Nice - Thanks! Yeah nothing too crazy. Just need something for staying active. I've seen several like that and I just wasn't sure what to think about them.

 

[MBH]

Ok. I can understand that some. I don’t agree, because I think the caseload itself has been worrisome that it is still spreading so hard and so far heading into what we expect is going to be a bad seasonal affliction. And while this is a coronavirus... it’s a novel one that we are still through today are learning new things about. The data is guessing at what will happen.

The guess is that summer would slow it... it didn’t. The guess is that the sports leagues were crazy to think a bubble would work.. the bubbles held.

There is the downfall of following data too because if you focus too hard on one dataset, you see the trees and not the forest. Vice verse, if you try to look too globally, you lose context that makes sense.

Lastly, I think there is too much evidence of things like Sweden vs. Nordic countries to dispute the effectiveness of lockdowns and masks at doing things. Sweden’s numbers of infected and dead are on the order of 10 times of any of its neighbors if you adjust for the differences in population.

Summer did slow it.
A lot of the increase is directly attributable to increased testing.

COVID-19 was killing 100-150 people a day in April.
It was down to about 10/day or even less for June/July/August (many of the deaths counted were older deaths from weeks and event months ago).
Today we're around 14/day.

In terms of our ICU beds...
On April 12, we had 1570 people in beds. That number fell and fell and continued to fall until Sept. 24, falling to 130... before the recent uptick up to 218 over the last three weeks.

In terms of positive test rate?
Michigan's rate was once at 40 percent.
It fell down to .9 percent on June 10 and was between 2.2 and 3 percent throughout the summer.
It's crossed 3 percent since October started and is now at 3.3 percent.

It's hard for me to accept that the caseload was worrisome in the summer.

 

[Bench]

Nice - Thanks! Yeah nothing too crazy. Just need something for staying active. I've seen several like that and I just wasn't sure what to think about them.

If you're going to hit it everyday, I'd spend more. We haven't had anything break, but if you read the reviews it seems the people that go hard on it wear things out eventually. If you're like my partner and I and it's a stopgap between other things, this has served us well. There's other options in the same price range, so shop around. I'm no expert, but I do like how smooth and quiet the one is. If I were to get another, I'd want it to have that quality to it as well.

 

[FabricDetails]

Sigh... Why not?

Weekend freeway shootings in Metro Detroit bring total to 19 since June

 

[Bench]

Sigh... Why not?

Weekend freeway shootings in Metro Detroit bring total to 19 since June

Seems like crime everywhere has seen an uptick. Tensions high. Civil unrest. Not sure there's an easy solution on the horizon.

Trust in law enforcement is at an all-time low. Police presence in hard hit neighborhoods has decreased.

Honestly not looking forward to what's ahead after November - either way.

 

[RabidBadger]

Sigh... Why not?

Weekend freeway shootings in Metro Detroit bring total to 19 since June

I-94 has been the wild west for several years. There was a sniper on I-96 in the general area(thankfully a fairly non-lethal one) plinking cars a few years ago and now the stretch of 94 from the Lodge through Macomb county has been the OK Corrall the past 6 or so months. It's pretty weird most of the shootings have been concentrated on one particular freeway when you factor in that The Lodge, I-75 and Davison Fwy all run through high crime areas as well.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

I-94 has been the wild west for several years. There was a sniper on I-96 in the general area(thankfully a fairly non-lethal one) plinking cars a few years ago and now the stretch of 94 from the Lodge through Macomb county has been the OK Corrall the past 6 or so months. It's pretty weird most of the shootings have been concentrated on one particular freeway when you factor in that The Lodge, I-75 and Davison Fwy all run through high crime areas as well.

There was also a guy who lobbed 40 lb sandbags like grenades off an I-96 overpass because he was pissed that his car broke down. Then someone picked him up to take him home and the dummy was bragging about doing it!

 

[jkutswings]

For any computer builders out there, Micro Center has the i7-9700k processor for $199.99 at the moment.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

For any computer builders out there, Micro Center has the i7-9700k processor for $199.99 at the moment.

Those mother f***ers. What a deal. I can vouch for that processor being pretty dang nice, it's the one I have.

 

[RayMoonDoh]

For any computer builders out there, Micro Center has the i7-9700k processor for $199.99 at the moment.

Those mother f***ers. What a deal. I can vouch for that processor being pretty dang nice, it's the one I have.

blerg. I’m still a ways off from starting my build. I’m so new to this. Deals like these happen with any frequency?

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

blerg. I’m still a ways off from starting my build. I’m so new to this. Deals like these happen with any frequency?

At Microcenter, yes. Black Friday is a hotbed.

A couple really good resources are

pcpartpicker.com - Online repository of any part you can think of, you can skeleton out what you need in your PC and it will give you a heads up if you're buying anything incompatible. Like an AMD motherboard with that Intel CPU would obviously be a no go.

r/buildapcsales - A subreddit designed to troll the internet for the best sales on brand new PC equipment. So links to the sites like Newegg or Amazon or whoever on equip that is likely to have decent warranties.

r/hardwareswap - A subreddit designed to be essentially techonology based Reddit craigslist. Obviously a lot more grains of salt need to be taken and precautions against being scammed, as you're dealing essentially with randos who happen to have what you might be looking for as opposed to a company. However, you can get some fabulous deals on high end stuff if you're lucky. Had gotten an RX580 Nitro+ (a couple gens old now, but still a damn solid GPU) for $100 and it was in great shape (new was around $200-250 still on that one)

r/buildapcforme - Another subreddit for if you've really got no idea what you want to put together. You give them the use case you have. Like what games you want to play, what picture/video editing you want to get up to, etc. and your budget and they put out some damn fine recommendations.

You also have a couple gigantic ass nerds on this very board who can help with generic questions. The two you quoted are pretty helpful as is the other crazy ass goalie, @Bench.

 

[RayMoonDoh]

At Microcenter, yes. Black Friday is a hotbed.

A couple really good resources are

pcpartpicker.com - Online repository of any part you can think of, you can skeleton out what you need in your PC and it will give you a heads up if you're buying anything incompatible. Like an AMD motherboard with that Intel CPU would obviously be a no go.

r/buildapcsales - A subreddit designed to troll the internet for the best sales on brand new PC equipment. So links to the sites like Newegg or Amazon or whoever on equip that is likely to have decent warranties.

r/hardwareswap - A subreddit designed to be essentially techonology based Reddit craigslist. Obviously a lot more grains of salt need to be taken and precautions against being scammed, as you're dealing essentially with randos who happen to have what you might be looking for as opposed to a company. However, you can get some fabulous deals on high end stuff if you're lucky. Had gotten an RX580 Nitro+ (a couple gens old now, but still a damn solid GPU) for $100 and it was in great shape (new was around $200-250 still on that one)

r/buildapcforme - Another subreddit for if you've really got no idea what you want to put together. You give them the use case you have. Like what games you want to play, what picture/video editing you want to get up to, etc. and your budget and they put out some damn fine recommendations.

You also have a couple gigantic ass nerds on this very board who can help with generic questions. The two you quoted are pretty helpful as is the other crazy ass goalie, @Bench.

Thank you so much for passing on these resources. I’ve been studying CS since I got laid off and a classmate of mine just recently pointed me toward pcpartpicker as well. It’s such an exciting new world.

Trying to ration my bench bucks so I can get this project underway when things are less crazy.

Cheers!

 

[PuckeDRW]

pcpartpicker.com - Online repository of any part you can think of, you can skeleton out what you need in your PC and it will give you a heads up if you're buying anything incompatible. Like an AMD motherboard with that Intel CPU would obviously be a no go.

I'll 2nd that. I used that to create my shopping list for my Ryzen 5 OSX build ;-)

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

Thank you so much for passing on these resources. I’ve been studying CS since I got laid off and a classmate of mine just recently pointed me toward pcpartpicker as well. It’s such an exciting new world.

Trying to ration my bench bucks so I can get this project underway when things are less crazy.

Cheers!

I would highly highly recommend an NVMe solid state as your boot drive. It is glorious to press the button and have it pop on in seconds. Damn good 512gb solid state drives are super affordable now.

 

[Winger98]

well, hell.

Last night was my oldest's last marching band performance. It's funny, but as we get older we sort of just get used to things beginning and ending. School, jobs, relationships, moving from one apartment to another, getting new(er) cars when the old one finally breaks down. Change is just one of the built in facts of life. Having him come home last night, having turned in his band uniform for the last time, it finally hit me how much his life is changing right now, and how this is really the beginning of the first real shifting point of his life where something is clearly falling away and it will be replaced by whatever comes after.

It's kind of a weird feeling weekend for me.

 

[TCNorthstars]

well, hell.

Last night was my oldest's last marching band performance. It's funny, but as we get older we sort of just get used to things beginning and ending. School, jobs, relationships, moving from one apartment to another, getting new(er) cars when the old one finally breaks down. Change is just one of the built in facts of life. Having him come home last night, having turned in his band uniform for the last time, it finally hit me how much his life is changing right now, and how this is really the beginning of the first real shifting point of his life where something is clearly falling away and it will be replaced by whatever comes after.

It's kind of a weird feeling weekend for me.

High school band?

 

[RayMoonDoh]

I would highly highly recommend an NVMe solid state as your boot drive. It is glorious to press the button and have it pop on in seconds. Damn good 512gb solid state drives are super affordable now.

I was able to purchase a new laptop in my company’s liquidation with 128GB NVMe for $30. Obviously have to supplement with external drives but it’s been a great for CS schoolwork. Will definitely be dropping an NVMe into my desktop build.

Opinions on RGB? It seems like such a trend, but I just don’t get it.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

I was able to purchase a new laptop in my company’s liquidation with 128GB NVMe for $30. Obviously have to supplement with external drives but it’s been a great for CS schoolwork. Will definitely be dropping an NVMe into my desktop build.

Opinions on RGB? It seems like such a trend, but I just don’t get it.

I like it because I like flashy lights. Rgb keyboard is actually nice. People see that front and center. But I’m not making the inside of my pc art, so the light is just for me.

Wouldn’t go out of my way to pay for it, but it’s cool if price is equivalent or close.

 

[Winger98]

High school band?

Yep. I'll complain about my kid's school about a lot of things, but the marching band is routinely one of the best in the state. This year being what it is particularly sucked in that regard.

 

[Bench]

I was able to purchase a new laptop in my company’s liquidation with 128GB NVMe for $30. Obviously have to supplement with external drives but it’s been a great for CS schoolwork. Will definitely be dropping an NVMe into my desktop build.

Opinions on RGB? It seems like such a trend, but I just don’t get it.

I don't do a ton of colors. But I enjoy one single color illumination.

Just bought this case which has an understated RGB included on the front and inside.

I won't have any lighted ram or other parts. But my keyboard and mouse also do RGB, because it's basically impossible not to get that now on the high end gaming stuff.

Right now I have everything set to Half-Life orange/black/grey.

My office is actually torn apart right now because I bought new shelving and monitor mounts or I'd just snap a photo for you guys. When it's all done I'll report back.

 

[TCNorthstars]

Yep. I'll complain about my kid's school about a lot of things, but the marching band is routinely one of the best in the state. This year being what it is particularly sucked in that regard.

College band is a blast! Just sayin

 

[Winger98]

Hey, those little hangers you use for kids clothes when they are somewhere between one and five? Yeah, those are just the right size for the hook end to fit into an 8 month old's mouth, get turned cock-eyed and cause craziness to erupt.

College band is a blast! Just sayin

We've tried to get him interested but he's lukewarm on it for some reason, despite loving it in HS. Right now he's looking at computer programming and music as maybe a double major, depending where he goes and what is offered.

 

[TCNorthstars]

Hey, those little hangers you use for kids clothes when they are somewhere between one and five? Yeah, those are just the right size for the hook end to fit into an 8 month old's mouth, get turned cock-eyed and cause craziness to erupt.



We've tried to get him interested but he's lukewarm on it for some reason, despite loving it in HS. Right now he's looking at computer programming and music as maybe a double major, depending where he goes and what is offered.

I had no interest in persuing music as a degree when I went. I just really liked the whole marching band thing. Majored in accounting and did band for fun. #fireupChips

 

[ArGarBarGar]

For any computer builders out there, Micro Center has the i7-9700k processor for $199.99 at the moment.

I really wish I hadn't upgraded my cpu/motherboard recently.