Multi-function keys irritate the daylights out of me; even those on the keyboard I'm using here. There are times when some key bindings are very useful, especially when playing games. General typing, however, only uses about half the keys they provide. When a device is designed the way you describe the scanner, I'm thinking that there were some cost considerations. They didn't want to add the cost of extra keys to perform special tasks. It would be enough to make me switch to a scanner with a rotary dial to tune in the frequencies. LOL
I just got a new Timex watch with a single stem for setting the time and the date. Would you believe that stem has three positions to do three different things? The good news is that it's mechanical and not digital. The bad news is my fingers are too fat to feel all three of those unique positions when I set the time. I did it once. If it needs doing again I'll buy a different watch.
I don't mind so much the keys that have two functions, like one of them being holding in on the key for a set time to cause it to do something different. But these that use multiple key presses in certain orders to cause them to do something, drives me nuts too.
All of my watches have a 3 position stem. And I always forget which position does what until I've turned it too far one way and have to go all the way through the calendar to get it back to where I wanted it, hi hi.
Not to long ago, I bought a couple of watches that also measured my pulse, and perhaps something else too.
Had to send them back, the only way to set them up, including setting the time on them, required a Schmartz-Fone.
If I had a Schmartz-Fone, would I really need a watch?
f I had a Schmartz-Fone, would I really need a watch?
In some cases, yes. Would you want to wear that smartphone on your wrist so that you could measure your pulse? No, for a couple reasons. Obviously the size would be a pain in the drain, but the rf being emitted that close to your skin would also be a bad idea. As far as needing a smartphone (which I insist is really a computer in disguise) to set your watch goes, that just tells me how advanced those wearable devices really are; or are not. Many watches connect to the internet in order to do their thing, but they don't have the broadcast capability to do it internally. Thus they link to the phone via Bluetooth and the smarts in the phone does all those things the cute little watch claims it can display on it's microscopic screen. This all might be worth it if those wearable devices could do something useful, such as read your blood sugar. Apple is working on just such a device, but you know you will need an iPhone in order to activate it. Another great feature of Apple's current version of a smart watch is that it can detect if you fall and become immobile. It will automatically call for help if you don't tell it not to within a certain period of time. Not only will it call 911 but it can also send notifications to the smartphones of people you designate to let them know you are in trouble. The gods only know I would hope to never need that kind of watch, but I have to admit it is a great idea for people my age.
Many years ago my dear wife got me a Rolex imitation. It was an awesomely beautiful watch and got several comments from people who saw me wearing it. It had what they called a perpetual calendar that required setting the year once and it would keep track of the calendar afterward. I loved that feature because it knew when there was a leap year and automatically compensated for it on March 1st. Most calendar watches have no clue and you need to set them each March to correct for the short month. The truly amazing part of my watch was that it was all mechanical. Not a single solid state chip anywhere in it.
Even expensive watches need fixing from time to time. I took it to a jeweler who could mend Rolex watches but had to send mine out to have it fixed and cleaned. Since I liked the watch I agreed. All it needed was a new battery, but they threw in a "cleaning" since I was going to pay a hefty price anyway. As it turns out they broke the perpetual calendar while cleaning it. I noted that to the jeweler and he sent it out again for no cost. It came back just as broken, but this time he had an explanation. The repair shop had a manual explaining how to go about fixing this watch, but it was all written in Chinese. The pictures didn't help much. So he did the best he could, which wasn't good enough. He was not about to replace the watch and I didn't want to argue. I probably should have, and would have if it were an actual Rolex.
Other than a couple of Hamilton and Seiko watches I've owned, all the rest have been fairly low cost, but not rock bottom like Timex or other discount watches. The kind you buy from jewelry stores or other fine quality dealers.
I really hurt my wife's feelings when she bought me an expensive watch and I told her to take it back.
The reason being is it did not have DAY and DATE in it. That is the main thing I need a watch for, hi hi.
For my late wife, I had all kinds of medical reading devices for pulse, O2, the could also record overnight.
They all worked great too! She even had one with an ear clip for sleeping, it too recorded over night, and could do a print out on a circular sheet of paper, which we rarely did unless the doc asked us to.
I have a couple of fingertip pulse/oximeters I use, and had one that strapped around my upper arm and sent the info to a wrist worn display, it had a cable that ran from the watch to the arm band. Also had a chest mounted unit for a short time, I hated that thing with a passion. But the armband type worked perfect when I exercised. It also measured blood pressure once very three minutes on auto, or when I pressed the button in manual mode. Didn't need no Schmartz-Fone for it to work, hi hi.
We have an old local jeweler who replaces our batteries in our watches for us for only 5 to 10 bucks.
He can also fix the old wind-up watches, clean and oil them, for about 25 to 40 bucks.
I took my dad's old watch into him to have it cleaned, and when he saw it, he told me he would clean it up and oil it, but I should keep it in a leaded glass covered dome carrier, because it had a Radium Dial. Told me they were very dangerous.
My dad got it as his high school graduation gift and wore it his whole life, only replacing the bands from time to time.
So I don't know what the scare about them is. A smoke alarm in your house puts out more radiation than his watch ever did.
You are correct about the smoke alarm, but the radium dial watch is in direct contact with your arm whereas the alarm is many feet distant. The effects of the radiation increase (or decrease) exponentially with distance. Those wrist watches were indeed dangerous, but that could not be proven by your dad. Perhaps they were not as lethal as the government regulators would suggest, but it was a clear and present danger to keep radioactive material that close to your skin 24 hours a day.
Smart watches are not intended to be medical grade devices. Some are pretty sophisticated and getting better each upgrade. Most people get them for physical training purposes and consider the readings to be relative, not absolute. They do other cute things too which the Internet connection augments. Those watches can be considered to be a peripheral to a computer, such as is a printer. A printer is pretty much useless stand alone and you need a computer or some other data serving device to make the printer what it is. Some people would have you believe wearable devices will replace computers. Not in this house. LOL
The day and date function of watches never was an attraction to me. Most watches didn't do it right and the displays were often smaller than my eyes could resolve. I like dials and movements just for their cool factor, but the most I ever expected from my wrist watches was knowing what time it was. The multi hundred dollar Rolex imitation didn't do that any better than the $12 WalMart specials. Timex seems like a good compromise.
But the radium was only the dots on the dial facing away from the body. They emitted barely enough to be read on a sensitive Geiger Counter.
I just looked it up, and it appears the primary problem with radium dials was the girls used to lick their brushes to maintain the fine point needed. Once they knew this is what caused the problems, and they quit doing it, the problems dropped to zero.
The radium on a watch dial was not strong enough to even penetrate paper, so would not escape from the closed watch. So no problems there. The problem was in the manufacturing, the dust which got on workers clothes and the like. Once on the clothes, even a dry cleaner could not get it out, and it was still readable on a Geiger Counter on freshly cleaned clothes.
Even the instruments in airline cockpits had radium dials and were replaced every time the radium faded, up until lighted dials were used.
Both my Uncle and his son could not wear many brands of watches. They would become magnetized and quit working.
My Uncle finally found a brand he could wear without problems, but that same brand would not work on my cousin.
He was actually in a couple of studies to find out why too, and they paid him to do those studies.
They never did determine why some people are like that though.
Now in my uncles case, not only was a bricklayer, who could have smacked his watch around a bit causing it to quit. He also worked on the old TV sets, and was around high electrical fields inside those old TV cabinets. Plus he could forget how long a particular watch worked before it broke.
But my cousin on the other hand, you put a watch on him, and it would quit within a week, even though he was not doing type of job the could mess with it. The Timex that takes a licking and keeps on ticking would last a whole week on his arm.
He finally started carrying a pocket watch and they lasted for many years. He was still using pocket watches when I moved south.
Even the cheapest pocket watches lasted for him for long times, many years.
But slap a watch on his wrist and it would be broken within a week.
I had an electric clock with the pages that flipped down to show the time. I bought it because it looked digital.
When it finally wore out. The motor was still running but the page edges wore out. I replaced it with a battery powered quartz clock. Love that clock. But every time I transmitted on 17 meters, which wasn't all that often, the clock would stop dead. If I left it alone for a day or so, it would start working again, but with the wrong time of course. I would reset it and it would work just fine until the next time I was on 17 meters for one reason or another. After a few times of this, I watched the clock when I tuned to 17 meters, and sure enough, the instant I pressed the mike button, the clock would stop and not start again.
I bought a new clock that was really cool looking, and it hung in my office and worked great, never stopped once and never lost a second of time in like 10 years, except when the battery went dead and I had to replace the battery and reset it.
Your radium watch dial story sounds like the radon in my basement story. We built that house before radon awareness became popular. By the time we sold the house it was part of some code or law to have a radon test performed and to disclose the results to the prospective buyer. As it turns out radon was detected, but in an amount barely above the minimum accepted level. Since radon was detected, it was my responsibility to mitigate it. We did, but for what purpose I'll never know. I spent a lot of time in that basement over the thirty years we lived there. No lung related diseases were ever detected in me or my wife. The fact is that the radon levels change over time and depend on what activity is going on in the area. Be that all as it may, somebody decided radon is a hazard and created a whole new industry because of it. I think radium on watch dials fall into the same category.
In the course of my pursuits of the occult I ran into people who claimed they had a kind of magnetism about them which could be used to heal people. I've read about and heard some amazing stories, but any one of them had multiple alternative explanations for the phenomena. No Occam's Razor evident there. However, the thought of a human being magnetized is intriguing. Apparently some folks possess a visible aura, so why not a magnetic field too? As is the case with most occult phenomena, the normal scientific method does not apply to testing it. And, of course, if it's not scientific it doesn't exist. Apparently I'm totally degaussed. All my Times watches are still ticking.
I installed a radon mitigation system in nearly every house I bought to renovate and resell.
This way I didn't have to have the test run, and the mitigation system was cheaper than the test anyhow.
All it was was a tiny fan inside a little white box, to which a 3/4 tube was connected and fed through hole bored through to outside up between the floor joists. The only part that did not come with the kit was the 3/4 inch 8 foot pipe, but all the fittings and outdoor cover were included, for something like 67 to 78 bucks. As long as a mitigation system was installed, you didn't need to get the expensive test to see if you needed to install one, hi hi. Oh, the small transformer to power it was also included in the box. Designed to fit into a knock out plug on a ceiling light fixture, or nearby outlet that was always hot. In most houses, the light fixture at the bottom of the staircase always had and always hot wire in it, even if the lamp itself was switched. Most of the time I didn't have to go that far with the bell wires, because most basement outlets had pull-chains so were always hot.
Actually for the magnetism in our bodies to be high enough to stop a watch, it would be high enough to mess us up royally.
But I do think there are cases where a magnetic field might be strong around a major joint, like a knee or a wrist. Lots of bones in a wrist. I tend more to believe in a strong aura around folks, especially since I know dogs can see it, hi hi.
In our case the radon test was about the same price as having somebody install the mitigation . We did all that you pointed out and then some. For example, the sump pump pit had to be sealed because that was a major source of the radon. The test was required by the village. I could have just installed the fan and piping without the test but that would have been wasted money if the levels were below the limit. I ended up paying twice, and that was a calculated risk, I suppose. The detected level was just barely above what the village specified. If we went by the EPA standards we would have been OK.
The ability to magnetize a watch with human body parts is physical evidence of something going on. That could be measured, by the way, with a Gaussmeter which I believe has been attempted. Nothing significant was ever detected in the reports I read. Then, too, there are people who report the ability to ease arthritic pain in their joints by wearing copper bands. That's about on the same level as magnetism and could be a psychological phenomena. The human aura is out there with all the other weirdness and never proven to exist using scientific methods. Yet, people see it and interpret it with an amazing amount of coincidence. It's all very interesting to say the least.
There were a lot of little trick I learned while in the home renovation business that saved a lot of money, and without cutting the quality of the materials or the work performed.
Other renovators thought I was crazy for replacing all the plumbing and wiring in every house I renovated. Their stance was, if it passed code, why bother. I looked at it the other way, a new panel box, meter basin, and all new wiring was a selling, as was all new copper plumbing and PVC waste plumbing. I would only use copper for supply plumbing. But if you look at it this way, most old houses had steel pipes nearly filled with calcium. As far as wiring goes, you never know what or how the old wires were installed. At the time I was renovating houses, 12 and 14 gauge Romex was fairly cheap, copper pipes were a little pricey, but actually, there is not that much in a house. One run to the kitchen, and one run to the bathroom for hot and cold, and one tap for a washing machine for hot and cold. Buyers loved seeing everything new too, which is why my houses sold so well, not that I marked them up that much for quick sales and easy financing.
It is amazing the amount of information, correct or not, out there about our unseen parts of our bodies.
The arthritis in my left elbow is the most painful joint on my body, excluding my fingers, and now my left shoulder.
If I'm sitting on the couch or edge of the bed, my pooch, even if he was on my right side, will get up and go over to lick my left elbow for about 20 to 45 seconds, sometimes longer. Then he will come back to my right side and lay down next to me.
What draws him to my left elbow? Can he see an aura that is a different color to him, so he knows it hurts?
About the only result of wearing a copper bracelet is a green wrist, hi hi.
I knew a lady who wore a leather strap around both of her wrists, said they had magnets in them.
I never looked up the purpose for such an idea, but she swore it made a difference in her. Psychologically speaking I'm sure, hi hi.
Your approach to renovations probably was in the minority view. Most general contractors who are not building something custom are primarily focused on costs and how that affects profit. Existing wiring that meets code has got to be cheaper than rewiring everything from scratch. The question would be do you get a premium price when you supply all new wires vs the guy who just does the minimum? I think you can expect more for the new work, but I am not certain that actually works out in practice. Most home owners don't know enough to distinguish good work from superior work. Thus they want to only pay a good price, not a premium price as would be deserved. In the long run your approach is the better one for the buyer. But contractors are more interested in their own benefits than those of the buyers.
About the only disease that has more home remedies than arthritis is cancer. Arthritis is painful, but cancer is usually lethal. No doubt some of those old wives tales work. My oncologist claimed some people do benefit from alternate medicine but the best odds are with those things that are tried and proven over a long period of time. I went with the statistics when I had cancer. Arthritis is chronic and I'm not sure what the best approach is there. Our puppy isn't aura sensitive, or if she is she doesn't show it. The only time she licks my fingers is when she wants her belly rubbed.
I had my own formula for pricing the houses I renovated and sold. Basically, I just took whatever I spent on materials and doubled it, added the price I paid for the house, and the permit fees, and that is how I determined my sale price.
So basically, if I paid 6 grand for a house, put 15 grand into it, I would sell it for 36 to 40k even though it may have appraised out at 60 to 70k. Most renovators would have shot for the 70k sale price, and end up sitting on it for way too long.
Nearly every house I sold was done using B-Paper Mortgages, and using the difference between the FMV, and my selling price as the buyers instant equity in the home. If I sold it for 40k, I often had to carry back 10 to 15k, which usually worked out OK, until after 9/11 when all those still owing me defaulted. And B-Paper dried up. Banks demanded instant payment on all B-Paper Mortgages, which meant they usually foreclosed on the house, and I ended up with nothing on my carry-back, other than what they had already paid. In most cases, I was still ahead, but not by as much as I should have been, and on the very last house, I lost out completely. Never got one dime of the carry-back back.
But then too, as I've mentioned in the past. I may have sold a house to another renovator to do the easy work, after I brought it up to code. I was still selling it to them for cheaper than they could have had the work done themselves.
Dogs are interesting, each breed has their own persona and abilities. A hound for example can find their way back home even if they had never been out of your yard, ever. Take them 100 miles away, and they make it back to your doorstep.
But hounds are about the only one with that ability, that I know of, there may be others.
Many breeds can't find their way out of a paper bag even with an end left open.
Then there are those who can track an old scent with ease, and others who can't find a piece of meat on the floor in front of them.
That being said, I've never run across an animal that was already trained, that I could not teach tricks to, no matter their age either.
I know, they say you can't teach and old dog new tricks, but I proved it over and over time and time again, I could, and not with much difficulty either. There are some that are as stubborn as a mule and set in their ways, but still can learn.
You certainly have a way with animals, and I'm not surprised one bit that you can teach old dogs new tricks. That's basically because they ARE dogs and not humans. LOL
We have had Shi Tzsu's for many years and each one had a different personality. At one time we had a Schnauzer who was a bit like the hounds you mention. We would let her out loose in the back yard because she knew where her limits were after a few scoldings. One time I saw her digging in the snow and scrambling about digging again. I don't know what she was doing for certain, but she was close to the garage and there were mice at that time. I suspect she smelled the rodents through the snow and was after them. The Shi Tzsu we have now is not a mouser and makes me wonder if she is blind in one eye. I will drop a snack in front of her and she knows I did it because she sniffs all over the place looking for it. She will always find it but apparently can't see it very well when it's in front of her. Occasionally she will hesitate climbing up the single step on the front porch. I think she can't see that very well either.
Teaching a dog, or any critter, tricks isn't really like going to school to learn something. It's a matter of conditioning. Do the same thing over and over and you will get the same response repeatedly. The only trick is to get the desired response. Learning it is literally a no-brainer and does not require logic or forethought. That's why animals are so good at it. If they could think and reason, they would ignore us altogether.
All of my wife's Shi-Tzu's have gone blind around the age of 12 or 13, but many lived to be 15 to 17.
The one she has right now has such soft silky hair that everything clings to her, leaves, twigs, dog treats, etc.
And for some reason, she got to loving mud puddles, so is always a mess to keep clean.
The hardest part about training a pet, is training their human first, hi hi.
Precise timing is required to train any animal, and yes, it is a conditioned response, and each of those responses are built upon to obtain the goal.
Dogs are technically much easier to train than birds, but training birds, normally exotic birds, is what I enjoyed the most.
Back about four decades ago, my late wife bought a black kitten for me as an engagement gift. This cat outlived her!
But everyone who ever visited our house was amazed with my cat. The fact it would come to me when I called it, especially when it was not around dinnertime for the cat, and then do the things I told it to do, surprised many folks big time.
That cat was better behaved than a few of the pooches I've had over the years. But then too, I did have a lot more time to spend with the pets. The little pooch I have right now is laying on his pillow on the floor, but can do a few tricks, if he's in the mood too that is, hi hi. But come nighttime treat time, and he will do whatever I had taught him, hi hi.
I also taught all of our pets to go outside to do their business, including the cats.
We obtained the Schnauzer I mentioned above from a doctor's family who could not deal with it. They didn't know how to train the poor dog and she became what I was told is a submissive wetter. The family was about to do away with the dog when I heard about it so that we more or less rescued it from an early demise. Fist thing she did when we brought her home was wet the floor in front of my wife. The challenge was to not only teach her to go outdoors but to not feel intimidated and submissive. After some research my wife came up with a technique. The idea is to not scold the dog because that puts some fear into her heart. If she goes out and does her thing, it's useless to praise the dog for being good. Praising what she drops on the grass is the proper approach, crazy as that seems. This somehow convinces the dog that pooping on the grass is a good thing. Well, it worked. It took a long time to build up some confidence in her so that she wasn't as submissive as she used to be, but she became housebroken relatively quickly. This dog was a lot smarter than I thought, but she also had some kind of illness. Once in a while she would have what I could best describe as an epileptic fit. She would shake and cower and poop and pee and then lay down and become immobile for some time. That lasted maybe 15 minutes and she would come back to normal afterwards. There usually was a few minutes warning where she acted strange. I would carry her out to the garage as quickly as i could and stay with her until it all passed. I felt sorry for the poor pooch, but she seemingly took it all in stride.
I've had a couple of dogs that had that same problem. They were also as hard a rock while having those fits too.
Doesn't seem to have ever hurt them any though, they all lived long lives.
Most animals understand a reward, in some cases after the fact if they are conditioned to getting one for a certain behavior.
Although I'm great at trick training an already well behaved animal. When it comes to behavior training, I'm the worlds worst.
Even if my vet doesn't think so, because I've taken in some pets who's former owners considered dangerous and wanted to be rid of them. In fact, that is how I got a few parrots I've owned, including the one I've now had for many years.
Interesting story behind that bird too. The vet dreaded it when the owner brought him in. But after I had him for only like 2 months and brought him in for a checkup, he was a gentle as a lamb, even would lay on his back in my hand. On the visit after that one, the original owner was still there, and still had scars from where the bird tore into him several times. And what is really odd, when the bird saw him, it was like he reverted to his old ways for about 15 seconds until he looked back at me. I know that man never mistreated the bird, apparently the bird just hated him for some reason. He had several other birds that were all as tame as a lamb, as were his other pets.
About 80% of the pets I've owned over the past 40 years or so have all been rescues. Many of them were older when I got them, so were not with me for very many years. But the point is, they got to live out their life span.
Way back in the days when wife and I were newlyweds, we would buy pure bred dogs from breeders. Those were the days when you could do such a thing for under $1000. Heck, I think the first doggie was less than $500. We generally kept one dog until it got too sick to live even a dog's life. Some died on their own but most we had put to sleep. At some point, maybe around the second or third dog, wife discovered rescue organizations. It's been rescue dogs ever since. The one we have now came from the St Louis Humane Society, which is the only time I've been in the city proper other than passing through on the expressway. LOL Those folks had a fabulous set up and made sure the critters were all up to speed with shots and good health. We had to pay for whatever meds they used, but that was it. It beats me how they stay in business doing that.
I only recall one "mean" bird when I was a kid. It was a parakeet and didn't like certain people. We let it fly around out of it's cage and it was perfectly happy that way. However, when certain people came to visit, the bird went into attack mode. I don't know if it was trying to protect us or if it just had a flawed personality. It's incredible how much skin a 'keet can bite off. LOL
Those BIG BEAKS on my parrots have always scared a lot of people, and rightly so.
They are like super sharp can openers, and can actually bit off a child's finger with ease, some adult fingertips too.
Often, a dog will know a bad person when they see one. So why not other animals, even birds?
My step-daughters cat never left her side when she was home, not even when her friends came over to visit.
But another friend came with a friend, not a direct friend of Amy's, and that cat hissed and ran back to the bedroom until that person left. Then she would come back out again and be gentle as a lamb. The cat was afraid of that person for some reason.
One time another friend was over and invited a friend to stop by. This time her cat jumped on her lap as if to protect her from that person. As long as this other person stayed in a chair on the other side of the room, the cat would just lay beside her, but if that person stood up, the cat was back standing on her legs and making a low growling sound, if they moved toward her it would hiss and bear its claws and teeth.
Makes one wonder how they know things about certain people, or how to react to them. Flee or Defend their owner.
The better question would be to ask why would a cat want to defend a human? I can see them defending and protecting their own kind. The maternal instinct to protect and nurture is universal. However, that motherly instinct seems out of place across species lines. The only answer to that is the cat mus view its human owner as just another cat. A strange looking cat, but still. So the defending cat is doing it out of stupidity and not because it is brave. LOL
The other side of the question is how does the cat determine who is the bad guy, or gal? We talked about human auras being a possible tip off, but I think it's less sophisticated than that. Most likely the cat is looking at the face of the other animal and there is something about the face that sets off the response in the defensive cat. Toss into that formula that the cat doesn't see things the same way as you and I see things (Different eyes mechanisms), and it might be easier to understand what is going on.
I wonder if anyone will ever figure out why a pet becomes attached to their owner, or how they determine a bad person from a good person. Could it have something to do with scent?
