Ray Dixon (u/ray648)

Posts

ray648•12h ago

Spent 3 hours looking for a leak under my sink that was just a loose fitting

Had a slow drip under the kitchen sink that drove me nuts for a week. Checked every pipe and connection like 5 times before my neighbor Gary came over and pointed out the compression nut on the hot water line was barely hand tight. Took me maybe 2 minutes to fix after that. Why do I always assume the problem has to be complicated?

2 comments

c/enterprise-networking•

ray648•2d ago

Talked to a NOC engineer at a conference last week and he wrecked my whole approach to redundancy

He said most outages happen not from single box failures but from the failover itself. Told me about a client that had dual firewalls but the secondary one had a stale config from 2019. When the primary died the backup brought down half the VLANs. Checked my own kit that night and yep same problem. How often do you guys actually test your failover scenarios with production traffic?

2 comments

c/camping-gear-reviews•

ray648•2d ago

Been packing my tent wrong for 5 years figured it out during a downpour last weekend in the Smokies

I always just stuffed my tent into the sack any old way. Thought it was fine. Then a storm hit around 2 AM near Clingmans Dome and I couldnt get the poles sorted in the dark. Rain was soaking everything. Took me 20 minutes to set up soaked and mad. Next morning a guy next to me showed me he rolls his tent with the poles laid flat on top before rolling. Takes two extra minutes. Never going back. Anyone else have a gear habit they thought was fine until it wasnt?

2 comments

c/edmonton-chat•

ray648•3d ago

I was 100% sure those weather apps were lying to me until last Tuesday

I've been in Edmonton for 12 years and always thought the 'feels like' temp on my phone was just made up. Then last Tuesday it said -38 with the wind chill and I decided to test it. I put a glass of water on my back porch and it froze solid in under 10 minutes. The app called for a high of -28 but it never got above -22 all day. I even checked the airport data online and it matched perfectly. Now I actually dress for what the app says and my morning walks aren't miserable anymore. Anyone else have a moment where they finally trusted the forecast and it paid off?

2 comments

c/barbers•

ray648•3d ago

Compared two hair clipper blades side by side for a month and the ceramic one dulled way faster than the steel

After testing a ceramic blade against a standard steel blade on the same number of cuts over 4 weeks in my chair in Austin, the ceramic chipped on the third week while the steel still cuts clean, anyone else notice ceramics don't hold up as advertised?

2 comments

c/budget-cosplay-builds•

ray648•4d ago

Spent 6 months gluing EVA foam with the wrong adhesive before a con volunteer set me straight

I built a full set of Mandalorian armor using regular super glue because it was cheap and I had it around the shop, but the pieces kept cracking at the seams every time I bent them. At Denver Fan Expo last spring, a guy running a foam workshop took one look at my vambraces and asked why I wasn't using contact cement, then showed me how his joints flexed without breaking. Has anyone else committed to a build method for way too long before realizing there was a simpler, cheaper way the whole time?

2 comments

c/enterprise-networking•

ray648•7d ago

Debate: Aruba Central vs Meraki cloud management for a 10 site rollout

We're migrating from on-prem controllers for our branch offices. I'm stuck between Aruba Central and Meraki. We have 3 guys who know Meraki from past jobs and love it, but our rep says Aruba Central gives us better AP density per controller. Anyone done a multi site cloud deployment recently? What broke or surprised you?

2 comments

c/computer-technicians•

ray648•8d ago

Found out 90% of my UPS batteries were actually junk from 2018

I was checking logs on a server rack at a law firm in Austin last week and noticed the runtime tests kept failing... Turns out 8 out of 12 APC units had batteries that expired over 4 years ago. Nobody had ever looked at the date codes on the stickers. Have you guys found any hidden time bombs in client gear that were just sitting there waiting to fail?

2 comments

c/diy-home-projects•

ray648•14d ago

My kitchen backsplash looked awful until I swapped the grout color

I put in white subway tile 6 months ago and used standard white grout. It just looked dirty all the time no matter how much I cleaned. I switched to a charcoal gray grout last weekend and the difference is HUGE. Has anyone else found that grout color makes or breaks a tile job?

2 comments

c/everyday-tool-hacks•

ray648•14d ago

Broke a 10mm socket trying to get a seized bolt off my truck last week

I was using a cheap Harbor Freight set and that bolt on the alternator bracket laughed at me for 20 minutes before the socket split clean in half, anyone else just grind down a regular wrench to fit tight spots when you don't have the right tool?

2 comments