u/DrBumpsAlot

Changed out the eCVT fluid again after ~50k miles on my '13 hybrid (150K mi). Just like the last time, I pretty much emptied the 5qt jug of Mercon LV into the case before it dribble out. Last time I went by measured height off the ground but this time I put the tire back on, lowered to the ground, ran for 1 min and let sit for 5 mins (per the service manual) before removing the fill plug and let it dribble out until it stopped. Capacity is 4.5 qts which is pretty much what went back in when I filled. I found that by lowering the car past ride height, an extra half qt or so drained out of the case.

After ~50K of mostly highway driving, the fluid was a darker in color than the new fluid and the highly scientific finger rub test was positive in demonstrating a loss of lubricity. Is 50K mi too frequent? Maybe. The last time I changed the fluid, it was much darker in color but I was also doing mostly city driving.

I'm not sure if my frequent changes have any impact on prolonging the life of the known flawed early build HF-35 or if I'm just wasting my time. I figure ~$50 and an hour of my time every 4-5 yrs is worth it so I hope to post again in another 50k mi.

Maybe I'm getting older and starting to notice the little things but I swear the song birds are very noticeable this year. Maybe the mild winter meant less migration or maybe it's just me. I don't think I've heard this much morning and evening activity in years. Any birders notice this? On the bench if that matters.

Anyone with a 2013 or '14 XLT that came stock with sync 2, 8" screen? If so, care to message me your vin or get the as-built data and post it so I can upgrade from the 4" to 8" touch screen? Yes, I know sync 2 is terrible but I upgraded my car to sync 3 and have a spare sync 2 that works perfectly fine. TIA

After 13yrs of owning fitbit products I am moving on. Today (May 19th) I received a "Your Fitbit access is suspended" notification on the app. I've decided not to migrate as I feel that Google pretty much ruined a great product by stripping away features while simultaneously making the app more buggy and worthless. I wish Google would have kept refining the Ionic as it was clearly the best smartwatch in the line-up, maybe of all the smartwatch options at the time. But, they decided to move in another direction and so am I.

Another example of a big company failing to read the room and pushing out crap. Have fun Ya'll. Peace out!

EDIT: Wow, didn't know this post would bring out all the Google bot accounts and pixel employees. Nice work showing the sub who you are.

And for those who missed the point (or AI is not refined enough), I'll clarify. This post is about expressing displeasure with the way Google has ruined a great product and drove a loyal customer (perhaps many based on the responses) from dropping their product line because of their poor decision making. I've owned 4 fitbits over 13yrs. That's a new product about every 3 years with the last two their top tier offering. I've been waiting for something new to come out in the smart watch category but Google has failed to innovate. So yes, this is a train station and I will announce my departure!!

Got tired of Win 11 filling up the HD on my Surface Pro (5th gen/2017) and slowing the tablet down. Loaded 24.04 with all the bells and whistles followed by the Linux Surface Kernel packages and all good....almost. For those wondering, 26.04 is not compatible with the Linux Surface Kernel, trust me, I tried it, even after reading the warning stating that it wouldn't work!

After a week of testing, I noticed the following issues:

1. Screen brightness flickering / dimming. If i turn down the brightness to save battery, the brightness level seems to vary between bright and dim and sometimes seems to self dim. I think the Surface uses a PD or something to adjust screen brightness but not positive. Any solution to this?

2. sudo apt install linux-surface-secureboot-mok returns an error that it can't find the package. Is this a known issue with the 24.04? I don't know how essential it is to have secure boot enabled. The only issue is that I have to turn it off in the bios and I get the big red bar and lock across the top of the screen when restarting. Thanks MS.

3. The battery "time remaining" timer is way off. I was hoping that it would "learn" the battery and adjust but haven't seen it after 3-4 charge/discharges. Not a big deal since I use the % display and just go by that. So far, I'm getting nearly +4hrs of use on a 9yr old MS tablet. Not bad.

Any help appreciated. I'm thankful for the folks at the linux surface kernel. I was able to get win 11 to work even though the pro 5 has a 7th gen intel. But over time, it keeps filling up my tiny 128gb drive and the thing slows to a crawl. Silly Microsoft.