u/huldress

I know it isn't technically a prepaid debit card, but I want an alternative to my actual card from my bank. I realize places like this will usually only have negative experiences, so it isn't the best place to ask but I don't really know where else I would ask these things.

I don't intend to ever link my bank account directly (Personally, it seems like a bad idea. I don't do that with even Paypal)

But for this type of usage, is it a good alternative to something like Onepay?

I also intend to use it on some websites that have it as a payment option, which is how I found out about this, but otherwise it is just to avoid using my actual card.

I've been trying to download a folder I have that is 2gb but it doesn't look like it is even moving. If my laptop didn't have a USB, I'd have no other way of obtaining the files. I'm aware Google Drive can also be quite slow, but it at least let me know it was actively downloading.

Does anyone know? I currently have a prepaid phone and it has been a pain to verify my identity for the government, the bank etc. Spectrum isn't a typical contract phone service, would it work for ID verification?

Before it would tell me something about needing to wait 3 months, now all it ever says is "We're unable to complete your enrollment at this time. Please wait a few minutes and try again."

Made a new account hoping to circumvent it, still didn't work and now I have two useless accounts.

Fedex Support told me to wait 3 months, but it has already been over 3 months.

I recently got my license not long ago, but it's been about over 3 months since I got that too.

So I have a laptop order coming soon, my old one just broke so I decided to buy from Best Buy. I wanted in-store pickup but it only let me pick up from a Best Buy 155 miles away from me... Presumably because it is an open box order.

Let me get this straight, original packaging showing what it is, no signature required, and due to shipper restrictons additional delivery options are not available.

Like WTF, this sounds like a recipe for disaster. I plan to wait outside all day if I have to, but something could still go wrong. And then what, Best Buy denies all wrongdoing and so does Fedex. This is shitty on a whole new level.

Acer - Refurbished Excellent - 16” Swift Go 16 Intel Core Ultra 5-125H 16GB RAM 512GB SSD IPS Intel Arc W11P SFG16-72-5844

Listed at $635.99, I believe it is two years old? The other version of this with 8gb ram was $300 less. Is this a decent deal or is it bad?

Unlucky me had their laptop just die, luckily Microcenter is opening up sometime in the middle of the year. Laptop prices are kinda outrageous right now, so if they have any good deals... I will gladly wait for them. Is this still a thing or is it dissipating now with the tariffs and all?

I will be happy with the free USB, but laptop deals would be oh so nice.

My Macbook Air 2018 finally went kapoot, the screen went black and it doesn't respond at all now. So I'm looking for a new laptop, anything that IS NOT a Macbook.

Country: USA

Budget: $1000, prefer below $800

Screen size: Fine with a 13-in or 14-in, if the size impacts price a lot I'd rather that range

Weight Limit: Light enough that I don't feel like I'm holding a brick

Purpose: Browsing, chatting via local app that might take up around 300MB or more, and Light Gaming

Form factor: A regular laptop, but I'd heavily prefer an aluminum casing or something that isn't plastic. I like how the aluminum feels

Intended Use: Maybe games like CK3, Infinity Nikki, City Skylines, if a gaming laptop is a must I'd rather just forego the option unless it can still be kind-of runnable. Also would appreciate something that won't sound like a jet engine just from having a youtube video on for extended periods of time.

Desired battery life: Unsure, not really that big of a deal for me as I keep mine plugged in a lot.

Requirements: Aside from the aluminum casing, I do like 2k resolution but I know that is pricey so I'll forego unless it can be found in the price range. Also at least 16gb of ram, more would be preferable but I won't count on it.

I think it is officially dead, is there any way I can recover the data on this thing? I do not own another Macbook. Would my best bet be going to a repair shop? Or I don't know, even just Best Buy???

Is this thing dead-dead? Would taking it to a repair shop mean I could maybe recover some of the data? This really sucks man. I knew it was on its last leg, but I didn't expect it to happen so suddenly.

On the 18th, it forced me to install KB5087051 with a "Restart and Update" but it never installed KB508549. Today when I turned on my PC, I can see in the update history that it failed to install KB508549, but when the hell did it try to install it? There was also a Windows Defender update, but now it is gone. So I'm assuming it forcefully installed that too and succeeded.

I know it doesn't fully shutoff on Fast Startup, but I didn't know it could still try to update even if the PC was technically off...

The last time I updated on a new Update release, it also failed to install but that was me actively trying to update. I also remember a lot of people had the same issue. So what gives? Is this just a result of Microsoft's crappy implementation of updates? Or is this something more worrisome?

I've been using lorebooks sparingly, mainly because it is very easy to have things trigger too much and I find myself at a loss on how to properly organize what concepts should be triggered frequently and what not.

I have been using it mainly to provide descriptions of other characters or NPCs that may or may not pop up in the chat. Important side characters tend to have the longest entries (300 tokens or so).

However, when they are only being name dropped and are not present I'd rather not have their entry trigger. Likewise, I want the entry to stay around long enough for the AI to remember it clearly enough.

What is the best way to handle this?

I've been making lorebooks for existing characters from shows/fiction, so the AI already has a good grasp on characters but it still gets confused without it.

Long story short, my aunt has been pushing my dad to get his Benefits early—He couldn't make an account through ID.ME because it couldn't verify his identity and it wouldn't let him do videocall, my aunt made him make another account through .gov but it can't verify his phone number since he has a prepaid phone plan.

Can't verify identity in-person through the post office because it needs to verify his phone number.

So now my aunt is pushing him to get a contract plan through TMobile, which he doesn't really want.

If he went to the SSA Office directly, do they help sort through all that?

I've been trying to train an Anima Style LoRA, but thus far they've been... lackluster. The first was okay, might've just not liked it because of the simplistic artstyle.

I've been using Adam48bitKhan with Rex Annealing Warm Restarts but I'm not very familiar with Adam as I've let Adafactor do all the work up till now

I see ppl recommend low learning rates with no text encoder, but all these people have over 200 images while I have 50. Any time I've tried low learning rate at that many images it looks terrible.

I've tried finding other configs but most people erase all the metadata these days so I can't figure out what anybody is actually doing.

Any help would be much appreciated!