u/thatdude333

I did the LT/AT section back in 2020, and from Inn at Long Trail to Waterbury last year, looking to do the last section from Waterbury to the Canadian Border in early September over 6-8 days.

Looks like ~4000ft of elevation daily, resupply at the Dollar General in Johnson... Last year water was getting scarce because of the drought, I had to shoo some toads out of a puddle to scoop their water...

Anything else worth noting in this section that's not obvious on Farout?

I use Strava to record my backpacking trips, phone is a Google Pixel 8a with Android 16. Because I'm in the mountains with no cell reception, my phone is in Airplane mode with Wifi and Bluetooth turned off.

Even with this, I was getting 20% battery drain per hour running Strava, making it a hassle to record over 5 hours... I'll confess I blamed Strava at first because the battery usage screen said it was all the Strava app.

Anywho, did some googling, I turned off the following 2 Android settings:

Network & Internet -> Adaptive Connectivity

Security & Privacy -> More Security & Privacy -> Usage & Diagnostics

Not sure which one did the most improvement. According to the Internet, adaptive connectivity will run even in airplane mode, and the usage data could keep trying to send Google data when it fails due to airplane mode.

None the less, after changing both those settings, next day I was getting 5% battery usage per hour running Strava, a huge improvement!

I purchased some Arctis Nova 7's in late 2023 and across 3 different PCs I've had the same issues - No sound randomly after coming back from sleep unless I unplug/replug the dongle, or Sonar randomly decides that my monitors should be the default output, or just recently, audio in my headset was a whisper and after multiple reboots, reinstall GG, and resetting the headset it finally worked normally again.

I've done all the troubleshooting, messing with USB & power settings, etc. and the issues remain. I'm tired boss, my cheapo Logitech headset I had for years earlier just worked, never had an issue with them like I do these.

I'm thinking its time to jump ship and try a different brand. Am I the only one that's had constant issues with these headphones or the GG/Sonar software?

Edit to add - New issue! On resume from sleep, no audio from my headset unless I go into Sonar and drop to slider from 100% to 99% or lower, then the audio comes back... you can't make this up.

I currently have SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7's and while I want to love them, across 3 separate PCs they'd always had issues working after PC resume from sleep, or the software (Sonar) switches to my monitor speakers and I have to manually select the headphones again and again, etc... I've done all the troubleshooting, USB & power settings tweaking, reinstall software, etc. but nothing works.

My previous cheapo Logitech headset just worked, literally never had an issue with it. I'd also like to stay away from headsets that require bloated background software to simply function, seems like every manufacturer wants you to install their ecosystem with a bunch of features no one wants...

Here's what I'm looking for:

• Closed back
• Wireless
• Needs a mic, but it rarely gets used so it can be meh quality
• $250-ish range

Thank you for any suggestions!

Issue: Videos play fine in Youtube, JellyFin, etc. when not fullscreen, but changing it to fullscreen drops the FPS from 30 down to 10-15. JellyFin stats claim no dropped frames, but video is obviously choppy/stuttery.

Solution: Going into chrome://flags/ and changing ANGLE graphics backend from D3D11 to D3D9 and restarting Chrome fixed this issue.

Computer:

• Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 8
• CPU: Intel Core i7-10610U
• integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620 (DirectX 12 Support)
• Windows 11 25H2

Posting this mainly for future Redditors with the same issue. Odd that my integrated graphics support DirectX 12 but the ANGLE backend using DirectX 11 was causing stuttering in fullscreen.

Strava can see the Fitbit Air as a heartrate sensor (Record -> Swipe up -> Add a sensor -> Available Sensors) but when you try to connect to it, it just times out.

I've tried this several times, go into Google Health -> Devices (upper left) -> Fitbit Air -> Share heart rate -> Always visible (checked), Waiting to Connect (spinning) then swap over to Strava and try to add as a heartrate sensor.

This Google help page says that the Fitbit Air has been tested and confirmed to work as a real-time heartrate monitor with Strava

Phone: Google Pixel 8a

My first Space Age playthrough back when it released, I did Vulcanus -> Fulgora -> Gleba, like I assume most people did. I also spent too long on Nauvis making a decently large base (old habits from v1) before venturing to other planets.

This time, bootstrap Nauvis base to get a space platform built, then we going to Gleba, wish me luck!

Should be fun unlocking stack inserters and spidertron earlier than normal.

I'm a seasoned engineer, recently joined a new company, $300 million/year revenue, loads of low hanging fruit everywhere.

I suggest some industry standard equipment that would cut labor time spent on rework in half, costs approx. $200k, ROI maybe 3 months.

Company has tons of cash, but since the bucket this capital equipment would come out didn't get appropriated 2 years ago before I started, can't buy it... And whoops too late to add it to next year's budget, so maybe FY28...

The long and short of it is, holistically we'd rather spend $1.6 million in labor over the next 2 years instead of $200k today. I imagine how crazy this scenario would be if it happened in your personal life... like if the ROI of adding solar panels to your house was 3 months, you'd be crazy not to do it.

So when the company says stuff like "we need to think outside the box to save money and reduce costs" I can't help but laugh.