Unfortunately they don’t make them anymore, and they’re stuck on Android 11. I have two, and one of them is running a GSI ROM for Android 13 but it’s got issues with VoLTE so it’s not my daily driver.

Yeah, I’ve seen those (though not with the built-in charging; that’s cool). Even had some Ni-Cd ones back in the 90s. The only issue I have with using those in things like smoke detectors is having to deal with them more often. I can usually get about 18-20 months out of an alkaline but a Ni-MH one would probably be only like 8 months since the voltage and capacity are both lower.

Well, scratch that. I just found what I think you’re talking about, and those are 1300 mAh lithium. Those should last longer than an alkaline. Will keep those in mind next time I replace the smoke alarm batteries.

I’ve got mostly EBL-brand batteries and 8-bay charger. They work well but the charger uses micro-USB which is kind of a bummer.

The other set I have are by PowerOwl. They also work great, and the charger (only a 4 bay) is USB-C.

Both brands are the low self-discharge Ni-MH style and can charge any combination of batteries (some chargers require them to be charged in pairs; neither of these have that limitation), so no complaints.

• Rechargable AA / AAA batteries
• Wool socks (can never have enough)
• Good USB-C cables
• Coffee
• Work gloves
• A pack of 9V batteries to shut the beeping smoke detectors up
• Edited to add: A fire extinguisher. People often forget those need maintained every so often.

If anyone wants to be a dull secret santa, hint hint ☝️

American officers call turbolifts the “turbovator” (which, jokes aside, does sound cooler).

Yes.

I don’t think Mac did it in-universe, though. Probably just a IRL production thing to keep the fake Frank + fake Frank’s date upright for ease of filming. They seem to have gone out of their way with camera angles to hide those, so the fact it’s visible in like 3 frames is probably a production mistake like when you see the tip of the boom mic or the edge of the set in a lot of old shows.

Yep. Even some hard R’s I know are starting to question it. And one of my buddies (also a firm R) who was in the guard is shaking his head and saying they never should have been there. When he was deployed stateside, it was to help people after floods, storms, or other times of need.

I’m not gonna delude myself into thinking this is gonna shift this backwards-ass state I call home, but at least, maybe, some people will open their eyes.

Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey

He really is the worst Patrick.

[DeSantis Watching The Flintstones] Have a what old time?!

Link works fine for me, but it was also covered on Hack-A-Day: https://hackaday.com/2025/12/05/off-grid-small-scale-payment-system/

From my understanding, this project is setup like a store gift card / transit fare system with a central “bank” for the accounts and deposits. As for Taler, I haven’t looked into that as de-fi is not really one of my interests (and is usually all about cryptocurrency which I have even less interest in). Will take a look though.

Maybe it will, maybe it won’t, but either way: Please, no. One of the most refreshing things was noticing the internet had largely matured from that. I’m all for throwing a wrench in the gears of the AI brains, but there’s a limit.

Touche! I was referring to the actress rather than the character, but that was left ambiguous. Well played.

I don’t say this lightly, but completely on par with a classic Nokia with the exception of the touch screen. Not that I’ve damaged it, but touch screens are the weak point in all modern phones.

Just FYI: Inline spoilers like that don’t work, so you’ve just revealed the reveal I’ve been waiting all week to see 😆

No worries, though. Life’s about the journey, not the destination.

Spoilers need to be on their own line

:::spoiler Spoiler

Hidden info goes here
:::

Yeah, I dunno how accurate, let alone comprehensive, this repo of shame is.

From: https://github.com/zenfyrdev/bootloader-unlock-wall-of-shame/blob/main/brands/cat/README.md

Cat’s phones have the OEM Unlock option in the settings app, but the typical fastboot flashing unlock/fastboot oem unlock just returns an unknown command error.

They didn’t bother to list what model they tested before deeming the entire brand “Terrible”. I have two CAT S22 Flips (still daily driving one of them), and both of them unlocked immediately with the fastboot command and without requiring an unlock key.

Mostly moot, though. You can still get CAT phones on the secondhand market but Bullit Group (the manufacturer of their branded phones) went out of business in April 2024.

I’m honestly not sure why you’d buy a phone from a tractor company anyways.

Because their phones are rugged AF and nearly indestructible.

In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

— Terry Pratchett

— Michael Scott

They forgot to say “Hold on to your butts” before flipping it. That’s the problem.

That was basically the only use my PSP had before I finally got rid of it. I don’t think I ever actually owned or played a PSP game on it, just emulators.

I get the feeling, but documenting systems/processes and writing up SOPs for usage, maintenance, and operation is a required duty.

Right?

On this last one, I did send the link to the documentation and copy/pasted the relevant bit from it in my reply.

Wonder if hyper-personalized pamphlets would be considered “professional”?