Bulk internet: that’s a HARD NO from me!
I recently learned that some local apartment communities have signed a deal with Cox Communications to offer bulk Internet service. The property will bill the resident directly for this service, along with utilities such as water, sewer, and trash service through RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing System).
At this time, it will be optional and offered at a reduced cost if the resident takes the very specific Internet service, a savings of roughly 1/3 off the regular price, initially. This, in theory, sounds good, but I have heard similar bulk Internet systems turn into having to take the service that the property signed with, i.e. not being able to choose another service, which for me, would be an absolute deal breaker.
Although I work in the multi-family industry, what I write is solely my view; much of it is speculation. Given that the service that has done the deal is Cox, if I were in the market for an apartment rental, it would not be one that has one of these bulk internet deals in place. Cox burned their bridge with me when they lied to me concerning the modem hardware I purchased, in an effort to try to get me to rent a modem.
This is 100% speculation. I fear this will become a mandated service, where the Internet will become a property-wide ‘amenity’, billed to the resident, whether they want it or not. If residents accept this, it will quickly become the standard across the market, as the property will get a cut of the subscription fee in return for pushing their service on residents. Internet and TV services should always be a choice!
Further speculation on my part. I believe Cox is trying to set up these deals with apartment communities because it is losing market share to AT&T Fiber, which is cheaper and tangibly better, along with other fiber options, such as Ideatek, being rolled out in the area. For example, I have a 1 Gbps symmetrical fiber connection from AT&T, which costs me $80; that is $10 less than Cox’s 500 Mbps non-introductory rate service, which is inferior, despite its up to 500 Mbps download; the upload is only 10 Mbps.
Before AT&T Fiber, if you wanted anything faster than ADSL’s 8 Mb, your only choice was Cox. Thankfully, we now have some viable options outside of Cox. Instead of trying to compete on price and service, Cox is looking to do deals with multi-family providers, taking away choice from many renters.
With all the nickel-and-diming of renters, in modern-day apartment living, having to pay a plethora of one-time fees and monthly ‘utility’ and ‘amenity’ charges on top of ever increasing rental rates, this additional potential forced cost (if I am correct about the direction of bulk Internet) is another nail in the coffin of multi-family living. Rent a house, pay the same or less, and avoid the pitfalls of apartment living.
A quick review of Carparts.com
My son had a minor fender bender in the car that my mother-in-law gifted us, damaging the lower painted chrome bumper trim. I didn’t want to take it to a body shop and pay a premium for the privilege, so I searched Google for the part, and carparts.com appeared near the top of the search results.
I ordered the part on Sunday evening, and it said it would be delivered on Tuesday, but it arrived today, Wednesday, April 30. Some might get upset because it arrived a day later, but this is not an issue for me. It arrived in a sturdy box, and the part was wrapped in a plastic bag and a soft foam sheet. Despite this, one of the clips was broken, but this was not a big issue, as there were half a dozen other clips.
Installing the part was initially a challenge. There were some additional tabs that were not on the OEM part, and I had to break them off to install the part. Upon further inspection of the OEM part, I realised it had the same tabs that had been broken off. So, it looks like the part from carparts.com was as close to the OEM part as it was realistically possible, so I am happy with the part for $64 delivered.
However, the part is not as good quality as OEM; the tabs are not as well-made, they are definitely more flimsy than OEM, but, given that the OEM part is no longer made due to the old age of the vehicle (18 years, thanks, GM) [/sarcasm], I’m happy with the quality, and it looks as good as OEM on the car.
Based on this single experience, I think I can safely recommend carparts.com.
Review: Hauxiy Q9S wireless Apple Carplay/Android Auto screen
My mother-in-law gifted us a car after my previous car was written off, and this gifted car is very technology-deficient. I did use my phone for a little while for navigation, but I wanted to have a mounted screen for navigation mainly. However, an Android Auto screen would allow me to do so much more, and this is where the Hauxiy Q9S comes in; which I purchased for $128.53 from Amazon about 2 months ago.
I’ll start with the most significant part of the product, the display, which I find somewhat lacking, especially in the brightness department. It’s a 9-inch glossy screen, which reflects the windows and tan colored interior of the car. That, coupled with the screen being somewhat dim, makes the display hard to see in daylight. You’d think that, given its intended purpose, sitting in a mobile greenhouse, it would have a matte display and be brighter to be clearly visible in the sunbathed windscreen of a car.
The audio connectivity is good; it has Bluetooth, auxiliary, FM, and built-in speaker options. Unfortunately, the Bluetooth and auxiliary options are a no-go. The auxiliary input in the factory-installed stereo is defective, and the car is too old to have Bluetooth, so my only option is FM. However, finding a frequency with good reception took me a while, as radio stations are densely packed in my location. The FM transmitter is somewhat noisy at higher volumes, but it’s nice to have the added audio option.
Connecting my Pixel 7 Pro to the Hauxiy Q9S was no issue. I just followed the onscreen instructions, and it connected. Android Auto displayed the map, recent destinations, and Spotify on screen. Voice control works well, whether I ask for driving directions or to play an album or artist on Spotify. Making phone calls through the screen seems okay; I can hear the caller, and with one exception, the caller can hear me. Texting also works fine; it understands 99% of what I say, even with road and wind noise present.
A bonus feature is the built-in dashcam, which claims to be 4K, but the final output is 1440p and not the sharpest. I suspect that the 1440p output is upscaled from 720p; it’s definitely not 4K, as the specifications claim. It also includes a backup camera, which I elected not to install. I didn’t want to run the cabling front to back, definitely didn’t want to drill a hole through my tailgate, and I can turn my head to see behind me, I’m old school like that, we Generation X’ers learned to drive before technological driving aids.
The mounting solution is plastic, but reasonably solid. The arm can be mounted to the dashboard or windscreen; it has a suction cup to mount to any shiny surface. It comes with pre-installed adhesive on the cup to secure extra firmly, at least for the initial install, although even fully tightened down, there is about 10—15° of swivel, while, not the end of the world, it’s also not ideal in a moving vehicle.
In conclusion, I want the Q9S to have a brighter matte screen. I struggle to see the display on bright sunny days, especially with my car’s tan interior reflecting on the screen. This is somewhat of a deal breaker for me. What use is a screen that you cannot see in its typical use case? For this reason, I would not recommend the Hauxiy; instead, go for something with a matte screen and a brighter display.
Citizens Bank: questionable behavior
When we moved into our current house, we had to replace the whole HVAC system at a cost of $8,100 from On Time Plumbing. We had the option to finance it, so we took up that option. It was financed through Wisetack, but the loan came from Citizens Bank, and I discovered some questionable behavior.
I made my monthly payment of $179.77 on Saturday, two days before the due date, knowing it would be taken on Monday or Tuesday. But on Sunday, I got two texts and two emails from Citizens Bank saying my payment was due. I thought maybe I didn’t click submit, which I had done before on another account. I checked the Citizens Bank website and clicked on View Activity, and no pending payments were showing.
I assumed I had not submitted the payment, so I made a payment. Upon making this payment, I saw that 2 payments were pending, so I did submit a payment the day before. However, there is no way to see pending payments on their website unless you make a payment, which is somewhat questionable.
I thought, “No problem. I’ll just call and get the second payment stopped,” which I did. They could see that two payments were pending; however, the representative told me that she could not cancel the payments; I would have to wait for them to clear before they could refund the payment. I want to be clear that I have not requested a refund of the second payment, but I find it unbelievable that they cannot stop a payment immediately after it is submitted. Every other loan or card allows me to stop payments online.
I explained the problem with not being able to see pending payments until another payment is submitted on the website to the representative, and she said she is noting it down. I do not believe it will go any further than a note in their CMS. I will be amazed if a website function to see pending payments appears.
In my opinion, the reminder email system should be directly linked to the payment system. Do not send reminder emails if a payment is pending; it’s not rocket science. Get your shizzle together, Citizens.
bowthery.com — another ‘suspected’ scam website!
Sadly, like many of these scam website posts, my wife was seemingly scammed by bowthery.com. My wife explains, excuse the vagueness, that she saw a short on YouTube purporting to be a reduced-cost Lane Bryant products. She visited the website, bowthery.com, and found many things she liked, and the total came to just $43 for 54 (fifty-four) items. She asked me if she could make the purchase, and as she said it was from Lane Bryant, I assumed she was on lanebryant.com, so I said yes.
I should have known it was a scam because of the low price. I even commented, “Is Lane Bryant going out of business?” continuing, “These sound like fire sale prices”, still thinking my wife was on lanebryant.com. This morning, my wife quips, “I hope I didn’t get scammed.” Looking at the confirmation email, my heart sank as I just knew she had been scammed. I Googled the Bowthery name, and several scam detector websites appeared near the top of the page, which is usually never a good sign.
I visited bowthery.com from the link in the email confirmation, which looked like a generic template-based e-commerce website. If you simply visit bowthery.com without clicking the post/email link, it gives you a different site from the link in the YouTube Short. Scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking the contact us link revealed a simple sentence: “E-mail Us: contactus@bowthery.com. We are here to help. Your satisfaction is our goal.”; no phone number, no physical address, not even a PO Box. While the about us link states, “bowthery is a professional online fashion clothing boutique. At bowthery.com, we drop a great quantity of new products a week, so you always have the latest looks for less. And they are offered at incredible prices. Everything that do the clothing, the outfits, the shoes is to helping women everywhere feel confident, stylish, and comfortable.” — a literal copy and paste of their website text.
The return policy is highly restrictive. You cannot return anything, as everything is “on-sale,” and on-sale items cannot be returned, according to their policy, although I suspect there will be nothing to return!
The Whois record for bowthery.com reveals that it was registered just a couple of months ago, 2/20/2025, with registrant information redacted for privacy. scam-detector.com claims that the owner is Liang Zhu, based in Guangdong, China, but I cannot confirm this is accurate information.
They have not even taken the payment yet, almost 24 hours later, but everything I have read makes me uncomfortable enough that I will have my wife cancel her card, as they have her card details, full address, full name, and email address. I don’t want to see money disappear from our bank account beyond the $43. I can accept losing that money, but who knows what they will do with that information in the future?
I could be completely wrong, and all the items arrive at my door within the 3—5 days claimed, but all the evidence suggests otherwise. The shipping cost alone would be more than the value of the entire order.
Tariffication! A tumultuous time in world financial markets
On April 2, 2025, President Donald Trump announced “Liberation Day,” where he levied a base 10% tariff on the world, including the Heard and McDonald Islands, which are solely inhabited by penguins. Additional “reciprocal” tariffs have been imposed on some countries, including Vietnam (46%), the EU (20%), China (34%), and Japan (24%). However, Trump’s idea of reciprocity is based on faulty data; he bases his “discount” tariffs on the trade deficit, not the tariff rate imposed by other nations.
This sent the stock markets plummeting, wiping out trillions of dollars worth of value, including people’s 401 (k) retirement investment accounts. As everyone who has a working brain, and is not drinking the orange Kool-Aid, expected, China and the EU imposed their own retaliatory tariffs on US goods. Good ol’ thin-skinned Trump upped the tariff percentage, and currently, tariffs on China are up to a ridiculous 145%, after China imposed a 125% tariff on US imports, matching Trump’s tariff on Chinese imports.
Trump still asserts that China will pay for the tariffs, not Americans. I’ve got shocking news; he’s lying to you. Tariffs are paid by the importer of the product, which is passed on to the consumer. An importer might be able to absorb a small tariff, but 145% is not possible. So, do y’all want to be paying $2,000+ for your iPhone? Not that it will happen, as Trump has now carved out smartphones and computers from the tariffs on China, I wonder how much big tech CEOs have greased Trump’s palm to make this happen?
On the subject of backtracking, all tariffs outside the base 10% and China have been paused for 90 days. This, in my opinion is because someone whispered in Trump’s ear that not only the stock market is crashing, but also the US bond market is crashing as countries cash in their US bonds, indicating that the world has low faith in the stability of the US financial markets, and/or its current administration.
The effects of this have not even hit consumers yet, and when it does, his base, outside the hardcore Trump Felators, will believe what he says despite all the evidence indicating otherwise, will be PISSED! One of Trump’s core campaign promises was to reduce the cost of living on DAY 1, we’re 3 months in and still waiting. These tariffs are going to do the exact opposite; those cheap TVs that Americans like so much won’t be so cheap anymore, and those high-end TVs will be only for Trump and his rich buddies. This will affect more than tech; even those “American-made” products likely contain parts sourced from China, so expect the price of these products to rise as well. The fallout from these tariffs will be wide-ranging.
Furthermore, Trump is suspected of insider trading and manipulating the markets. The accusation is that he created tariffs to cause the markets to decline, allowing himself and his wealthy buddies to buy stock cheaply before announcing the tariff pause, which inevitably made the markets rally. None of this matters as the US Supreme Court has ruled that whatever a president does in office is immune.
I don’t claim to be a financial expert, but blanket tariffs, even ones on an island of penguins, are not the way forward. Strategic tariffs, such as the 25% tariff on cars, make sense to incentivize car companies to return to manufacturing their cars in the US. However, blanket tariffs on China without any plan to build factories in the US to replace those in China is not a good strategy. This really isn’t rocket surgery.
How I became a sex offender for 90 minutes!
Yesterday, my wife, Erin, and I visited East High School in Wichita to attend an IEP/504 plan meeting for my daughter, Alya. Upon signing in, you have to show your driver’s license, which they scan, and I’m sure they keep it on record, although we never consented; if they do, whatever, we have nothing to hide.
When the person at the front desk scanned my driver’s license, she told us, “You have to be escorted through the building.” It took me a few moments to understand what she said, and I responded with, “I, specifically, have to be escorted?”. She said that I had come up on a “list,” which means a sex offender register, and I thought, what the actual fuck? I think I’d remember being convicted of a sex crime!
Of course, Erin and I disputed this allegation, and the front desk person gave me a person to call. But, in the meantime, we had a meeting to attend, so I accepted being escorted through the building. We have our meeting, and Alya is doing reasonably well in her Freshman year of high school. Flippantly, I said to the people in the meeting, do I have to be escorted out, and what they said shocked me. I was told, “It’s after school hours, so I don’t need to be escorted.” this made zero sense; as we walked out, we passed several dozen students; if I were a sex offender, I would be free to do as I wish, apparently.
Side thought: maybe all school visitors should be escorted through the building, not all sex offenders have been caught and convicted. Everyone is a law-abiding citizen until they are not, as we often hear after every school shooting when questions are asked about how the person got the gun…
But, I digress, I got home and called the number provided, which was for USD259 Safety and Environmental Services, and I spoke to a lady there, and she apologized to me, as it was a mix-up. There happened to be another person on the ‘list” with the same birthdate and name as me, and that’s all the information they use to flag a match. According to the lady, it was a training issue, there were further steps the front desk person had to take to confirm that the match was correct, which were not taken.
It was a shock to hear that I was on a sex offenders ‘list”, but I understand they have to take precautions, and I support this as I have a 15-year-old daughter who attends Wichita Schools. I feel that USD259 needs to better train its staff; this could have been a bad situation; not everyone would have been so passive when being perceived as a sex offender in a public place where anyone could overhear.
Gaza: Endgame — Ethnic Cleansing!
It seems we have come to the end game of the Gaza conflict with Israel, and its ethnic cleansing. President Donald Trump said he planned for the US to take over Gaza and relocate Palestinians to neighboring countries with a view of long-term US ownership over Gaza, and will not rule out sending troops to Gaza to achieve this objective as a gift to Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli extreme right.
The actions of Hamas on October 7, as horrific as it was, do not excuse the actions of Israel, supported by former US President Joe Biden. There are now over 60,000 people dead in Gaza, if we include the missing, presumed dead, or 45,000 confirmed dead. Whatever number you believe, it is unconscionable.
Trump, in a press conference alongside Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, said he wants to “take over the Gaza Strip” and create the “Riviera of the Middle East,” wanting surrounding countries, notably Egypt and Jordan, to take in the up to 1.8 million refugees and provide for them. Meanwhile, the US can develop the waterfront property, likely involving the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, using the office of the President to further enrich himself and his family members, corruption at its finest.
And when asked who he envisioned living in Gaza, he said, “the world’s people. I think you’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place.” Trump was asked for clarification on whether Palestinians would be allowed back, and he responded, “And they’ll live there. Palestinians also. Palestinians will live there, many people will live there.” — I’m not convinced by Trump’s words of reassurance.
Force relocation is against international law under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention and is considered a crime against humanity. But Trump and his special buddy, Netanyahu, have made it clear that they have little regard for laws, international or domestic, so that won’t stop them from trying to remove Palestinians from Gaza. The Trump admin is trying to manipulate the situation with statements questioning why Palestinians would want to stay and that they have no alternative but to leave because of the devastation in the Gaza strip, hoping to trigger the one exception of displacement for safety reasons, but this could only be temporary, not long term, and most definitely not permanently.
The reality is that the ICC and the ICJ are toothless. The ICC has an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yet, Netanyahu has traveled to the US several times and even taunted the United Nations, labeling them antisemitic, along with anyone else who disagrees with Israel’s actions, so I guess that I must be antisemitic too. There are even Jewish people that have been labeled as antisemitic, one Senator Bernie Sanders. Calling out Israel does not make a person antisemitic.
We can now stop the debate about this being ethnic cleansing; it’s now crystal clear what Netanyahu wanted, October 7 is just an excuse; this was always a basic land grab, and now Trump wants to get in on the action. So, now what? Will Trump send troops into Gaza to forcibly remove Palestinians, and where would they go? Egypt doesn’t want to take them in, and Jordan doesn’t want to take them in. Maybe the US should take in the 1.8 million Palestinians, build houses for them, and financially support them? That’ll sit well with the MAGA crowd, who famously love immigrants, especially those brown skinned ones.
WPBakery, great plugin, but cash grabbing developers
Back in 2020, I was working with a property with its own website, which I took over management of as part of my employer’s service. After my initial login, I discovered that the website designer who created the website had used a plugin called WPBakery, and after exploring it, I really liked what it had to offer.
I love the plugin so much that I recommended that my employer buy a multi-website license for it to use for future projects. Despite what I will be describing, I still love the plugin’s functionality.
When you purchase a license, or multiple licenses, from the time of purchase, you get a year of ‘support’, which I have never used because, in my view, it’s a plugin that does not need support as it just works.
It was bought as a one-time purchase, with support being an optional extra for those who want it. But the developer behind it is now really seeking to modify the agreement to be a subscription without absolutely denying updates, which would be against the terms of the original lifetime license many purchased.
I claim this because, despite the original set of lifetime licenses being well out of the support period, I could still get regular updates through the WordPress admin area until a recent update, version 8.01. After updating to this version, when I try to update through WordPress, I get a message saying, “Automatically updates for the plugin are available to the clients with a valid support period – you can renew it here. To update manually, visit our customer center to download the latest version.”
I have purchased 6 licenses, and every time I want the latest version, I have to download it from their website and manually upload it via FTP to each of the six websites, which is highly time-consuming. If this is the case, as I have already purchased 6 licenses, have a login, and can download the latest version, why do I need to buy another license? Besides removing the nag screen in the WordPress admin about purchasing a license, the software is fully functional, aside from some AI features I have never used.
Companies have to make money to survive, but this is not the way; modifying the license after purchase just pisses people off, hence why I am writing this blog. Although WPBakery has effectively implemented a soft subscription with a workaround, updates were available through WP admin for years outside the support period; this change happened in the past month. The developer hopes that the inconvenience factor will make website owners pay another $49 per year per domain for support just to simply hit update in the WordPress admin area, and in reality, many probably will; I am not one of those people.
I’m not against a company changing the product for new purchases, as long as the change in terms and conditions is made clear upfront. Based on this information, future purchasers can decide whether to buy, and the free market will determine its fate. However, I object to changing the product features after the customer has already purchased an unlimited license. Technically, it’s still unlimited, but how many will go through all that effort for incremental updates, which are mostly bug fixes, to the software?
Drivers education in Kansas
Now that I have children who are able to drive or will be eligible to drive soon, I am truly questioning the value of driver’s education in the State of Kansas. My son is now 20 and has a driver’s license, but despite having his license for over a year, he is in no way ready to actually drive on his own.
He attended driver education at Yost Driving School in Wichita and completed the course, which consisted of eight hours of in-class tuition, a written test, and six hours of driving. If the instructor believes the student is competent, the student will be given a piece of paper, which the student takes to the DMV, and et voila, here’s your driver’s license. In my mind, this is nowhere near enough tuition to drive for many people and nowhere near enough time for my son to be safe on the road by himself.
My son is autistic, not to say all autistic drivers are a liability, however, a year after my son got his license, he still has not driven by himself, needing either myself or my wife alongside him as he does not believe that he is safe to drive without a more experienced driver alongside him. Believing that he is likely to make a mistake that could cause a wreck, this is somewhat true; on a few occasions, we had to tell him to stop as he was about to make a bad mistake. This might just be a lack of confidence, but should he be allowed to drive alone? The Kansas DMV says yes, as they allowed him to drive 13 months ago.
My biggest issue with Yost, or maybe Kansas drivers ed in general is that all my son’s on-the-road driving lessons were between 6 and 8am on Saturday, which, in my view, is not an accurate evaluation of a person’s driving ability. To judge someone’s competence, the lessons must be while traffic is on the road for the student to navigate, which is not the case on surface streets at dawn on the weekend.
Hypothetically, if he were driving by himself, and he got in a wreck due to his lack of confidence or ability to drive, and he kills someone, whose fault is it, Yost, the DMV, or my son? This level of driver’s education and the ease of getting a license certainly explains a lot about the piss poor standard of driving in the state. “You’ve done the bare minimum, off you go into the world of driving and cause carnage.”
Thankfully, my son realizes he is not confident in driving alone, but other drivers who believe they are qualified to drive might be driving alone, causing wrecks because they don’t have enough competence or experience. I think the standards for driver education need to be improved. More hours with an instructor and then sitting a test with a DMV examiner are needed to ensure that a person is competent.
Based on my experience, the test itself needs to be more thorough. My US driving test consisted of about 5—7 minutes in the car, backing out of a parking space, right out of the parking lot, two more rights, four left turns, and finally, another left into the parking lot, pulling into the same space I had vacated. My reaction, after being told I passed, was, “Is that it?” I was shocked at how easy the driving test was.
The bottom line is that a one-size-fits-all driving education system is asking for trouble. One student might be competent to drive in six hours, while another might need much more tuition before being prepared to drive alone. This is why I believe a stringent, much harder-than-my-experience test by a state examiner, not an instructor with a profit motive, is needed to determine whether someone is ready to drive.
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