Pope Francis was in the USA last week what have we learned?

I’m a catholic. I’ve been watching the Pope visit the US over the last few days, especially last couple of days, Saturday and Sunday where he’s in Philadelphia.

What have I learned personally?

  1. Pope Francis to me is all about unity, care for each others, everyone is included. This is easy to say than done. How do we do it? First I think through a lot of prayers where god will lend a hand. With faith that it can be done among all of us, I believe that can be done, it’s a like a chain reaction.
  2. Pope Francis mentioned being modest and humble. This to me makes lots of sense. In other word, we have the term “equality”, again easy said than done. However if each of us sees the need of others whom might be needed or want to be just like you, then lend them a hand to do so. Being modest, Pope Francis already set an example, with his Fiat car. Being humble, Pope Francis also set example, he does not ignore anyone, the sick, the handicap, the dirty, he will clean your feet and kiss it, and he’s the Pope will power as strong as the President of the US, but would the ever president kisses someone’s feet?
  3. The last thing I learned is, Pope Francis mentioned “what about you?” a very simple question, but not everyone have an easy straight forward answer. I’ve done good deed, help elder crosses the street, pay for a homeless man meal, “what about you?”

Overall, I think it was a successful visit. Pope Francis will be in Ireland for visit in 2018. Pope visited the US historical records: http://www.usccb.org/about/leadership/holy-see/francis/papal-visit-2015/history-papal-visits-to-united-states.cfm

 

2005 Nissan Quest Red Brake Light and Battery flashing on/off on dashboard?

If you have a 2005 Nissan Quest, and on your dashboard, the Brake Light and Battery light flashing on/off not consistently, it mean your battery is not charging.

Your battery is not charging it could be one of the top two problem. Your Battery is bad or your Alternator is bad.

If you’re on the road, stop by the next nearest auto store such as Autozone, AdvancedAuto, Kragen, whatever … even auto repair garage shop although they may charge you a fee for diagnosing the problem.

There’s a device that can quickly check your Battery or Alternator problem on every auto parts store or auto repair shop garage. They can check it, the process takes 5mins the most, and it should tell your whether your battery is bad or your alternator is bad.

Most likely your battery is bad, if you have it over 3 years or so and depend on the load, quality or weather. Mine said battery bad, replaced it and it’s been good.

If it’s alternator problem, it’s not a good idea to drive at night time, or driving while using anything that can drain the battery. Go home if you can and replace the alternator. If you’re far away or in the middle of no where, try to get to the nearest auto repair shop and get the alternator replaced. It may take a whole day, so prepare to wait or go somewhere and come back.

Bitcoin price continue to climb today

Well not a big jump, but over the past couple days it’s in the positive direction mostly.

There isn’t any good news at all, and it’s still in the positive position. Not a big jump is a good thing my personal opinion, because meaning it’s stabilized. It has been stabilized for months now at $200s, where it supposed to be I guess.

I have to admit it, that I purchased some Bitcoin using my no interest credit card, a small volume, but I’ve already paid off all 🙂 and I don’t think I will ever do that again. It was such a huge risk to that. It’s like gambling and gambling is not a good thing, you can get rich one day, but you can also get poor or even worst, suicidal thought loosing everything including your family.

I think stability is good 🙂

Russian planning to criminalize all Bitcoin activities including transaction mining owning

Despite some news about Russia planning on to criminalize anyone whom have anything to do with Bitcoin, including transacting, owning, and mining, but apparently that news doesn’t hurt Bitcoin price today, it went up over 3% to $234.

Russia doesn’t have much activities with Bitcoin in the market anyways, so maybe that’s why it doesn’t impact bitcoin price much. Let’s hope that other countries are not threatening Bitcoin as Russia does.

However Bitcoin price going up and down like this doesn’t really mean anything because it has been like this for months, but good thing doesn’t follow that same pattern, a little up then big down. At least it’s kind of stable at $220 to $230.

 

AMD does not honor late games coupon activation no exception!

I wrote on my previous entry blog in regard to redeeming my game coupon, it got expired, see if they can help make it an exception.

Well I received a respond today from AMD (AMD4U D4U Support <[email protected]> ) saying that they will not honor my late game coupon redemption, furthermore their email below offer no exception because of the Terms of Service they have.  Oh well, it was a good tried. If you run into same situation as me, don’t waste your time, AMD will not honor your expired game coupon, no exception.

 

Hello,

Unfortunately, your promotional offer expired on April 30, 2015.

This promotion ended earlier this year and all coupon codes are now void and cannot be reactivated in our database.

Please refer to our terms and conditions: https://www.amd4u.com/radeonrewards/files/never-settle-space-edition-terms.pdf

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that we may have caused for you.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us.

Regards,
AMD4U Support

Replacing new brake pads without resurfacing your brake disc or rotors can cause noise

I still have a 2005 Nissan Quest family car, and I’ve been doing my own maintenance. It has 103K miles on it, and I think it’s to replace the spark plugs, but I think that will be painful. Anyhow, the latest maintenance I did was replacing the brake pad. After putting on a new brake pads, all four wheels, it started to make screeching noise when I applied the brake at certain point, somewhere in the middle of the pedal, not when it’s completely down or at the beginning. Also sometime the steering wheel shake violently back and forth, I mean I can feel it.

I did some research, and it appears that because my brake disc and rotors surface isn’t matching with the brake pad surface. People recommend when I replace the brake pad, I may need to consider resurfacing the brake disc and rotor also especially it has over 100k miles on it, the disc and rotor surface doesn’t align with the new brake pad. Also it’s best to also use grease on all metal contact.

I think resurface cost like $25 a piece, so if four pieces then it’s like $100, I think I can get new disc and rotors for the same price, why resurface it 🙂 LOL.

I ended up purchased cheap AM parts I think, and replaced all four wheels brake rotors and disc, with the new brake pad, it work wonderfully, no noise at all, and the steering is smooth, no vibration or shaking when driving or braking.

Seized or stuck Wheel Bearing 2005 Nissan Quest solution for $2

I have a 2005 Nissan Quest with 103K miles on it. It’s making a lot of “won …won …won …won …won …won …” noise or sound when driving, doesn’t matter what speed. I did some research and confirmed it’s the Wheel Bearing. I purchased both front pair and back pair for about $150 in ebay, probably made in China or cheap brand, well now a day anything made in China anyways. Beside my 2005 model is over 10 years old, why spend a ton of money.

However I started to work on replacing the Wheel Bearing, I noticed the Wheel Bearing is seized. I tried whatever methods were recommended including using Liquid Wrench, Slide Hammer, Knock with hammer, for several hours. Nothing work. So in the end what work for me was a $2 nut and bolt from Homedepot did the trick. Here’s I did it.

  1. Knock out of the wheel stud screw with a hammer.
  2. Get a nut and bolt from local Homedepot that fit your wheel stud hole.
  3. Screw in the nut bolt and push the Wheel Bearing, you may want to repeat the process top and bottom, until you can pry it out. Be careful not to damage the axle gear to the Wheel Bearing.

I’m sure you can use this same methods for many other model cars without spending a ton of money on liquid wrench, slide hammer, special tools, and so on. Just $2 will do the trick. 🙂

How do I know for sure if my phone will work in other countries?

The short answer is, now a day most newer modern models of mobiles phone devices will work anywhere in the world if it’s unlocked.

The long answer is, if you want to know for sure, and you want to check it yourself instead of calling the provider and others. What you need to do is below which I found work for me. Taking the Amazon Fire Phone for example. Does Amazon Fire Phone Unlocked from USA work in Vietnam?

  1. Make sure the phone is unlocked. The best way to check is insert another sim from another provider, such as if you have AT&T, you can insert T-Mobile Sim from your friends or got one lying around, it does not need to be active sim. What we’re checking here is the Phone will show a different Provider, in this case T-Mobile should up with T-Mobile Sim etc.
  2. Check your Phone GSM network frequencies supported. Then check the Country you’re going to Mobile Network frequencies supported by whatever phone company in that country. Ensure the frequencies matches. For example the the Amazon Fire Phone support GSM bands 850, 900, 1800, 1900, and the country I’m traveling to is Vietnam and one of the mobile network there support 1800, then that is good enough.

So there you go, no need to contact your provider or the country mobile network phone provider, you can check it yourself 🙂 Works for me 🙂

Rakuten responded to my misadvertisement

Responding to my previous post on Rakuten advertisement of $105 Amazon Fire Phone

Basically the Rakuten responded to my question about the $105 after coupons saving for the Fire Phone with a I don’t know what you talking about answer 🙂

Lesson learn, next time, I will need to take a screen shot, they also ask for UPC and SKU # and stuff like that, hec I don’t have it, even if I do, it may change already or run out of stock because it was a one day sale item look like it. Especially third party to Rakuten look like it.

 

Thanks for contacting Rakuten.com!
First and foremost, I would like to apologize for the inconvenience. It would be my pleasure to have this matter look for you.

I will be happy to help you; however, I am unable to find the item to which you are referring. Please reply with detailed information about the item you are trying to purchase, and I will be glad to investigate this further for you. Please include:

-The Rakuten item number (SKU), description from the product page
-UPC number

Thank you for your business, looking forward hearing from you soon.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to assist you, and thank you for shopping at Rakuten.com.
Sincerely,
Christine | Customer Support
Rakuten.com

Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer still producing them?

Short answer is yes, apparently Spondoolies-Tech are still manufacturing Bitcoin Mining hardware. However don’t expect to be able to buy directly from them. They probably only sell in bulk for the first few batch, and then individual unit as time goes by, in other word when there isn’t much bitcoin left to mine or difficulty level sky rocketed 🙂

Spondoolies saying on their website they will be releasing the SP50, and only for bulk order. The truth is, we don’t even know if Spondoolies have it onhand, or just taking order so they have the funding to manufacture it. Maybe it was just a drawing of the SP50, so now they need funding.

Bitcoin price isn’t doing so well for the past several years, it’s been down ever since the MtGOX incident. Up a little bit, then huge down, and it kept going like that and today we’re seeing it in the $200. It is true, and I agree I don’t think Bitcoin will go down to $100 unless it’s the end of Bitcoin.

 

Drum Roll – Here Comes the SP50!
Hi There,

For a while now there have been many speculations circling around our new SP50.

Today, in light of recent discussions about the future of mining, we are extremely happy to unveil what we believe is the future of professional mining.

For more information and technical details, visit the SP50 page,

Feel free to reach out to us for more information or with any questions you might have. For bulk sales inquires, reach out to us at [email protected].

As always, your support is much appreciated! If you haven’t yet, please join our Facebook community or follow us on twitter.

All the best,

The Spondoolies-Tech Team