Home Depot Text Location

Before going on yet another trip to Home Depot, I searched their website to make sure they had in stock what I needed.   I noticed that they included, for a couple of my items, the aisle and bay to find them in.  I just had to try the "Text to me" option to see how that worked.

I was sent the following text messages to my smartphone, a very handy place to have the location available.  Why I sometimes like the challenge of finding things by wandering the aisles trying to guess where something is "hidden", knowing the location down to about an eight-foot-wide area is really nice when I'm in a hurry.

Amazon Fire TV Network Advisor

The final really useful Amazon Fire TV developer tool is Network Advisor.  It tests and displays information on your network connection, in our case, and most likely yours also, Wi-Fi.  As shown below, our signal strength and quality are strong and the Fire TV can access the Internet.  If yours is sub-par, it will also give you some recommendations to try to fix it.

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/developer-tools.html#launch_network_advisor

Fried Chicken Thighs

We have made a lot of fried chicken in the past, but the sandwich below was the first that we used chicken thighs, which we had at a recent Dorothy Lane Market cooking class.  The chicken is topped with spicy-sweet butter and chopped dill pickles, all between our favorite, brioche buns.  While this would normally be more like a lunch, it's most obviously dinner, the glass of white wine giving that away.  Unless you're a white-chicken-meat-only type of person, try your favorite recipe with thighs next time.

Amazon Fire TV Speed Test

An option on the Fire TV's Developer Tools menu is Test Netspeed, a handy tool to see how fast your Internet connection is performing.  The first time you access this tool, you will be prompted to download the app for that, or you can just download it from the link below.  As the picture below demonstrates, this test resulted in 88.96 Mbps (Megabits per second), enough to handle video up to Full Ultra HD (8K), way more than we need currently.

https://www.amazon.com/NetSpeed-Test-Upload-Download-Ping/dp/B07G8H4WDQ

Amazon Fire TV System X-Ray

Now that the Developer Tools (see yesterday's blog) are available, the first useful tool is System X-Ray.  When turned on the information at the top of the screen seen below overlays what you're watching and displays the resolution, in this case, 2160p (4K), and the frame rate (59.94 frames per second).  It also displays the amount of memory being used and network statistics including wireless signal loss and throughput in Mbps (Megabytes per second).  On some Fire TV devices, the CPU utilization is also displayed.  And in case you're wondering what the "HDCP 2.2." is all about, that's the version of copy protection being used between the Fire TV and the television, which prevents illegal copying.

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/fire-tv/developer-tools.html#system_xray

Amazon Fire TV Developer Tools Menu App

This is the first of a short series on some handy tools that come along with an Amazon Fire TV, our choice for streaming.  To begin, you must first access the developer tools, and while there is a button combination on the remote that's supposed to get you there, I've not been successful in getting that to work.  Fortunately, there's a free (I love free) app available, at the link below, that adds a "Developer Tools Menu" selection to "Your Apps & Channels", as seen below.  Upcoming posts will show how to display key display, network, and video information, show your Wi-Fi signal strength, and how to test the speed of your  Internet connection.

https://www.amazon.com/Developer-Tools-Menu-Shortcut-Fire/dp/B0778BRZM7

Watersheds

The pair of signs shown below were taken on opposite sides of Stroop Road in Kettering, Ohio, just west of Ackerman Blvd.  Rain that falls to the west of the signs will meander westerly to the Great Miami River and into the Ohio River at the Ohio/Indiana border.  Raindrops that fall to the east will head easterly to the Little Miami River and flow into the Ohio River just south of Lunken Field.  We live about a half-mile east of the signs, so our house is in the Little Miami Rivershed.  Being so close to the dividing line explains why almost everything in any direction from our house is downhill.  More Ohio river trivia can be found at these links.

https://epa.ohio.gov/dsw/tmdl/GreatMiamiRiver

https://epa.ohio.gov/dsw/tmdl/LittleMiamiRiver

Warped Wing Root Beer

My favorite local brewery, Warped Wing, also makes a fine non-alcoholic root beer, perfect for a hot afternoon respite after the yard work is complete.  It's their first soda to be bottled and available at local stores, however, you can also find ginger beer and cherry vanilla soda on tap at either the downtown Dayton or Springboro taprooms.

https://warpedwing.com/warped-wing-soda-co

Mr. John

While walking around Pie Traynor field at North Park in Pittsburgh, we spotted this familiar facility with the cute name of "Mr. John".  I can't think of anything more appropriate and was delighted by the chuckle it aroused.  Mr. John has a lot more than just portable toilets, as you can explore at this link.

https://www.mrjohnpit.com

Volume Leveling

Our living room television's (a Vizio) audio has been a problem for a while, with action scenes being too loud and dialogue being too quiet, sometimes to the point you couldn't make out what was being said.  This resulted in constantly raising and lowering the volume in an attempt to manage the mess.  Then we watched a couple episodes of Breaking Bad on the newer basement TV without that issue.  That led me to believe there was either a hardware or software problem on the Visio and a little searching found the culprit.  Volume Leveling was turned off, a feature that combats this very issue.  I turned in on and it immediately solved the problem.

https://support.vizio.com/s/article/Audio-Fluctuation