Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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Say Hello to Murderbot

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It’s been so long since I’ve written a blog post here! I’ve been focused on just about everything else in my life and never made the time to write new posts here. I still love tech stuff but as I get older, I value experiences over things and I’m just trying to live well and be healthy and happy as much as possible. With that said, I’m writing this because I have some major new tech in my life. After having my last car for 17 years, I finally got a new car and went full electric with a Tesla Model Y!

My new Model Y Murderbot parked

Murderbot waiting for me after a Starbucks run

I considered several different SUVs in my search but the big Tesla price drops earlier this year and the $7,500 federal tax credit put the Model Y in my sights and I pulled the trigger after a test drive in April. I picked it up in early June and it’s an absolute joy to drive. My last SUV was so old that it had no cameras or Bluetooth streaming and I’d chosen an option package that didn’t include GPS. My Model Y has all of this and much more and it’s delightful having all of these new features. I’ve read many complaints from those who think the Model Y still lacks a lot of features (like a 360º camera view) but coming from my last car with no cameras, any camera is a huge improvement for me. Everything is relative.

My Long Range Model Y is named Murderbot after the excellent Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. If you like science fiction, I highly recommend it! Murderbot isn’t nearly as terrible as the name makes it sound, unless you hurt its crew. No spoilers from me but you’ll know what I mean if you read the books.

If you’re thinking of getting a Tesla or even just want to test drive one, please do so through my referral link: https://ts.la/marianne978265. I get points in the program if you schedule a test drive or make a purchase. If you buy a Model Y or Model 3 through my link, you’ll get $500 off! If you buy a Model S or Model X, you’ll get $1,000 off. Tesla is also currently offering 3 months of Full Self Driving Capability in addition to these discounts on vehicle purchases. The referral program didn’t offer these incentives when I ordered my car so I didn’t get any of these benefits but you can!

If you have any questions about the Model Y, let me know in the comments.

Review and New Favorite Thing: Rumpl Puffy Down Blanket

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I've mostly focused on tech products in my reviews here, but I'm straying a bit with this one. This is one of my new Favorite Things and I wanted to share how awesome it is.

First, I'll give a bit of background. Feel free to skip ahead a few paragraphs if you're not interested in how I came to buy three––well, technically four, Rumpl blankets. Rumpl makes premium sleeping-bag like blankets that are great to use both outdoors and indoors. I'd first heard of Rumpl products through a co-worker. I checked out out Rumpl's site and came across this beauty, the Pyro Fade blanket. I've always liked gradient color schemes and this one appealed to me immediately. I added it to my Christmas gift list in a not-so-subtle way and Santa, AKA my boyfriend Chris, delivered! And I was hooked.

Image courtesy of Rumpl.com

That blanket became my go-to to relax with on the couch. It came with us on a 2-week mid-summer road trip and saved our bacon on an unexpectedly cold night while sleeping in our truck bed tent in Minnesota. I was taking that blanket everywhere, including back and forth between home and Chris's every weekend. So then I thought, what if I get another one to just leave at his place? And maybe this would be a good time to try a down version, to boot. This led to the purchase of Rumpl #2, the down puffy in black.

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Review: Buying eyeglasses from EyeBuyDirect.com

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Image courtesy of EyeBuyDirect.com

Image courtesy of EyeBuyDirect.com

I recently had eye surgery (a scleral buckle to fix a detached retina <– that video is not of my surgery and is NOT for the faint of heart) and now need glasses since the vision in that eye has changed. It’s been more than a decade since I’ve needed glasses thanks to Lasik and I was dreading doing what I’d always done before – going to a local optometrist and paying a few hundred dollars for a pair of glasses that I’d be terrified of breaking or losing, and out of style in a year. But, wait – I have the Internet now! If I can order toilet paper online, I should be able to get glasses online for less, right?

I searched for the best online stores for prescription glasses and came across several. Looking at EyeBuyDirect, I liked a lot of the frames I saw there. And their pricing was unbelievably low. Like $6 for a pair of glasses including basic single-vision prescription lenses low. I was worried that this was too good to be true, but from what I could tell, it was a legit site with a facility in Austin, Texas, so I took a gamble and ordered two pairs for a grand total of $57.71. I didn’t really need two pairs but I was a little giddy from the idea that I could get two pairs for hundreds less than I was thinking I’d have to pay for just one.

They arrived in the nick of time before I left for a vacation to Hawaii (and I’m incredibly grateful that I was able to see Hawaii’s beauty even better with them). Aside from an issue with my prescription itself (which EyeBuyDirect had nothing to do with), they were fantastic! I ordered the Sydney frames (shown on the model in the picture in this post) as my main pair and the Milo as my back-up. The Sydney is my favorite and I’ll be ordering another pair with my updated prescription. I’ve also since ordered the Robbie frame with my updated prescription, which cost just over $16.

I purchased clear single-vision lenses and they also offer reading multifocal lenses, along with additional lens options like digital screen protection, tinted lenses to turn any pair of frames into sunglasses, and light-adjusting lenses. You can also add on UV protective, anti-scratch, and anti-reflective coatings. The basic lenses I’ve ordered so far from them come with anti-scratch and anti-reflective coatings.

The hardest part of ordering glasses online is knowing which frames will fit and look good on you. EyeBuyDirect and other online eyeglass stores offer a virtual try-on feature. But I cheated a bit and went to a local LensCrafters and tried on several pairs and noted the frame styles and measurements I liked and purchased similar ones at EyeBuyDirect.

I definitely recommend EyeBuyDirect. The links to them in this article are referral links and will get you $10 off your first purchase there (and I’ll get $10 off my next purchase). I earn no other compensation from them and I wrote this on my own initiative. I’ve just been incredibly happy with my glasses from them and since I’d seen in my own search that independent reviews of them are not plentiful online, I wanted to share my experience to help others.

Earlier today, I ordered another pair from EyeBuyDirect (I’m predicting that having such easy access to stylish yet inexpensive glasses is going to be trouble for my wallet), this time with light-adjusting (photochromic) lenses for the summer. I expect those to be fabulous as well and will update this post if they’re not somehow.

If you have any questions about my experiences with EyeBuyDirect, please feel free to comment on this post and I’ll do my best to answer.

It’s alive (still)!

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Since my iPhone 5 arrived, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the Lightning to 30-pin adapter that Apple announced on the same day it revealed the iPhone 5. My most pressing need for this adapter was for my car where my iPhone is essentially the center of my audio entertainment and navigation system. And I was worried that the new Lightning connector was going to blow it all to hell.

I have a fairly old-school (at this point) official factory iPod kit in my car that was originally meant to be used with plain old iPods. I was thrilled and surprised when it worked perfectly with the first-generation iPhone in 2007 and it has worked with every iPhone since then. I even kluged together a revised connection system to go with a dashboard holder a couple of years ago, which has been absolutely fantastic for my needs.

Apple had published little information about the Lightning to 30-pin adapter and it seemed very possible that it wouldn’t work with my existing system. But it was worth a try first before I scrapped my entire set-up and invested in a new kit that would be able to route all audio from the iPhone 5 through my car stereo system directly (my car has Bluetooth but lacks the A2DP profile for music, and I’d rather have a wired line out connection for music anyway).

My adapter arrived yesterday and after waiting several agonizing hours for my husband to get home (I’d forgotten he’d taken my car to work that day) I tested it out. And it works!

My set-up is a little bit more Frankensteinish with the addition of the adapter, particularly since it’s white and stands out so much against the black dashboard. But it works and frankly, I don’t give damn at the moment (though I will happily buy a black version if anyone makes one in the future).

Also, I can’t wait for an untethered jailbreak to come out so I can get rid of the “Accessory Connected” screen when connected to my car.

I did test the adapter with a few other accessories including an old Apple Hi-Fi speaker system and an iHome IP9 clock radio. It works with both but does not charge the iPhone 5 through the Hi-Fi.

The adapter fits flush with the bottom of the iPhone 5, so if you have a case that doesn’t have a wide opening on the bottom, it probably won’t work with it. It works with a flexible generic $5 silicone case I purchased through eBay but doesn’t work with a bumper case I bought through Amazon.

Thinking about getting the Lightning to 30-pin adapter? Feel free to ask any questions about it in the comments.

Review: MacBracket lock bracket for Apple’s MacBook Air

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If you own a MacBook Air, you’ve probably noticed that it’s missing something that almost every other laptop in Apple’s line-up (and those from other manufacturers as well) does have: a Kensington lock slot. So if you need to lock up your MacBook Air to secure it at a coffee shop, at university, or anywhere else, you’re out of luck. Fortunately, MacBracket is here to save you and your MacBook Air.

The MacBracket is a metal bracket that slides into your MacBook Air’s hinge and has a Kensington lock slot on one end so you can attach a lock to it to secure it to a desk. The MacBracket is made of a high-quality alloy by a company in Germany. It retails for €19.90 (about US$26) plus shipping and can be purchased directly from MacBracket’s site or through the German or UK Amazon stores. It’s available in two versions – one for the older 2008 and 2009 MacBook Air models and another for the models made in 2010 through the present. The version I have is the latter to work with my mid-2011 11-inch MacBook Air.

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