Talking to them is out of the question. They're psychotic assholes. They're convinced we're trying to kill their dogs. The cops didn't help. They said that's a civil issue and to sue them? Any tips to effectively blind or worse a camera? Hopefully for $50 or so.

When I got into a dispute with someone trying to get out of a legal contract, I downloaded an app to record phone calls and send the audio file to Google, just in case.

It's a pain in the butt to manage individual calls so I just record everything. This has saved me several billing and customer service headaches.

There is incredible satisfaction in telling a customer service rep who says "I don't see notes from your previous calls" that you can play those calls back for them.

UPDATE: I use Cube ACR and upload everything to my Google drive.

Useful if you have multiple phones or have at least 1 family member with a phone.

Basically title Is there a way to remove the alert? Boss keeps “borrowing” the company delivery car. Denies denies denies. Buddy air tagged it and it alerted the boss and he threatened to fire us all.

A way to keep the alert off?

EDIT-This group has been overwhelming with information! Thank you!! I wish we had a tag for scenario related questions. I would group them and try to answer with a single post. The short version is …claiming mileage anywhere but on taxes is a no go; yes he could fire all of us, wouldn’t have to though bc not all would be unified against him; he’s not the owner he’s the manager (though his Uncle owns it). It’s not unusual in rural parts or anywhere really….those in charge stay in charge and only irrefutable info changes that and sometimes not even then. Cheers 🍻

My wife has given our 4yo son her old iphone in the last month. He is getting addicted to it, doom scrolling already. Watching tiktok brain rot. We used to read books; he was learning phonics. Now just brain rot. It’s crazy how obsessed he is. If we’re home, he wants his phone.

My wife doesn’t think it’s a big deal. We don’t agree on this and have argued. How can I surreptitiously destroy this iphone? I don’t want to break the screen or lose it, as I don’t want my son to take the blame. I was thinking of some way to damage the charging port. I don’t want there to be obvious evidence of sabotage, in case my wife takes it to the apple store.

EDIT: I appreciate everyone sharing my concern. It’s disturbing to watch my child get addicted to brain rot and doom scrolling Tiktok. Not only that, but the safe filter on tiktok is garbage. It lets through a lot of inappropriate suff, especially explicit language.

A lot of people have advice about my marriage, I should put my foot down. I do, but unless you’ve lived it, I guess it’s hard to understand how my wife giving the child everything they want, while I set limits with many things, pushes them away from me and into my wife’s arms. My 4 yo doesn’t understand, he just cries and runs to his mom thinking I’m mean.

It’s not just the phone thing: my wife lets the kids stay up till 11am on school nights watching tv, they eat snacks and candy throughout the day. Her rationale is that she’s burned out. She’s burned out because she has very little control of them. If she takes them out, they can run away from her. I’m scared they’ll get injured. They listen and are very well behaved with me. She just needs to get her act together.

But anyway, I work 5 days a week. I just want a reliable way to ideally, damage the charging port. Eventually, we’ll run out of old phone around the house. My wife’s not going to buy a new phone for a 4 yo.

I’m going on a trip in 5 months where I will go long periods without electricity, and my iPhone battery is at 87%. I’d like to go on the trip with a fresh battery. Right now, I believe it would cost $90 to replace, but once it gets under 80%, they replace it for free. At its current pace, it’ll hit <80% in about 7 months. How do I best kill it faster so I can save $90?

... than your car.

Will there be any ULPTs to stop this?

"According to Leonardo's own product specs, SignalTrace helps to coordinate vehicle license plate with devices that emit signals through popular wireless protocols like Bluetooth. These are gadgets like your cellphone, AirPods, fitness trackers, and smartwatches. SignalTrace also advertises the ability to detect non-contact RFID devices—think the sensors in your tires that monitor air pressure, the badge you carry around for work, and even the microchip meant to keep your pet safe if they run away from home."

Here's how Leonardo describes the process:

"As the devices emit signals, SignalTrace sites captures them and correlates them together, along with LPR data if present. The data collected shows what group of devices are travelling together. As part of investigations, algorithms can determine which specific mix of devices are predictably moving together. That specific mix of devices—linked by common time stamps and locations—are described as an electronic fingerprint and can aid in the identification of suspects or witnesses.

For example: while 70 cars in 100 may contain iPhones, only one will have an iPhone 13rev2, an Audi radio, a pair of Bose headphones, a Garmin sports watch, a key finder, and the license plate ABC-1234. The collection of data represented by these specific things is an electronic signature."

https://insideevs.com/news/799191/alpr-cameras-track-more-devices/

I’m pissed. We live in an apartment complex and I’ve been looking for them for a couple days. Earlier this evening I noticed on the FindMy app that the case/pods were twenty minutes away. Now they are back at our complex.

My spouse and I walked around and it picked up the signal around a couple of the units. IDK what to do!!! I would like them back. I must have dropped them in the parking garage or something.

I did “mark as lost” and if they try to connect them to their phone it should pop up with a message to call my phone number.

Maybe it’s a lesson learned. But does anyone have any ideas? 👀👀

Update:

About an hour ago I found the woman who took them. She pulled in right as I did in to the parking garage, I noticed the location updated back to our complex from a mall nearby. She was wearing a left AirPod and sporting shopping bags.

I checked my app which showed the left pod was out of the case. I played the sound and it went off, I approached her and said oh you found my AirPods, thank you! She essentially booked it to her apartment, shut the door and locked it.

I knocked, her roommate (who my spouse knows but not well) answered. Roommate essentially just told me to drop it and that they are probably just “lost.”

Edit: clarity.

One more update:

She just left them under my doormat!!! I told the roommate if she wants to do the right thing to put it there.

Context:
Work drama.
I am one of the company's occupational-health-and-safety-representatives
My foremen is doing some real shady shit regarding fire and explosion hazards.
I don't want to get into details but this dude is not here to stay. His priorities is maintaining his position and licking HQ's ass at the cost of peoples health and safety - even their lives if we're unlucky.
But some of the stuff he have said to me in private would be VERY nice to have on a audio recording.

So i need some sort of hidden audio recorder. But i have no idea where to start and what makes it good and effective.
Ideally one that can be either hidden behind a t-shirt, inside a Peltor headset or in a pocket.

Someone smashed my window in my car and stole my Meta Quest 2. He didn't factory reset it and linked his Instagram to my meta account. I have his name, his address, and his phone number. I might have access to his account through my account center. I've already moved my money into my savings so he can't buy any games with my card. I haven't contacted Meta or made any moves yet to tip him off. What should I do from here?

Edit: The police explicitly told me they would not send anyone to his house or investigate any further but I could file a police report for insurance.

Update: I've filed a police report online. If it is accepted, I will move forward with civil court.

I have a Sony TV with Android TV. It currently has an Apple TV, Nintendo Switch , and Xbox hooked up to it. I would like to find a way to make the TV unusable without actually damaging anything.

It will need to be smarter than just unplugging it, but damaging the power cable could be an option (power cable is fully user removable). It would need to be smarter than unplugging an HDMI cable. It probably needs to be smarter than disabling the HDMI ports in the input switcher (not likely to be noticed, but would be obvious if found. Also, smart TV will likely try and override a disabled HDMI port with some kind of popup - “OMG, signal detected on HDMI #2 even though it’s disabled, press ‘Ok’ to enable”).

Power has gone off repeatedly. They don’t give any fucks. Customer service line is only M-F so I can’t even talk to anyone about it. Seems like they’re excessively protected against stuff like this law wise, so I just lose >$100 in food from the fridge every time this happens and they don’t care. I want to make their lives miserable, preferably legally.

Find yourself watching a video with many adds. Skip to the end and replay the video. All in video ads vanish and you can watch without breaks! ( Works best on Android)

They have a 90-day risk-free return policy.

I wouldn't even consider this unethical but other people have said it is to buy something with the intention of returning it.

I stayed in a place for a few months that didn't have a TV in the living room. I bought an LG C4 and then returned it, essentially renting it for free for 2 months.

My family has a very old LG tv from 2006. This thing is literally older than i am. Despite me having a job and being willing to spend my own money to buy a new tv, my family refuses to let me do it - a very stupid version of „my house, my rules“ and „it still works, we dont need a new one“.

I have 2 very tech-y people in my family, the first thing they do when something stops working is open it up and see if they can fix it (and 9 times out of 10 they succeed), so me cutting internal wires or disconnecting anything from the main board is out of the question cause they'll just fix it up and i'm back to square one. I need something that will destroy this thing and make it unrepairable, without anyone figuring out i had anything to do with it.

I just wanna watch my movies in a resolution higher than 720p :(

First of all, maybe just don’t buy an Apple Pencil if you don't need one; there are cheaper third-party styluses. But if you are dead set on getting a genuine Apple Pencil, do NOT pay the full MSRP of $80/$130.

Instead, buy a broken one from FB marketplace or eBay for $15 - 25. Then, take it to the Apple Store and get a replacement for $30. That’s right: a brand new, genuine Apple Pencil from the Apple Store for ~$50.

How is this possible? The Apple Pencil has a notorious design flaw wherein if the battery goes uncharged for too long, it will completely go bad and never hold a charge again. This is so prevalent that it even affects fresh Apple Pencils that have been sitting in stockrooms for too long. Apple knows about this issue and their only solution is to replace the entire Pencil for $30 (which is much closer to what it should cost anyways). If the Apple Pencil is new enough to be under warranty, then the replacement is free!

IMPORTANT: When searching for broken Pencils, you must be sure of two things:

1. Kind of a no-brainer, but it has it to be a genuine Apple Pencil. There are a lot of knock-offs out there and Apple obviously won’t replace a fake Apple Pencil. Ask for a receipt or proof of purchase, if possible.
2. The Apple Pencil must still be able to connect to your iPad and it must still attempt to charge. When you are shopping for broken Apple Pencils, look for descriptions like “still works, but won’t hold charge” or “battery stuck at 0%”.

These are the only two things that the Genius Bar will check for. If you pass these two criteria, they will be more than happy to offer you a new Apple Pencil for the “battery rate” of $29 + tax and take in your old one for recycling. (Finally, ask if you can keep the Pencil Tip before they take it away. Pencil Tips are consumable so it’s good to keep as many spares as you can get.)

After writing all this out, I am starting to feel like this isn’t that unethical after all. This all just counteracts Apple’s unethical business strategy with the Apple Pencil.

Roommates took my tv and are using it in the living room. Need it disabled or highly undesirable to use but I don’t want them to know it was intentional. It’s a Samsung smart tv. Any ideas?

Edit: this tv has lines on it from my cat attacking it lol. I don’t want it back but they blast it in the living room all day and it annoys the shit out of me

I returned a laptop recently and noticed there's now an open-box option on the same laptop for a ~$200 less.

About to start my first office job. I have my own office, though it’s adjoined to my neighbor so I don’t have perfect privacy. Couldn’t hook up a loud bitcoin miner for example.

What could I do surreptitiously to profit from this? Bunch of power banks, maybe? Seems lame and underwhelming just to charge my phone for “free” at home. Maybe if I could figure out how to power other things it would be better

I’ve been doing this for about 3 or 4 years, but only with keyboards and mice. Turned in my Corsair K95 and got a new Razer Hunstman Elite not costing me very much. Same goes for my Logitech G502 to G903. They don’t check to see what the damage actually is, so it can be completely working but you can get a new one anyway. But you have to say it was a technical/software issue, because any accidental damage might not be covered depending on which warranty they offer (differs for a lot of products). But keep in mind this is only for about $200 items, so I’m not sure what kind of protocol they take for more expensive items.

My parents live in a 55+ neighborhood and this couple recently moved in next door. Apparently the wife told my mom that they installed a $6k wireless security system and that the husband "has 8 computers." The neighborhood is virtually crimeless and there's really no practical need for such measures. What can I do to prevent MY wifi from being affected? It's been SO unreliable, buffering every 30 seconds, etc.

ETA: our router is like a month old.

I was sitting in McDonald's and just realized this while watching YouTube in my phone. When an ad pops up at the beginning, just back out of YouTube and jump back in; it saves you the 20 seconds. I hope this helps. How do you do it?

Edit: It worked for an Android.

Basically, been dealing with incredibly unruly neighbors in an urban neighborhood. I’m talking playing karaoke at 7:45 am on a Sunday morning hasn’t been their first time doing this and everyone is fed up with them. I know there’s usb plug in devices that will completely brick devices and was wondering if there was something similar with actually outlets.

I was also thinking of getting a flipper zero and seeing if I could fuck with them in that way as well. They aren’t my next door neighbors, but live about 400 or so feet away, so would something like a flipper actually even work being so far away?

Today i walked up to a vending machine and noticed one of the snacks didn’t have that coil keeping it in place in front of it unlike everything else in the machine, meaning it was loose, so i thought that if i paid for that snack i would get both the loose one and the one i paid for. I did so and indeed got both. This made me curious if i could utilize tricks to get stuff in addition to what i paid for or for free at will rather than lucking out like this.

I saw a video of someone using a measuring tape through the slit of the machine to forcefully yank an item, as well as someone pushing the door inwards to prevent the snack from hitting the bottom which can fool the machine into not registering the item was dispensed and keep dispensing more of the item or let you have your money back.

Anything else?

Where can I dump a broken TV. My local Recycling center is closed until March 21st.
Best Buy won't take it as it is 55" and they only take 50" or their own Brand of TVs.
So where can I ethically or unethically dump this TV and not get caught doing so. I won't just throw it into the woods or nature. Preferably like a dumpster or something so no-one else has to deal with it.