Category Archives: Programming

McDonald's Monopoly 2026: Detailed Odds of Winning Every Prize

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The buzz around the internet is of the return of McDonald's Monopoly. A game that for many years was a fun tradition, if we ignore how it was later revealed to be laced in fraud due to a few bad actors. In the 1990s, I remember the fun of sticking collected pieces to the foldout gameboard sheet and feeling that I was this close to winning something monumental. The most I ever did win was a $50 gas gift card, but the free instant wins were always nice.

Now with the return, albeit with more mobile-centric digital aspects than ever before, I see a lot of press talking about it but with no detailed rundown of the actual odds of winning the multitude of prizes offered. I therefore have taken the time to compile a list of odds and present them in a clean and sortable table below. These have been compiled by combing through the exhaustively long Official Rules page on McDonald's website. Read Full Article

Facebook Disabled Account: Christmas 2024 Edition and a Happy New Year? 😖

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If you're arriving here after having your longstanding Facebook account suspended without notice or cause, happy new year! An untold number of Facebook users, myself included, kicked off their much-anticipated holiday break to the shock of of a suddenly disabled account. Individual experiences vary, but I'm making this post to compile a running record while digging deeper into the technicalities of the attack and any potential recourse to get our wrongfully disabled accounts restored.

The Facebook Suspended and Disabled Notices

Attempting to login, if even tangibly successful, may yield the most vague error imaginable. Read Full Article

Free Repair: Fix Pioneer Head Unit White Screen of Death (DHT-160, DMH-1770NEX, AVHX2800BS)

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UPDATE NOVEMBER 2024: Based on comments received here and on YouTube, Pioneer is no longer honoring repairs for this condition when out-of-warranty. That is a great disappointment considering Pioneer has previously admitted the problem was widespread and a manufacturing defect on their end. This means that many owners of their defective head units from 2020-2022 will be out of luck when their sets start showing these common symptoms, if they haven't already.

If you purchased a Pioneer head unit during the covid years of 2020-2022 (DHT-160, DMH-1770NEX, AVH-X2800BS or others), you might find it is starting to fail with a white screen of death. The symptoms will start showing up when you start the vehicle and become more persistent as time goes on. You will get a bright white screen sometimes with vertical lines through it or other major defects including a lack of touch interactivity. Read Full Article

CRT Collective: JVC I'Art 20" AV-20F476 (October 2006)

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(This is part of an ongoing effort to document the various CRT monitors and televisions that I acquire, with information that may be of relevance to others who Google the same model!)

Here's another freebie new-old stock set I picked up last year. For a 20" set, the inclusion of component inputs makes it inviting for progressive scan devices. This set released in an era when notice stickers were often appended to sets, to advise consumers about the impending cut-off of analog tuning. Read Full Article

I Just Wanted Clean HDMI on a Note 10+ (Telephoto)

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This week's obsession came when I decided I wanted to repurpose my recently repaired Samsung Galaxy Note S10+ as an overhead camera for the workbench. Its image sensors vastly outperform any ordinary webcam, including my $200 Razer Kio Pro. The distance from my homemade ceiling mount to the workbench tabletop makes the 2x optical zoom of the Note 10+ a perfect fit. But in all the years I owned this phone, I never realized that only the native Samsung Camera app allowed use of its telephoto lens. All other applications, free or paid, are only able to interface with the front-facing cameras, wide angle and standard 1x back lens.

Unlucky for me but fortunately for everyone with slightly newer models, Samsung finally introduced clean HDMI out with their native Samsung Camera app as part of the One UI 5.0 release. Note 10+ and lower are ineligible for the upgrade. My Note 10+ is currently running One UI 4.1 and Android OS 12 with kernel 4.14, all of which are pretty much end-of-life for the phone beyond security patches. Read Full Article