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For a couple of months, the audio of today’s show will be here. Recent shows are here.

 

Both Paul & Glenn were in the studio today.

 

Glenn brought up recent news about lithium battery safety issues affecting both Toshiba and Samsung. Just one model of Samsung is affected, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, for which a recall has been issued. Of the millions sold, 35 have caught fire. There have been warnings not to use the Note 7.
– If you’re looking online for recall info, be aware of scam sites, Paul said. Ideally, go to the manufacturer’s web site (samsung.com in this case).
– Under a recall, you should not have to pay anything, though you will have to make the effort to contact the company and then return the product.
– Glenn suggested that people contact their cellular provider to find out what to do about the recall and to avoid interruption of their phone service.
– Paul said the warning not to use the phones comes down to indemnity. “They’re not telling you you can’t use it. They’re just saying we’re telling you you can’t use it. Which doesn’t mean don’t use it, it means we told you to not use it. In the same way as on this show, we never tell anybody ever to do anything. We just go — I don’t know, here’s some information.” <I guess he meant the warning is mainly to cover their butts, so to speak>

The disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed on KVMR are those of the speaker only and not necessarily those of KVMR management, staff or underwriters.

<For more info about lithium batteries and the Samsung recall check out these two articles…
The Science behind Samsung Phone Battery Fires; How the Galaxy Note 7’s lithium batteries can go awry:
Samsung’s Recall: The Problem With Lithium-Ion Batteries. The type of battery used in smartphones is lightweight and powerful, and it has a troubled history>

Paul said there are a sequence steps to take when you experience an equipment failure.
– Take it back to the store you bought it from, typically within 15 days.
– Most equipment these days has a 1 year warranty. Usually you need to request a RMA, a return merchandise authorization, from the manufacturer before sending it back.
– If it’s out of warranty, check if your credit card offered an extended warranty.
– If the above options don’t apply and you have to pay to get it fixed, there’s a law saying that if you paid more than $100 for the original equipment, spares and reasonable repair service must be provided. If that can’t be provided, the manufacturer has to offer an equivalent or better replacement or refund your money. This comes from automobile lemon laws — parts have to be available for 7 years from when the product first comes into production.
– Paul added Honda or Toyota will replace frayed seatbelts for free, according to a trustworthy source — but don’t quote him on that.

Paul said his old Toyota Corolla is getting close to its end. And he noted that there’s a California program that offers to buy back old cars for up to $1500. Glenn said the program is promoted by the Bureau of Automotive Repair thru the DMV. Paul first thought it was thru the Dept of Consumer Affairs.

Glenn mentioned that gift certificates cannot expire unless the company issuing it goes out of business. Even if the company is bought out, it’s still valid as long as the company retains its name and function. Gift cards, as opposed to certificates, have a different set of rules.

Paul said that you can go to safercar.gov to find out if a particular model of car has been recalled for whatever reason or if it doesn’t meet the standards of merchantability. Just enter the vehicle’s ID number, which you can find by looking thru the front windshield at the driver side of the dash

Safercar.gov started out as nhtsa.gov. That site still exists and offers somewhat different info — it deals more with highway safety and infrastructure (bridges etc.).

A few years ago Toyota had a safety issue with the floormats interfering with the gas pedal. Glenn offered a tip he had learned — if the gas pedal sticks down, shift the car into neutral and then pull off to the side of the road while using your brakes.

Paul warned listeners about something he learned the hard way. One time he wanted to see how far he could go down hill with the engine off. He turned the ignition switch to the fully off position, without realizing that meant the steering wheel would become locked in place and he could no longer steer. <Of course, you can unlock the wheel by turning the key one click away from the full off position>.

Glenn thanked the listeners who support KVMR. If you’d like to become a supporting member, you can call the KVMR office at 530-265-9073 or visit kvmr.org. If you’d like to talk to the guys during a Zen Tech show, call 530-265-9555

Paul said that if you go to a website ending in .gov, you can be reasonably certain that you’re looking at a government website. As with safercar.gov and nhtsa.gov, noaa.gov and weather.gov offer similar but not the same info. He seems to like the weather info at these two sites.

Paul noted that the dept of motor vehicles for California can be found at http://www.dmv.ca.gov <not https…, I’ve noticed>. But if you google for the DMV you may wind up at dmv.org. It’s a privately operated site and has nothing to do with the government. It doesn’t appear to be a scam site but they make money by showing you ads that the government site doesn’t.

Glenn said state government websites typically end in .ca.gov (Oregon would be .or.gov, etc.). Paul noted that the postal service is not strictly a government organization and their website ends in .org. Correcting him, Glenn said it’s usps.com. Paul said that the various branches of the military have websites ending in .mil.

Mesako <my guess at the spelling> called. She’s been having trouble listening to the content at archive.kvmr.org, which is where past KVMR shows can be found. When she tries to listen to something, after a few minutes it stops and she’s taken back to the show on Jul 8 10pm. She uses the Safari browser.
– Paul suggested that she clear the browser’s cache. Glenn looked at his iPad to find how to do that. He said go to Settings -> Safari. Near the bottom, above where it says ‘Advanced’, you’ll find ‘clear history and web data’.
– Paul also suggested she update her iPad’s operating system. The latest is IOS 10.
– Glenn said there was another complaint about the archive, that it timesout after 1 minute.

Erin called with a comment about the post office. On the outside of their building it says post office but when you go in it says postal service. The postal service is a private corporation run out of England, Erin said.

Terry called. She missed some of this show and wanted to know the name & model of the recalled Samsung phones. Glenn said it’s the Galaxy Note 7. Though it’s not the model she has, Glenn suggested she go to the Samsung website to check if hers in under recall.

Paul said that it’s not legal to sell items under recall. This applies even to items that are being sold for parts.

Eddie called to say he’s having a similar problem with the KVMR archive as Mesako, when he uses his iPad. Paul said the iPad can’t use Flash to play the content but uses HTML5, which he speculated may be the problem. He’s going to talk to KVMR’s engineer about it.

Eddy’s other question was about Windows 7 that he has on his Pentium 4 computer. He’s been experiencing severe slowdowns. He wondered if reinstalling Win7 would help.
– Paul said that’s a drastic thing to do but it may help somewhat.
– Glenn suggested Spybot Search and Destroy.
– Paul thought his problem that the Pentium is a single core processor. Win7 doesn’t like single core processors, he said.

Last Updated 10:49 PM 9-14-2016