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Let's be blunt. Hoarding is a mental disorder. One thing our society is really very bad at is understanding that a mental disorder is not a failure, and it's not something to be ashamed of. A mental disorder is no more shameful than a physical disorder. You don't think your neighbor is a...

I don't think it's reasonable to advocate for *no* downpayment. The contractor is putting himself at risk by doing a job without any up-front money, because you might be a jerk who decides not to pay him once he's done. And now the contractor has to hope that you aren't richer than him, and...

The trick is to crack it loose once a year or so. It's kinda like those 100,000 mile spark plugs. Sure, they'll last 100,000 miles, but then they might well be seized in the threads when you go to change them. But if you crack 'em loose and then re-tighten at 50,000 miles you'll be fine.

I just bought the same one last year, to replace the identical heater that lasted 18 years with no maintenance because the last people who owned the house didn't know about replacing the anode rod. I'll be interested to see how long it lasts with actual maintenance. Either way, that's a good...

And even when you do find him, there's not a whole lot he can do when the builder skips town with your cash and leaves his shell company to go bankrupt. That's been known to happen. A downpayment is one thing. But 50% is excessive.

I have the battery backup myQ opener, and it's never opened the door by itself during a power or internet/wifi outage. Maybe it's a setting that you turned on?

I've got a Sanborn too. Very happy with it. Like G_P I've been abusing it, and it doesn't care. I'm thinking about replacing it only because my needs will increase beyond the capacity of the one I have. I'll probably get another Sanborn unless I find something better on Craigslist. For the price...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011US2ADK/?tag=atomicindus08-20 You can mount that to a base of plywood if you're just temporarily installing it and don't want to screw into your house. It also comes with a 30-day free trial of their cloud-storage recording, which should give you plenty of time to...

Non-criminals emit heat too. I don't see how that would be helpful when you're monitoring an area that sees legitimate foot traffic.

Exactly. We have problems in my neighborhood every summer when kids from other neighborhoods wander around spray painting racist graffiti all over the place. As such, two of the cameras watch the sidewalk. There is no way to place them "correctly" such that normal people on walks will not set...

I do the motion recording simply because a lot of the cameras point at things where stuff rarely happens. I have them set to a 10 second pre-roll to guarantee that I catch anything from before it gets into frame, and the motion sensor is set sensitive enough that a rabbit going by on the...

That's the point. No they aren't. They're one of the worst methods for sending real-time alerts, because you get alerts all the time, even with motion zones, and then you end up ignoring them all. Security that is so obnoxious that it gets ignored is not security. Use the motion detection to...

Well, Bendpak has a 4 poster that's just over 8 feet wide. From what I can tell, Rotary's narrowest 4 post is almost 11 feet wide. That right there will eliminate Rotary from my garage when I buy, because space is tight in there and I don't have the luxury of being able to take up 3 more feet of...

That's a double-edged sword. Wind blows tree limbs around? Motion alert. A rabbit wanders across your driveway? Motion alert. People walking by on the sidewalk? Another motion alert. Intrusion detection should be more localized, and only detecting in ways that wildlife and wind-blown trees...

And as was pointed out after that post, the video of your robbery can be very useful even without a license plate. Robbers are very often frequent fliers. If you get even a lousy shot of their face, it's pretty likely that cops will recognize them because they see them a lot. I'd rather have...

Actually, yes it can. Ever watch the news and they say so-and-so was charged with murder? Think that guy wants his personal information, including his name and photograph and life history out there? It's a first amendment thing. Once you're in possession of the information, assuming you did...

I would suggest that he's going to college, not opening a shop. Cheap china **** is exactly what he should have. He's not going to use it very often, especially the non-car related stuff, because he's going to be in rental properties whether it's a dorm or an off-campus apartment, and the...

Got something that's precious to you? A classic car? A family heirloom handed down since the 1800's? A relative's urn? You OK if we come by and mess with it? Maybe break it a little? Draw on it? People who do not respect other people's things and/or wishes are people that I want to be kept...

That's true, but since I installed cameras 3 years ago, my theft movies have sent 4 burglarizing kids to jail, so those movies have their own usefulness.

In general you do own it, and in fact you technically own it all the way to the center of the street. The public right-of-way is usually fairly specific about what normal property rights you give up to it. You can't stand on the sidewalk and tell people they aren't allowed to walk on it. You...