At first, the RING doorbell looked like it would do exactly what I expected. Be there to monitor activity at my front door. But it has fallen seriously short of expectation in only the first week since installation. The hardware is fine. It works. The problem is the Internet servers used by RING to process and store the video. On the afternoon of October 31 (Halloween eve) the servers quit working. The error messages made...
Continue reading...Daniel Kautz
Sign of the Times
I had to spend some of my hard-earned retirement funds on a new doorbell button. It’s a bit more than a button. It is the “Ring” video monitor doorbell button. Halloween is here, and it will be fun capturing the visitors, but that is not the reason I made the investment. We are in an age of front door delivery. A lot of services leave packages at the door. Some ring the bell and some...
Continue reading...Facebook Does It Again
Built on the Love Canal I just quit Facebook for the third time. Maybe the charm? Possibly forever. I was browsing some pictures in the main column of Facebook. A full screen computer takeover warning popped up with loud audio voice over. “Don’t try to quit!” “Don’t shut down your computer.” “You will lose all your personal files if you do.” We have taken control of everything.” Listen to the following to unlock your… “...
Continue reading...Hurricane Irma
How much can you say about a natural phenomenon like weather? Not enough it seems if you are a news channel. It certainly gives the media something to do when it is bad weather. It’s good they are doing their duty. It IS important. However, weather prediction is not an accurate science. It’s an educated guess, mostly. That’s why there are dozens of “tracks” where a storm like Irma MAY be going to travel. But...
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