JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: The Smithie was housesitting for friends with two elderly dogs this past weekend, and I stopped in to drop off a few things. "Why are all the family room lights on in the middle of a sunny day?" I asked.
"I don't dare turn them off," she said.
No, she wasn't suffering from some extreme fear of any possible shadow. She was staying at a smart house. Everything was connected, and run from a screen on the kitchen wall that looked more complicated than an air traffic controller's flight center. The Smithie had turned off the lights the day before and it had taken her forty minutes to get them back on when darkness fell. She wasn't sure how she had done it, so she refused to touch them again.
"Their coffee machine is on my phone now." I looked, and she was right: among her possible internet connections was KEURIG and WATER.
"What does 'water' do?" I asked.
"I don't know," she said. "I've decided to wait until I get back to my apartment to take a shower, though."
Now, I understand why these friends are super-connected. The husband is a highly-skilled engineer and they're empty nesters, with no kids to suck up their time or mess up their settings. Plus, they're very green, and I'm sure everything is programmed for maximum efficiency and minimum power usage.
What I'm not sure is how this is going to work for those of us without electrical engineering degrees. I'm not very internet-connected at all, and my devices are still kicking my ass.
Take my smartphone. I admit, it's not top-of-the-line. To be precise, it's a $35 burner I got at Wal-Mart because I had broken my last phone and was desperate to get something before leaving for Bouchercon. It works, right? And I can use it on my family plan, and it's not like I need the latest Galaxy 3000 Notebook which will probably burst into flames anyway. It texts, it takes pictures, and I can connect to weather.gov and Google Maps.
What I can't do is get rid of all the preloaded bloatware that's taking up much of what limited memory the phone has to begin with. (This device is the smartphone equivalent of a foggy minded post-menopausal woman, ie, me.) One of my kids' friends tried to tell me how to "break" the phone. It sounded like the times in Charlie Brown when the adults are speaking: wah wah wah wah. My solution? I delete any app I don't need in the next four days, then download it again when I have to. I've gotten the Target app so many times they probably think I'm a Russian hacker.
At the Very Small Library where I volunteer, we had a wonderful new energy saving system installed last year. A heat pump - heat exchange pump? - it's supposed to save us big bucks by sucking heat out of the air, even when it's cold. Sounds great, right? Free heat! Except when the air temperature falls close to, or below, 0 F. Would you care to guess how many times during a Maine winter the outside temperature falls close to or below 0 F? If your answer is "Often enough to keep the librarian and volunteers huddled around plug-in electric heaters while the patrons browse in parkas," you're correct!
It's very efficient now it's warm outside. Unfortunately, it was programmed by the installer, a big guy who evidently runs hot in the summertime. Since those of us working there have only the most rudimentary understanding of how to reprogram to a temperature somewhere north of "frosty," we've mostly given up in favor of wearing sweaters indoors.
Then there was my recent attempt top be safety conscious by changing my router's (easily guessed) password. Remember? We were all supposed to reboot our routers to prevent the Russians from hacking them? I did my part for a safer America. I changed the password. Then I had to change the password on my laptop, so it could access the router. Then my phone. Then my Kindle. Then the Smithie's phone and laptop. Youngest's phone, laptop and Kindle. When the Sailor came home on leave and the Very Tall Boyfriend dropped in, they had to change the password on their phones.
At this point, I was thinking, "Здравствуйте, Russian friends!" But the worst was yet to come. I could NOT get my Amazon Echo to recognize the new password.
Suddenly, my life was in shambles. No instant-on kitchen timer. No classical music on demand. No weather updates. Worst of all, no podcasts to lighten the time I spent cooking, cleaning, and folding laundry. I was on Episode 43 of "The History of Rome." Caesar was in Gaul, and I needed to know what happened next!
Okay, I know what happened next, having seen the Shakespeare play and watched I, Claudius. Still, I loved that podcast.
I tried rebooting Alexa, my Kindle, the router (again.) I tried to convince Amazon it was a new Echo, so it would let me run a straight start-up. (I didn't fool them.) It wasn't until the Smithie's Very Smart Girlfriend was tooling around with her tablet in the kitchen that we had a break-through. "Hey, your Echo's not working," she said. "Want me to fix it?" Twenty minutes later, I had Caesar and Pompey back.
I have no idea what she did. If the Smithie ever breaks up with her, I'm screwed. I'll have to toss out the old Echo and get a new one if I lose the connection again.
You can see, with my experiences, why I'm a little dubious about the smart home of the future. What if the sprinklers go off as soon as I step onto the grass? What if the alarm sounds every time I open the door to get the mail? What if I can't get in to the refrigerator? Admittedly, that last might have some positive results. My doctor does want me to drop a few pounds. Maybe I could get a smart scale that cheers when I do well and nags me when I don't... or maybe not.
How about you, dear readers? Are you a fan of the Internet of Things? Or do you think your stuff is smart enough as it is?
Thursday, June 21, 2018
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While I am chuckling at your plight, Julia, I am also sitting here nodding in agreement.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that I’d ever manage the whole smart house thing . . . .
I like my fancy phone that does a gazillion more things than I’ll ever need it to do, but as long as it sends text messages I’m a happy camper. [I really don’t need to use it to look in my refrigerator while I’m wandering through the grocery store.]
As for the rest, If all else fails and I’m desperate enough, I can always ask either of the girls to please figure it out for me . . . .
Life has gotten crazy enough without being terrorized by our own homes, don't you think? This trend worries me.
ReplyDeleteMiddle Daughter is an engineer who has worked in the energy sector for the last 12 years, and she is a SmartGrid expert who has given talks at national conferences. For Christmas a few years ago she convinced her other sisters to go together to buy us a Nest Thermostat for our house.
The Nest is really pretty amazing. We can set a high and low temperature, depending on whether the heat or the A/C is on, and it has an Away setting. It detects whether or not there is a human being in the house, and can switch to Away on its own. Because it connects to our Wi-Fi, I can also control it remotely, through my smartphone. (Or my husband's, if he could figure it out.)
I have bumped the furnace in the middle of the night from bed, turned on the house fan in the summer from bed, and started both the A/C and the furnace from the road so the house would be a comfortable temperature by the time we got home. It's brilliant, really. And it saves energy.
But I wonder if a hacker could figure out that we were Away, and take that opportunity to make an unsupervised visit. Furthermore, Alexa and her AI cohorts worry me. We were relaxing with friends recently, and a question came up about 70's song lyrics. Our hostess suddenly raised her voice, "Alexa! Play Song by Artist". Up until then I had no idea anyone was listening, and my instant reaction was to search my conscience for our immediately previous conversation.
Big Brother is already in the house.
Big Brother, indeed. That's what I worry about: The quiet privacy we are giving up for the convenience of tech connection. Who knows where it will lead...
DeleteMy Echo is in the kitchen, right next to the radio/CD player. Once, the local NPR station was telling me how to get them streaming on my smart player. The announcer said, "Just say, Alexa, play MPBN."
DeleteAnd she did! That was startling.
Maybe it's for the best that where I am my internet is too slow to do much of anything. I can't even imagine having everything connected - is there a point to it? My washing machine can be connected but why on earth would I want that? Sometimes I wish I had a smart phone but maybe that's just as well too.
ReplyDeleteI do love my smart phone, Judi - mostly for its mapping/GPS. I haven't gotten lost once since I started using it!
DeleteNot a fan. Don't own an Alexa. I'd be just has happy if my oven had a dial knob instead of a dial pad. Don't get me wrong, I love my smart phone - camera, GPS, Chrome, Square reader, fitness tracker, Google drive, flashlight - but I don't listen to music or podcasts on it. But that an a couple of laptops are as smart as I care my inanimate devices to be.
ReplyDeleteWhile looking for appliances for our new home-to-be, I'm seeing so many connected devices. I can't imagine what could be the advantage of being able to communicate with a refrigerator at all times. I'm perfectly fine with an uncommunicative one.
DeleteWhen we renovated the kitchen two years ago, we decided to forgo the blue tooth on the range, thinking that I was perfectly capable of turning it off and on. However, sometimes I've wished we'd spent the extra $$$. As in when I am settled in my recliner and then wonder if I turned the burner down under that pot of soup I started. Oh well, getting up and down is exercise, right?
DeleteMy iron has an auto-off feature, which is why I bought this model. But I'm not sure I'd upgrade to one that required an app on my phone to manage it. But then, I'm also the woman who was dragged kicking and screaming away from the IBM Selectric to an early computer - I just didn't understand what the advantages could possibly be. It didn't take me long to figure it out, of course, so maybe I would feel the same if I took the leap into the IOT?
DeleteAnn, I can see the advantage of being able to remotely check if the stove is off, especially as I get (ahem) a little more forgetful as I get older. But then, maybe it would be easier, and more hacker-proof, to have something like Amanda's iron, with an auto-off. Perhaps a stove that turns everything off if you don't press a button every so often?
DeleteGood idea Julia. Don’t you have a techie kid who could design and patent that?
DeleteWe have a digital thermostat that came with the new compressor, preset with two temps, 75 for a/c and 65 for heat. When I have the HVAC serviced, the guy changes the batteries. Because one stinking hot June day, the batteries died and we had no air.
ReplyDeleteThat's it. I do use my trick phone for photos, google maps, checking email, and responding to texts from my kids. They don't call Mom, they text. And when Mom doesn't respond in 3-2-1 seconds, they make an annoyed phone call.
The only things capable of connecting to the Internet here are the computer and thermostat. And since I have zero control over temperature when the thermostat is on the Wi-Fi, I leave it disconnected. You're right, when you need an engineering degree to figure out how to work something in your own home, technology has gone too far!
ReplyDeleteMy husband, dear sweet man though he is, keeps "upgrading" things to "improve" them. I now have to talk to Alexa to turn the lights on and off in the movie room, the coffee-maker is so complex that I have to wait for someone else to make me a cup;, and just last night, I was told that I could get an app on my phone so that I can watch the front door for deliveries - while I am at work!
ReplyDeleteNow, I do get tons of books in the mail, but I do not need to see them being delivered. For what reason. Sure, he sees it as a security item, so that we know who was visiting the house when we are away, I get that. But I do not need that app on my phone.
Please, no! No IOT in my house. I know just enough about technology to manage my iPhone at a low level and to switch the TV from Netflix mode to DVD mode. I don't want more intrusion into my life. The more tech tools and the more they're connected, the less I feel like I am the agent of my own life. And - has anyone thought about what happens to all those things when the power goes out????? #justcallmeluddite
ReplyDeleteI just ordered Julie her own personal Echo For our 22 anniversary. For years she listened to music every morning, first on that clock radio she got for eighth grade graduation and then on the very good radio PBS was giving away for a large donation. Both have bit the dust
ReplyDeleteWe use Alexa for a lot of things, but music is the main one. The speakers are astoundingly good in the first generation and supposed to be even better in the second. We have Dots all over the house, for convenience and for my safety. I love the idea of knowing I can call someone for help if, for instance, I take a face plant in the basement while doing laundry. I think the Dots were 30 bucks so we have them all over the house.
Our thermostat is programmable, nothing to do with wifi, but I have it set to 68/55 for heat. We use the AC so infrequently that manual works best. This is an advantage of living on the tundra.
Both of us have iPhones and love them. Julie's is many years old and mine is three. If and when they die, we'll get new ones. I can't remember the last time I used a camera.
We bagged cable years ago, stream everything on TV thru Roku with indoor antenna for network news and real time watching like Big Bang Theory!
And Kristopher, I gave up on coffee pots a long time ago. I'm in love with my French Press, which has no moving parts and no chip.
What we do need is a new computer for the house. The one I use is old, slow and missing a few keys. Sort of like me, come to think of it. I'm considering an iPad. Any thoughts? I'd probably get a key board to go with.
Last but not least are our Kindles. Julie prefers the Fire because the book covers are in color. I have a Fire too, but find it too heavy for reading in bed, my preferred spot. So I use the Kindle Voyage, light as air, pressure points on each side for page turning, no backlight but screen is lighted by six LEDs, dimmable and all that.
You sounds pretty much at my level of technology, Ann, except my thermostat isn't programmable (we don't have zone heating, so why bother?) and we stream through our blue ray dvd player. Cut the cable well over a decade ago.
DeleteAnn, a recluctant comer into the 21st century, my iPad is one of the nicest things that I found. I got it to use instead of lugging a lap top. Wonderful surprise to me was the ease of the onscreen key board. It has a good touch, as we used to say about typewriters. So do try one out before you buy the key board.
DeleteI was really lucky the day I bought mine as a very busy store left me to quietly type and explore without one of those incredibly young sales people talking every minute. I have a laptop at home as the bigger screen makes it easier to see some documents. Good luck!
I love my tablets--both the Nook Samsung, and the bigger one we got with our phones that I travel with. But I detest trying to type anything more than a couple paragraphs with the virtual keyboards.
DeleteAlthough I do admit to being much more proficient at it now than at first, but it would not do to write a book with.
Symptom of my reluctance to enter the 21st century: never had a virtual key board anything before the iPad. ;-)
DeleteI think the IOT offers a lot on the way of energy savings and green-living if you are controlling your electricity and heat usage. But all those connections, it's just an opportunity for something to break. I can completely picture the Smithie in her plight. I wouldn't have touched the lights either (which kind of defeats the energy-saving purpose).
ReplyDeleteI have a notepad and pen on the cabinet in our dining room. I don't need the refrigerator to tell me I'm out of milk and then to put it on my shopping list. I open the door, see there's no milk, and write it down.
I have an iPhone and I love all the functionality it offers: weather, maps, Square, pictures, etc.
I do not have Alexa. I really don't see the need.
I just bought a new car: a Prius Prime. It's a plug-in hybrid; I can drive it in full hybrid mode (which means it works just like my 2010 Prius), or plug it in to drive in full electric (EV) mode. I have never purchased an extended warranty on a car, but I did this time. I joked my Prius was a computer on wheels and this one is even more so. All I need is for the computer to fail the day after the warranty runs out and I'd be taking out a second mortgage on my house to get it fixed!
Mary/Liz
Mary, where do you plug your Prius in? Do you live in an area with docking stations? I love the idea of a hybrid, but I have literally no electrical outlets outside my 200 years old house, and the nearest public electrical plug-ins that I know of are in Portland, a half-hour drive away.
DeleteWe use a heavy-duty extension cord (a guy at the dealership said that despite the fact it says not to use an extension cord in the manual, you can use the really heavy yellow ones in a pinch) to our one outdoor electrical outlet, but it's really slow.
DeleteI downloaded an app called Plugshare and it shows all the charging stations near me. Many of them are free. For example, there's one by the Panera where I'll be meeting with my critique group next Sunday, so I'll plug in there. There's one at a local hospital (where I just need to pay the parking), several at local car dealerships, and a boatload at Bakery Square, a shopping area nearby (they are for residents of the business park during business hours, but free for the public evenings at weekends). So lots of options.
Mary/Liz
At sea. So flummoxed by so much of this. I have a college classmate who is blind, and she lives in a smart house -- but she could do calculus in her head when we were in class together -- I would read the textbook to her, and she did it. I was flummoxed by calculus. Luckily, I have children -- not patient, easily accessible children -- but kids who will carve out a few minutes for me and my phone and my laptop.
ReplyDeleteI live on the road time forgot. A quarter-half mile in any direction will get you all the internet-connectivity/cable/information superhighway that your heart could desire, but here? I'm on satellite. So, no streaming movies, no online-gaming for the boys--they mostly live at friends' houses :-) I have enough of a connection to enable me to work from home and surf the net. My smartphone I use for calls, text, and camera (the latter okay but not the best). My neighbors all have equally undesirable internet connectivity and periodically one of us will canvass the road, hoping against hope that some new means of connection has magically appeared.
ReplyDeleteThe knowledge that I am about to sound cranky and old depresses me, but I can't help myself.
ReplyDeleteWe do have a programmable thermostat, and it has been a purely positive experience. But it is not on wifi, which suits me just fine. We cut the cable and get most of our tv over the Roku now, which is fine. I would love it if we could find a slightly more effective digital antenna, because our reception on the local over-the-air stations is definitely worse than it was billed. But beyond those things, I am very happy with my ancient technology and I don't want to change.
Each morning as we get ready for work, we listen to NPR on a giant 80's boombox. That, of course, is after we are awakened by our little lo-tech clock radio. If I have a say in it, no Alexa or Echo or whatever will ever darken my door. And I have no desire for my kitchen appliances to talk to each other or for me to be able to talk to them remotely. Our coffee maker is dying and we are angst ridden about what to replace it with. This one was a Cuisinart that ground the beans, brewed the coffee, and kept it warm really well in a vacuum sealed carafe. I want to just get the newest version of the same, but my husband is feeling a bit more adventurous....
I do have reasonably good mastery of my smart phone, and now that I have upgraded to a bluetooth equipped car, I do listen to a lot of books downloaded from the library to my phone. And I like the technology that came with my car, but I have ridden in others' where I found the technology too much.
I like to think I'm still open to trying new technology, and I do adopt some of it. It's just that I feel like much of the newer technology, especially the IOT, doesn't actually make life easier.
Susan, I think you've captured it in your last sentence. It doesn't actually make life easier.
DeleteTry the Leaf antenna.
DeleteThis made me laugh. And want to cry, too. The sheer amount of time involved in learning "upgrades" is discouraging and my frustration level is low. And yes, my family laughs at me.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love our Alexa. She's funny. And does math for me. I love my phone, and my computer.
ReplyDeleteI do NOT love the toilets that flush when THEY ant do. The humans have to keep some semblance of control!
And Jonathan is the only one in the family who can figure out the TV.If he is not home, I just forget about it. It's too complicated with too many remotes and it doesn't make sense in any way.
I can't watch a movie if Hugh isn't home, either, Hank. I CAN manage to turn it on and watch a royal wedding or the Boston Marathon, but that and the occasional Masterpiece is all I watch, anyway.
DeleteThose random flushes can't possibly be sanitary. I was at the Rep. once when a small lad told his grandma he was afraid of those . . . I pointed them toward an old-fashioned one that was still manually flushed.
DeleteAND BREAKING NEWS:
ReplyDeleteYou can get the first five chapters of TRUST ME right now, FREE!
https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Sneak-Peek-Hank-Phillippi-ebook/dp/B07DC4DG5X/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1529588339&sr=1-1&keywords=trust+me+sneak+peek
On the fence about this, Hank. I don’t want to read just five chapters and then have to wait. And I wouldn’t remember them until publication day. Trust me
DeleteWell, there's that! xoxo
DeleteI love my devices but I don't need them connected to my house. Besides the Russian hackers and Big Brother, I am haunted by Ray Bradbury's story "There Shall Come Soft Rains." Remember that one? An automated house keeps running after everyone has been killed in a nuclear holocaust. NOT that I'm expecting a nuclear holocaust! It's the idea of the house running itself is really creepy -- like Smithie's friends' house.
ReplyDeleteI recall that one! So poetic and low-key, while also so chilling. One of Brabury's great short stories.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteExcellent story. I had it on tape, read by Leonard Nimoy, and my students loved it.
DeleteI don't plan to be connected in the home in any way. That's how Skynet starts. (Terminator).
ReplyDeleteHowever, I always say that I'd like to be a hermit ... with good wifi.
I am the smartest entity in my house, and it's going to stay that way.
ReplyDeleteLOL - great post, Julia! I don't think smart homes are for me. I like gadgets and I'm very much about energy savings, but I'd live in fear of a power outage. How does everything reboot and find itself? What if I butt dial my oven and it starts while I'm traveling? I could burn my house down! Don't even get me started on passwords. Nightmare. Hey, that's a good password!
ReplyDeleteWhen I finally broke down and got a smart phone I was surprised at just how much I loved it. I came to the smart phone straight from the "brick" phone I had before, completely bypassing the flip phone era. I don't think I want Alexa, but you never know. I can see how helpful it could be as I age.. My nephew's family has had Alexa almost from the beginning. Their now six year old almost seemed to think Alexa was an invisible older sister! I may have mentioned before: at Christmas my nephew's wife asked the six year old to check the kitchen clock and let her know what time it was. The child poked her head into the kitchen and yelled "Alexa, what time is it?" I keep wondering what life will be like for her generation twenty years from now.
ReplyDeleteDebRo
DebRo, I do that ALL the time.
DeleteLove this Julia! I try to keep up but it's hard...the other day we had the cable guy in to fix the wifi (sigh.) I always complain about our TV because John has so many remotes I'm overwhelmed and simply cannot even watch the news if he's away. The cable guy said: You know you can turn it on and off with this remote, right? and in two seconds, he'd done away with one of our five.
ReplyDeletewe really need someone on staff full time...
Does anyone have a twelve year old that we can all borrow as needed?!
DeleteMark that one somehow, knit it a sweater or something.
DeletePasswords are the bane of my existence. They are supposed to be unique for each place we have one (and many places have such different requirements). And yet we can't write them down anywhere. Hello, I have other important things I need to remember like...great. Now I've forgotten. And I don't remember my passwords, either.
ReplyDeleteMark, the thing about writing down the passwords used to worry me, until I had a talk with a computer-savvy friend. He said, "If someone has broken into your house and can see the paper by your computer, you have bigger problems than password security."
DeleteRational!
DeleteThat's a very good point, Julia.
DeleteI have an iPhone I like. I do not use all its functions. Frankly I have no idea what all it can do. My vehicle is a Jeep Liberty that is 15 years old. It is 4WD from our years living in Minnesota and gives me the happy illusion I can drive in any conditions. No built in GPS or blue tooth. I think I may need to replace the CD player in it. The fewer electronics in it the happier I am. Less to go wrong. I'm sure you saw the hilarious Silver Alexa "commercial" that SNL did. We refer to it frequently. My husband uses his GPS all the time but doesn't always pay attention when it tells him to turn. He missed his turn (again) recently and we were gigging him about getting him a Silver Alexa GPS. I'd love to be the voice for that. No Echos are any of its ilk in my house. Any speaking I do besides to people is to myself (mumble mumble) and the dog. A lot of people in our neighborhood have cameras on their property. My nextdoor neighbor's covers part of our front too so that's cool. We solve a lot of problems by keeping the front gate locked. It's sad but theft in broad daylight is rampant and dubious salesmen and scam artists are not shy. We also cut the cable, or satellite in our case, a few months ago. So far, so good. It's a little harder to figure out what is on but what the heck. Saves quite a bit of money. We have just two remotes to use; the TV one for local channels, and the Roku one for everything else. And I discover new tricks when I hit the wrong buttons accidently. I'm afraid all my smarts will drain away faster than normal if I rely too much on "smart" technology.
ReplyDeletePat, my late husband actually did the "Silver Echo" thing - and not in jest. He would call it Alyssa, Alexis, and Alison. I think he was confusing it with the names of former students. I have to admit, I laughed every time.
DeleteI just figured out how to sync Audible on my phone with my car, so I'm riding that wave of joy and accomplishment right now. Of course, I know my taking great satisfaction in that will serve as a source of laughter to those who are more technically savvy. But, in my defense, there's a setting on the car that needs to be in play, too, and I found it quite by accident. They should tell you these things when you buy the car. Yes, I know I could read the manual, which I'm fairly certain is online now, too, but I stubbornly don't want to.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'd do well with a smart home. I can imagine an experience like the Smithie's with the lights. I am a bit of a control freak, too, and I think it might feel like too much control has been given up. Heck, I don't even like cruise control on the car. I do have an iPhone, a 6 plus, and I enjoy it. I probably need to upgrade soon. I don't have Alexa, and while my friends who have it, love it, I just have an aversion to something that would record me when I've forgotten it was. Maybe after I get used to my husband being home again (he just retired, semi-retired, but now living at home) and mumbling about his lack of doing things my way.
Someone above mentioned toilets. A friend of my husband's has a son who is building a new house and I guess it's a smart house, because you can control everything with a remote, and there's even a small room, like a walk-in closet, where the control center is located. He also has one of those smart Japanese toilets, which is a wonder to behold, but I don't think I'm ready for. The fireplace was kind of cool, where he can change colors on it.
I'm spoiled to live with a software engineer who has "wired" our lives just enough to make it easy to use and useful. I can figure out the TV, my phone, and Cortana (the Microsoft version of Alexa). We do conduct some "dog fooding" in our house, which is the term that refers to testing out your own builds at home. When he was working on Xbox, we'd "eat our own dogfood" before it went to consumers and hopefully iron out the bugs at that stage. You're welcome, Xbox users!
ReplyDeleteWatching CSI:Cyber when it was on scared me off of smart houses. The bad guys seemingly can access everything. Actually I'm more afraid that I couldn't access my stuff. I like my computer, smart phone, and Nook, but can't do everything the devices do. I hate making up passwords and always write them down. Lots of luck for the thief finding all the bits of paper. Of course he'd probably just take the computer!
ReplyDeleteI gave up on programming the thermostat, since my free-wheeling schedule isn't predictable anyway. My phone is a flip-phone. I did manage the Roku for the television, and Kindle app on the iPad. I set up my website and recorded storytelling CDs (with help from Apple Creatives). What more does a woman need?
ReplyDeleteJulia- I have 4 Phillips Vue light bulbs in 4 places- kitchen, 2 LR, and bedroom. I love turning off the lamp from bed, since I never remember to shut it off before crawling in. However, there is one bad thing- when the power goes out, which it does here frequently, all those lights go on. Now that's fine if you're home. But last time they dI'd that I was out of town and came home to discover all 4 were on for 3 days! My neighbors must have thought I was a nightowl! Now I turn 3 of the lights off and 1 on isn't going to blow the electric bill.
ReplyDelete