Blog Update: Taking a Digital Break

The Pleasures of a Digital Vacation,
Prompted by Technology Failing

What Living Without a Phone Can Teach Us

You'll notice we haven't published in a while.  Part of this is due to life interfering, and part was due to taking a digital break.

This digital break originally did not happen by choice.  It all began one morning.  I looked at my cell phone to check the weather, laid it back on the desk, and went about my business.  When I returned to it about an hour later, the phone was stuck in an infinite boot loop.  That means the phone would only boot as far as the google logo before shutting down and rebooting itself.

Undaunted, I rushed to my google drive to ensure I had a current backup. I could see my backup in my Drive folder.  So I tried to boot into recovery mode to no avail. That meant there was NO WAY to factory reset my phone.  When I went to research my woes, I found that this was a known issue. LG, the manufacturer of my Nexus 5x handset, was currently facing a class action suit because this was a known issue caused by a manufacturing defect, and LG had run out of the part needed to repair my phone.

I reached out to Google Support. They offered to accept a return of my 2 year old phone to solve the problem.  Still, that left me without a phone until Google could get a replacement out.  And to top it all off, we were facing a long weekend, and even with expedited shipping, it was doubtful that Google would be able to get a replacement phone to me in time to have it for the Holiday.  No worries--I still had a PC and Internet, as well as a landline, so that meant the weekend should still be okay.

I think we all fail to realize exactly how much we depend on our cell phones to run our daily lives.  Even with a working PC, there were many things I could no longer do until I had a new cell phone in hand.

I have most of my accounts protected by two-factor authentication. That means that you need a code along with your username and password to log in.  In most cases, that code is sent to your cell phone and expires within 15 minutes.  Not having that cell phone to receive the codes meant I couldn't log into a LOT of websites, including my web hosting control panel, my credit card account, my domain name registrar, and Twitter.  Of course, in many cases, two factor authentication can be set to use either your phone or your e-mail address to receive the log in code, but delivery method is usually established when you set up two factor authentication, and of course, you need to be able to log into your account to change the code delivery method. And you can't log into an account to change it without being able to receive a code.

Beyond two factor authentication, there are many other apps and services that are cell phone reliant.  Thankfully, many loyalty cards allow you to use a phone number in place of a physical or digital card. But not all do. Many fast food loyalty  programs depend on a digital card.  And that means you cannot access them without your phone.  Balances and promo codes are just unavailable without the app.  I DID discover that Regal Movies will look up your account with an e-mail address if you do not have your card or the app when purchasing tickets, but you really DO need your phone to redeem credits or take advantage of app-only concession deals.

And Uber? Forget trying to schedule an Uber without having your cell phone. You just cannot do it.    Not being able to take Uber when you live in a public-transportation-challenged area is NOT a good thing.  I had to change some weekend plans when taking an Uber became out of the question.

Harmony Hub Part 3: Editing Device Settings So Things Work Properly

Editing Your Harmony Hub Devices, Scenes, and Activities For More Effective Control

Adjust the Way Harmony Controls Your Entertainment Components

This is the third part of a series on setting up and using a Harmony Hub.  Part 1 reviewed the Harmony Hub, while Part 2 focused on setting it up.  Today, we will look at adjusting your Harmony app settings so that they correctly control your devices.  As we discussed in Part 1 and Part 2, the Harmony Hub can be very quirky, and you may need to make several adjustments after initial set up.

What Can Be Adjusted?

Depending on the specific device, different functions can be adjusted within the Harmony App (Desktop or Mobile.)  You can adjust things like the way a device powers on and off, input settings, command repeats, commands, and delays. You can change a device's name. You can add commands to a device's routine, and/or fix commands that are not functioning as expected.   You can also create activities that group a set of commands together for one or more devices. These activities will later show up as scenes in your Alexa app.

Creating additional activities will also create new command prompts in Alexa, so that tasks can easily be accomplished with a single voice command.  Many of these activities are created during the initial set up, like we discussed in Part 2.  You may find that an activity you set up is not working as expected. If so, you can edit the activity and make adjustments so that it does, in fact, operate like you want.  For example, I have a dual Toshiba DVD/VHS recorder.  I set up a "watch Toshiba" activity that powers on the TV, turns the Timer off on the Toshiba, sets the input to DVD, and brings up the recording menu.  This initially did not work correctly, as it takes the Toshiba about 20 seconds to load a disc.  I needed to adjust this activity by adding a delay between turning off the timer and queuing up the recordings menu.  After adjusting the activity within the Harmony App, my activity now works as I desire.

EVERY TIME you make adjustments to devices or activities, you will need to unlink and relink your Harmony Account from within the Alexa app.  Then you will need to rerun Discovery from within Alexa.  Harmony may not update your corresponding Alexa settings if you do not unlink and relink your Harmony Account.

What Do I Adjust First?

For most of us, the TV is the heart and soul of our Entertainment Center.  Therefore, it is extremely important that your TV is configured correctly.  It is especially important that the input settings work correctly. Therefore, I always suggest you "edit" your Television Device first.  We'll walk you through adjusting your TV's device settings later in this article. You may find your other components behave better once the TV is set up correctly.

What to Do When Alexa Goes Down

How to Control Your Smart Home when Alexa Goes Down

Using Your Echo During an Alexa Outage

Today, for the first time, Alexa experienced widespread outages.  Sometimes, she'd light up, and the blue ring would keep flashing, but she would not respond to any commands.  Other times, Alexa would blink red, indicating she was not connected.  Additionally, even if she was not flashing, she failed to respond to any commands. Sometimes, she would apologize. Other times, she'd look like she was listening and responding, but she would just fade out.  Alexa was unable to respond to a simple command, such as "What time is it?" let alone operate any Smart Home Devices.

As of the time I write this, Alexa still has not come back.  And unlike in the Super Bowl commercial, there are not a stable of celebrities waiting to take her place.

So what can you do when Alexa goes down? Does it mean you are out of luck until the network issues resolve?  Thankfully, there are some ways you can still command your Smart Devices, even when your Echo is not responding.

Help! I Can't See ANY Comment Sections in Firefox since it Updated!

Quick Tip: Fix Display Issues with
Third-Party Comment Plug-Ins and Page Elements
in the Mozilla Firefox Browser

At some point today, Firefox updated itself.  And afterwards, I found I could no longer see Facebook Comment Sections on third-party sites, (like Buzzfeed or USAToday.)  Certain embedded elements, like Tweets and Instagrams, were also being replaced with the ALT text.  I did NOT like this behavior at all!  Refreshing the page did nothing, nor did disabling ad-blockers.

Alexa Says My Device is Not Responding: What Do I Do?

Smart Home Glitches and How to Resolve Them:

Fixing Issues with Amazon's Alexa

Smart Home devices are fantastic, when they are working properly.  But like any other electronic device, Smart Devices can experience errors.  So what do you do when you ask Alexa to turn on the lights, and she tells you a device is not responding?  Today, we're going to look at troubleshooting errors with Alexa and your Smart Home Devices.

Alexa Says "I'm Having Trouble Connecting to the Internet."  What Do I Do?

Like any wi-fi device, Alexa can experience connectivity issues.  A user generally discovers the Echo or Dot has lost connectivity when they issue a command, and Alexa responds with "I'm having trouble connecting to the Internet right now."  Additionally, the light ring will flash red rather than blue.  Despite the fact my Dot is the closest device to my router, it seems to experience connectivity problems more often than my other Alexa-enabled devices.

Sometimes, connectivity issues are caused by a blip in the wi-fi. This blip might be caused by interference from a microwave, a cordless phone, a back-up beeper, or any number of things that can cause wi-fi "noise."  I find often, if I wait a few seconds and reissue my command, the connectivity issue resolves itself.  If it doesn't, the next step is to reboot the malfunctioning Alexa device.  You may use the power button on the top to reboot Alexa, however, I often find it easier to yank the power adapter, wait about 30 seconds, and then plug it back in.  That way, I do not inadvertently turn off the microphone by mistake.  Like with most electronic devices, rebooting can clear about 80% of issues.