Riiiiight!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I pulled a thread, and now none of the smart lights in the house are working. The security camera is also offline. I managed to kill the battery in my phone about 5 PM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Mr. Scott once said, \u201cThe more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog up the works!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is what happens when you have a \u201csmart house\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have no clue exactly what the hell is going on. But I\u2019ve done factory resets on my router, and all the smart light bulbs. I\u2019ll be factory resetting the HomePod Minis, the Apple TVs and the Big HomePods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been playing whack a mole. I\u2019d get the lights working, then move on to the next thing that was broken, and boom the lights stopped working. Then I\u2019d fix a light and something else would suddenly go offline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the darnedest thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those of you wondering why I\u2019m mistrustful of AI, here\u2019s a perfect example why i don\u2019t trust AI and think all AI systems should have a kill switch! That switch should be something totally mechanical that can\u2019t be programmed around. Possibly augmented by a very large Axe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
None of the stuff at my house is particularly complex but something is running through the devices like a horseman of the apocalypse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m thinking that I may have to power down then reset each and every device in the house to factory default then add them back one at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m also thinking that I\u2019ll need to delete the house from all the HomeKit enabled stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time I\u2019m done with this, chasing this problem around and around the house will have cost me 2 days. I started farting around with this Bullshit at 8am yesterday morning. I was listening to music, then suddenly there was no stereo. I asked the question, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before I knew it, I\u2019d been consumed, as had my day. I actually had other things that I\u2019d planned on doing yesterday none of which I got done except the laundry…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s also a good thing that I didn\u2019t have any video I need to preserve. Because the security camera has been removed and re added to the home controls twice and will require the procedure again. Each time, any recorded video stored in the cloud is erased. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Totally brilliant bit of software engineering there. Another interesting feature is this, If the camera is offline in the Apple Home application then you can\u2019t even look at video that\u2019s recorded in your iCloud. So once the camera goes away and requires that you delete it and re-pair you\u2019ve lost anything and everything stored for the last 30 days anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll be looking at a different paradigm for cameras in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s the point of having the data recorded but completely inaccessible due to some silliness caused by a software update. Isn\u2019t that the point of storing videos in the cloud???<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apparently, I\u2019ve missed a memo somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s the update. Flushing everything seems to have worked. I now have music throughout the house again and the smart lights are working. This was definitely the brute force method of solving the problem. I’m sure that it will reoccur at some point in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That cynicism comes from experience with technology. Even if you’re not the one fiddling around with the devices, there’s always someone in development who’s tweaking a line of code here or there. Then someone else decides that a software update is necessary, or some scumbag hacker takes advantage of a security flaw and causes an update. One way or another, something is going to change and your nice stable system will be completely hosed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’d really like to be able to bill for the time lost to SPAM Email and all the software update related issues. The folks I’d like to bill are the little scumbag hackers, or their parents, or their countries of origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well on with the rest of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have a great weekend<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Riiiiight! I pulled a thread, and now none of the smart lights in the house are working. The security camera is also offline. I managed to kill the battery in my phone about 5 PM. As Mr. Scott once said, \u201cThe more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to clog up the works!\u201d This … <\/p>\n