Products I wholeheartedly endorse

[footfootfoot]

I had heard that about you...

[glatt]

This was perfect. Back in the day, at my age then, in 4th grade, this couldn't be beat. If only blank cassettes were a little cheaper.

[footfootfoot]

That was one of the best christmas presents I ever got.

[glatt]

I couldn't find a picture of mine. Mine also had a counter with a reset button on the side. I wasn't sure what the point of the counter was, but I reset it all the time. I guess at one point I realized you could find the same spot on the tape if you reset it at that spot and went back to zero later. Play that partial song you recorded from the radio over and over.

[footfootfoot]

That or if you were recording conversation or notes you could indicate certain passages. Now they have these pens. A buddy of mine has one and I have a serious case of the 'I wants'.

[Elspode]

I just took my first halting steps into home automation based on Amazon Echo. Now I can tell Alexa to turn on/dim white lights in three locations that were previously inconvenient due to the location of the lights versus our location in the bedroom. I give it a rating of "Fuck, Yeah!".

I will expand this layout one bulb at a time. We were converting to LEDs anyway, and 60 watt equivalent bulbs controllable through the Zigbee 2.4ghz technology can be had as cheap as $15, which is only about 33% more than dumb LED bulbs. With a 30,000 hour lifespan, I will die before these bulbs will, so once installed, I'm done.

The ability to use color changing bulbs is cool, but probably not terribly important to our lifestyle. If we go that route, it will likely be strip lights, which can be up to 1600 lumens - a likely solution for a dark hallway in our house, and then we would sort of have that color changing function come along inherently.

Still pondering the automated power outlet thing. Wife isn't sure we need to be able to voice control turning our TV on and off, but we have a couple of groovy lamps that don't seem to want to fit the bulbs, so this could be a solution that allows us to continue using those lamps while having them automated, and perhaps even dimable.

My operative notion is that this tech is only going to grow and expand, and become less expensive, so getting in early is a good idea. I'd like to think we will eventually be able to voice control our media gear, but as we have Google Fiber TV and Internet, and as Google has their own platform, compatibility and crossover with that may be slow to come.

Cool stuff.

[Clodfobble]

We have Alexa, too. The kids enjoy it. It's annoying when it thinks it hears you say its name on accident, but generally speaking I like it.

[Pamela]

My friend Jane has her iPad (Siri) listening to her and sometimes it comes on by itself and Siri asks her what she just said or something. Must have a new guy at the NSA spying on her.

I will never have any automation at home. Those gadgets are too easily hacked to become part of a botnet or to spy on you. Police are already trying to get warrants to seize those devices that can hear/record you and to modify them so that they can tap you at will. As long as they swear to a judge that you are a no goodnik and they need to know what you are up to.

Keep yer new-fangled gadgets. I'll just do it by hand. And get off my lawn!

[Clodfobble]

Someone noted that if you are being murdered, you should repeatedly yell out "Alexa!" Because everything she records stays on a remote server for some relatively long period of time, and there's absolutely no way the attacker can delete them. You'll have to listen to "I'm sorry, I didn't understand the question I heard," again and again as you are stabbed, but they will have recordings of the killer's voice and your description of him and anything else you care to put on it.

[classicman]

Rain-X.
So I've been using Rain-X products for many years. The last pair of wipers I bought were awful. After 3 months I called their customer service and after calmly speaking (major accomplishment for me) with them, they are not only replacing my defective set, but insisted on refunding me the cost of the wipers. That is service above and beyond.
FTR - I receive the replacement pair two days after that call!

[Griff]

Ha! I just asked Pete never to bring any of that tech into our home. (not RainX the voice control stuff) I have a maybe irrational distaste for household automation. It might be from time spent with people who never seem present and resist interacting with their physical environment...

[Pamela]

I second Rain-X. PITA to put on but very useful above 25 mph in the rain. Keeps bugs off too. Love it!

[Gravdigr]

Wipers on GrandCherokeeOne are shit. The entire arm(s) need replacing, as the tension has gone out of the springs what keep them down on the windshield. I've got the Rain-X on ftm.

The only thing worse than the headlights on a (older) Grand Cherokee are the wipers, front and rear.

[footfootfoot]

What's worse than the headlights and wipers on an older Grand Cherokee?

The holocaust.

What's worse than the holocaust?

Getting stung by a bee.

[monster]

How bizarre, I HATE RainX.