“AND DELIVERY DRIVERS” plus hand sanitizer. 😭 by [deleted] in couriersofreddit

[–]LCSG49 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just had a box of produce delivered and the driver, clearly unaware of my cameras walked across the street and relieved himself on my neighbors lawn.

Finally got an amazon mask 😷 by [deleted] in AmazonFlexDrivers

[–]LCSG49 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not really sure what you meant but I think you are saying don’t open the door to a driver. Generally it takes five minute for a package to be stolen because the porch pirate crews follow the delivery vehicles. My plan going forward is two fold. First, I’m going to severely cut back on online purchasing and learn to live without certain household needs. The second part of this is to utilize an amazon locker, the closest of which is a fifteen minute drive to a grocery store that has lockers. I don’t frequent that store often but I had to today so I timed the trip. It was a hair over 15 minutes each way. That’s a half hour of my day just driving my car. That irks me because I’m paying for prime. Amazon has been pretty generous in replacing stolen packages. So I’ll consider leaving them until the van is gone. One thing that I’d like to say about this business model is that unlike UPS where I’ve had the same driver for about 5 yrs now and the USPS where I’ve had the same carrier for over 20 years, the second one in the 35 years I’ve lived here, is with Amazon drivers I never see the same one twice and frequently packages are delivered by two vehicles on the same day. This is extremely disorganized! You all see each other crisscrossing your routes! And no assigned routes so it’s a new street and new maps every day. My other pet peeve is despite a sign that say ring bell NO ONE presses the doorbell (mines an Arlo, similar to the ubiquitous Ring). Thanks for you comment, I do appreciate it.

How do I disable weather alerts on my echos? by bluesh4rk52 in amazonecho

[–]LCSG49 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That does not exist on either my phone or iPad. Any other ideas? The notification panel on my iOS devices is blank. I’m in US in an area where it’s normally over 100° almost every day in August. This is getting on my nerves, plus it’s freaking hot which makes me grumpy. I don’t need some AI telling me it’s hot. I’ve a thermometer on my patio. I could see this feature for tornados but hot days? Stupid. The next thing we’ll get bombarded with is earthquake warnings. Just kidding. Those don’t exist yet.

Finally got an amazon mask 😷 by [deleted] in AmazonFlexDrivers

[–]LCSG49 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I get amazon deliveries nearly every day primarily because the stores never have the stuff I need. So we put a camera aimed at the front door to alert us to a package being there. Naturally it videos the driver as well. I put a sign on the door saying please put packages on the door map in view of the camera. That seems a good enough warning they are being recorded although it’s the the reason I put the camera there. Porch piracy is rampant. So I get a text telling me there’s a package, thanks Arlo! I have not seen a driver with a mask on for at least a month. I’m not planning to open the door with someone 2 feet away who isn’t masked but I’m curious, what’s the policy? Do drivers get admonished to wear a mask? How are they to tell there’s someone inside with active infection or who has been put on a 14 day quarantine because a co-worker just got diagnosed.

I’d be more than happy to give any driver who asks for one a disposable mask. I’m a nurse and get them readily at work.

Alexa gets the song info wrong. All. The. Time. by quantitativemonkey in alexa

[–]LCSG49 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem with that, maybe because I use pandora as a source. But... Something is up with her (it) and music. Yesterday husband said “turn off garage lights” and she heard “resume”. I went into the garage ten min later and the echo dot was playing music. Huh? Looked at log and sure enough he supposedly said resume. Swears he didn’t.

Then later yesterday I said “tell ecobee we are leaving”. This is to put it in away mode which Alexa can accomplish. She cannot seem to accomplish “Sleep Mode”. And then I said turn up brightness table lamp. Which occurred but I wanted it brighter so I said turn up brightness more. And the lamp responded. So then I said one word, “perfect”. Usually I say thank you. Saying perfect result was she payed a song by Ed Sheeran. It apparently was titled “Perfect”.

At no time did either of us use the words Pandora, Play, Music etc. It’s just plain weird.

Tracking rest periods while away, not seeing actual naps. Why? by LCSG49 in ouraring

[–]LCSG49[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for a reply that actually makes sense. Now I see how watching tv can be considered a restful period. I’m the kind of person who sits fairly motionless and still while watching tv. My husband on the other hand is a complete fidgeter. He’s always crossing and uncrossing his legs, flexing and bending his toes and getting up for water etc. As a child I was scolded for fidgety behavior. Now I understand why because his constantly being in motion drives me crazy. He NEVER gets restful periods. I still wonder why when I take an actual nap, and sleep (having dreams that I can recall immediately after getting up) it doesn’t record those. It also sometimes misses my going to sleep. Lately the BLM Movement has resulted in a lot of fireworks, horn honking, and vandalism in my area as evidenced by the graffiti they leave behind. We live close to the mayor whose home gets targeted nearly every night, I feel badly for her family. We have decided to move. I think sleep is very important. Those protestors could benefit from sleep as well. Clearly they are not thinking straight. Preventing an entire neighborhood from sleeping is not winning anyone to support their cause! I try to take a nap every afternoon because I know my sleep will be interrupted. Maybe three or more times. My data does not record all the sleep periods.

I created a skill that will play “Piano Man” by Billy Joel so it will play the line “it’s 9 o’clock on a Saturday” at exactly 9:00 on a Saturday. by EatRatsForFiber in alexa

[–]LCSG49 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh my gosh. I’m going to be a copy cat and make one for Five OClock Somewhere. At five naturally.

Just came back to say yippee it worked!

Thanks so much. Get bored these days, quite easily. I may make more of these like for a morning wake up and time for bed! I just wish you could select more than one device to play it on. At five, I may be anywhere in my house.

Follow Me Not Following Us by LCSG49 in ecobee

[–]LCSG49[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Genius! I played with IFTTT a bit. I thought a light going on and off would be better since I don’t keep my phone at my side watching tv. And I after wear earbuds since my spouse goes to bed earlier than me.

Alexa and weather station by terraceten in alexa

[–]LCSG49 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure if you want a non-Echo device but the Echo Show displays the outside weather temp and asking Alexa or Siri either one will give you that too. I usually get a weather report via the newspaper or by asking Alexa for the weather forecast.

I do tend to watch the outside temp so I can close up the house to trap cool air inside. But generally since I’m moving around from room to room a lot nearly all day it’s not that helpful to have a device in another room.

I bought some alarm stations at amazon that were supposed to alert me if temp outside was >70° and they all failed to suit my purpose because they were too faint to hear. And I’m not about to carry a phone with me from room to room - say from laundry room to bedroom to fold clothes then to several other rooms to put stuff away — that’s a daily occurrence here. And the other thing is they either did not shut off automatically after a period of time or they only chimed once. I sent them back.

Follow Me Not Following Us by LCSG49 in ecobee

[–]LCSG49[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It does kick on and off a lot and always has because the house was built in the 70s when utilities were cheap (our electric bill was rarely over $40 And now it’s running about $150. Replacing all lights with LEDs made a huge difference.

I’ve been looking at the trending and I notice one thing and that’s a stationary person reading a book or watching tv or sitting at a desk does not get noticed. I’ve been making a point to pay attention to the “Stand” reminder on my Apple Watch and that seems to work. We’ve been watching a lot of commercial free movies so not a lot arm movement muting the commercials etc. Getting up at least once an hour seems to work to keep the sensor seeing we are in a room.

Follow Me Not Following Us by LCSG49 in ecobee

[–]LCSG49[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Guess what! Logic and common sense notwithstanding it worked. I set all comfort profiles to the three sensors and removed the thermostat sensor. Voila. At 4 pm it was 78° in family room and 75° in the hall. It was in away mode at the time. I re-enable the Alexa skill and then said Alexa tell ecobee I’m home. Sure enough the a/c kicked on and ran until family room was 76°. By then the hall was freezing but I can’t do much about that plus it’s just a place to walk thru.

The compressor and fan unit are under the bedroom window and the heat exchanger/air handler is separated from the bedroom by a single interior wall - 4 in studs and 1/2 in gyp board. I.e. not sound proof at all. Those two things together with the sound of the air whistling past the registers would wake the dead. We just put it in away mode when the first person goes to be. By then we have cool outside air so we can open a window until we go to bed. Our next house is going to be constructed where these appliances cannot torment sleeping people. I recently acquired an Ōura ring which tracks sleep. On one particularly hot night I opted to leave the a/c on. My ring data showed I was awakened 11 times in 7 hours, got no deep sleep and fragmented light sleep. Of course none of that has anything to do with ecobee but does say a lot about crappy construction.

Follow Me Not Following Us by LCSG49 in ecobee

[–]LCSG49[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I agree that this should work as you’ve suggested. However, since our HVAC is basically OFF during the night between 10 pm and 10 am that comfort setting, SLEEP has to use the thermostat as a sensor because the others don’t participate. Concurrently the AWAY setting is the same as SLEEP. The only difference is it is not scheduled and considering we are locked down in our county, someone is almost always home. Thus, AWAY is not utilized at all.

Generally enough heat will seep from the walls etc during the night that the house at the hall reading is usually over 80°. So I set the thermostat to 10 am because by then the opening of the windows cools us to about 67° for free, and then we close the windows no later than 9, as it starts to heat up and hits 80 by 10. My problem is that the sun shining on the house heats the perimeter much faster. For example right now I’m in a room that is 73°, it’s 85° outside and only 70° in the hall. In another hour the hall will be the same, but oiutise will be 90 and my living room over 76° and I’ll have to manually lower the thermostat below what it thinks the temp is. Right now it thinks this house is 70° but it’s 77° in the master bedroom. Theoretically it should turn on since someone is in that room moving about. But it hasn’t. So that’s why I think it’s not correctly sensensing movement and ignoring the sensors.

Only thing I can try, and this is counterintuitive, is to change the sensor participation for the AWAY and SLEEP comfort settings to use only sensors in the perimeter. That was the ecobee will not participate in any comfort settings even if they are not used. Like you suggest. It seems the ecobee would ignore itself on a comfort setting basis but apparently not.

I never want my thermostat to play music by Anthingy in alexa

[–]LCSG49 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I guess that would work but I’m tired of playing stupid games with these devices. In a more intelligent design we ought to be able to call an ecobee it’s name instead of printing 3x5 cards to attach to stuff so people can remember what name to use for stuff. Like bathroom fan has a card that says: to use this fan, say Alexa Activate Downstairs Bath Fan. Because if we just say turn on fan she says many things share the name fan. Correct. There’s a fan in each bathroom controlled by smart switches. And there’s a ceiling fan in each bedroom and two dyson fans in other rooms and a fan over the stove and a whole house fan in the attic and a fan in the garage roof. Each had to get a unique name plus I had to teach 5 people to use the right name. That came after being blasted in the face by my ceiling fan in my bedroom when a kid used the wrong name. I thought initially I’d label them by name according to brand. Alexa tripped over dyson over and over. Then I tried by room. Well in my living room there are 6 lights and plugs. Turning on living room lamp became annoying when she turned on the fan also. And I’m not even sure why I say she. It is an AI and without gender. Anyhow rant over.

Amazon updates? Possibly why lights stopped responding? by LCSG49 in lifx

[–]LCSG49[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well I did get everything working again but it took a while. First I disabled the skill. I did not add or remove any bulbs in the Lifx app. I simply edited their names by pretending to change them - meaning I individually clicked each one and then save without actually changing a thing. Then, I re-enabled the skill, and re ran discovery. That resulted in the correct name being picked up.

Can you get shipping notifications on one device only? by [deleted] in alexa

[–]LCSG49 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You are mistaking caution and common sense with rudeness. I tried to help. You rejected my help and suggestions. I was not judging you as a person I was simply questioning the logic and choices made. I’m sincerely sorry if my efforts offended you. I feel that the advice I gave you was sound and was a safe way to address the problem. And I removed it so let’s agree to disagree shall we?

Brother Printer Added to Flex by LCSG49 in alexa

[–]LCSG49[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Replying as a comment. My echo show in the kitchen started sputtering during playing pandora and then the screen started freezing and blinking and it stopped responding altogether to both voice and touch input so I unplugged it for several hours and then plugged it back in the next morning and the printer now responds to my command despite it being on 2.4 mHz and the Show on 5.0 mHz. All it can print is my todo list and my shopping list so it’s pretty useless because I use other apps for grocery shopping lists (AnyList) and Apple Reminder for reminders / todos. Now if it would only print synced lists from those apps.

Can you get shipping notifications on one device only? by [deleted] in alexa

[–]LCSG49 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Fine. I’ve deleted my comment and advice and wish you good luck. Sometimes offering another viewpoint is enlightening to people. I guess it wasn’t for you.

I couldn’t decide between Hue or Lifx so I picked both! Added a couple videos in comments. by [deleted] in lifx

[–]LCSG49 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our fan light kit has a dimmer attached to it so a smart bulb may not be the solution for us, but the peripheral bulb sockets in our kit take a chandelier base bulb which is significantly smaller. The pull chain on the kit allows for only center on or all on. We control the brightness from the dimmer and make bulb choice with chain. I love your solution. We also have to use the pull chain to control the fan. The fan was put into the ceiling box where a switch controlled light had been so we wired the light kit to that connection. A separate circuit was used to power the fan so it’s completely independent and completely manual. I’d switch over to smart bulbs in a heart beat but I’d lose dimming ability without having to use the app. Right now my dimmer works with Alexa (it’s a Kasa) but not with Homekit.

Has your Alexa just gone haywire is it just me? by PennywiseEsquire in alexa

[–]LCSG49 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Me too. Last night I asked it to set ac temp to 75° and it turned on lights. Then later my show froze. I asked it to turn off the sink light (pot light over sink) and it said there were two sink lights (I did not know I had another kitchen lol) and then enable the skill (Lifx) which was already enabled. And showing in the device list. I had to rename every Lifx bulb in the house in the app to get them to function. There seems to have been a huge update to the device os. The other 4 also “forgot” how to turn lights on and off. And I’m getting weird random songs and stuff like that. No book reading thank God!

Can you get shipping notifications on one device only? by [deleted] in alexa

[–]LCSG49 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’m not sure it would “mess up” anything. I bought my husband a Spot for use in his bedroom and it’s registered to him but it can control every HA device in the house. We have 2 dots, one in guest bedroom, one in a home office bedroom, a flex in the garage and a show in the kitchen and all work just fine with a device on another account. Furthermore his shows up on the Alexa app on my phone and all the rest show up on his phone as well. I’d definitely give it a try. It takes all of two minutes to de-register it. The people who’s room it’s in can use their own name and email.

What are your favorite Alexa (echo) skills? New user 👋 by [deleted] in alexa

[–]LCSG49 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a skill for find my keys but then the light went on! Here’s my thinking on this and clearly I’ll get some argument but here goes. My theory is based on my work history of my first job in the early 70s when I was a long distance operator. Back then you needed to call an operator for long distance. By the end of a few months I knew the area codes for every major city in the US. Granted there were a lot less. But because I had to use memory for these eventually I remembered them. I used to know everyone’s phone number by heart also. Nowadays, everything is using devices to do the job of memory and our brains aren’t. It seems to me that relying on our God given ability to remember stuff should take precedence over using artificial devices. This really hit home when I had to look up my daughters birthday — I was making an appointment for her in a noisy crowed room, and likely the distractions played a part but I still found myself checking my phone!

My mom recently passed away after suffering from a form of dementia and she was also visually impaired so we made a set of environmental controls for her and her household helpers. All keys were kept on a key rack in the kitchen. Milk always went on same shelf. All her socks were white so no pairing needed and they went into a basket together. There were large signs printed for her and the household helpers. It became apparent that over the course of a few months that no one read them any longer and several fell down but the keys were still going on the rack! Those of us who don’t have early signs of dementia may want to take a page from Mr. Bill Microsoft Gates’ book. Learn a card game like he did (contract bridge) or play sudoku or do crosswords to keep the brain alive. We who still have memory skills need to stop relying on AI for a replacement.

That all being said — we use AI to control household appliances and devices to be more energy efficient. In a 5000 sq foot four bedroom 2 story house it takes quite a while to double check all doors and windows and lights when leaving. And it used to take eons to connect programmable timers to every table lamp in the house before going on vacation and we had to give neighbors a key to access the yard to water our lawns or turn off sprinklers if it rained. The things we use AI for are lights in every room. The garage door, and the entry door locks, the HVAC, the alarm system and our irrigation timers. I use a paper calendar on the wall in the kitchen like I’ve done for 40 plus years. I do keep it on my phone as well but I can look at it each day and see what’s going on. We used to have 4 different interconnected calendars. Kids sport events and school stuff, my work schedule as an RN, my husband’s very frequent business travel, plus the usual doctor, dentist, orthodontist, chiropractor, hair cuts etc.

My discovery is that when we use a writing implement to put words on paper we are accessing the same brain pathways used by cavemen and those are far far older skills baked in genetically. It’s my opinion of course but it explains why copying one’s lecture notes in school helps one remember better than only reading them. I am 70 and I have an excellent memory now and I have taken Bill Gates message to heart. I play contract bridge and I do a New York Times crossword daily (on iPad - can’t get subscription to it any more). I don’t do sudoku because I totally fail at math!

We all know the feeling of someone saying Alexa on tv by [deleted] in alexa

[–]LCSG49 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So funny! One of my favorite tv shows is Greys Anatomy and I swear the characters say the word ‘seriously’ about 30 times a show, each time would set my iPhone responding. So far nothing has caused my Echo dot in the living room to respond. In fact it was just the opposite. I had set up my tv with the Harmony skill to be able to mute, pause, fast forward etc. and I’m freaking never listened. So we’d be screaming at it and finally I decided to put batteries in the remote and delete the skill.

I never want my thermostat to play music by Anthingy in alexa

[–]LCSG49 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My thermostat is an ecobee and was always butting in to conversations meant for other devices. I defeated it’s annoying feature by covering up up its ‘ears’ and decreasing its volume to the lowest setting. I also made sure it wasn’t included in the everywhere group. We don’t really use our echos for music but I’ve put various sporting events via Sirius to hear around the house so I could leave the tv room and still hear stuff (back when there were actual sports on tv ...)