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Impulse purchases
For a while, the Scientist and I had been interested in the frame tv that Samsung had released a year or two ago. But we already had three tvs in the house so we’d drool a bit and then move on. It’s currently runout time for 2022 tvs and we bit the bullet and bought a new tv with frame a couple of weeks ago. We’ve been enjoying it immensely since we got it but today someone came to mount it on the wall. It’s more impressive than we expected and makes our living room seem so much more spacious. The installation was a bit expensive but worth making sure the job was done properly instead of by us amateurs. I’m currently typing this on the sofa with the tv in art mode on the wall and it’s so nice. The bezel frame arrived on Tuesday and is called brick red, which isn’t so bright as we thought and suits our room quite well.
Meanwhile the tv that had been in our bedroom is needing a new home. It’s one of the earlier flat screens and a bit bulky compared to the current one. It doesn’t have HD so I’m thinking to donate it.
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Techno Trials
We got our first internet connection years and years ago and for the most part, it worked well in those earlier days. Even in more recent days, it hasn’t been the worst it could be. Problems began when we added in wi-fi to our connection as we have some signal issues from the office (at the back of the house) to the living room (front of the house). There have always been some iffy spots in the living room where connections were tricky. Earlier in the year, we finally broke down and got a mesh system to extend our wif-fi. That was a pretty expensive set-up with the improvement being fairly minimal. But we stuck with it until an update to the hardware changed something so that we could no longer connect. The mesh system was taken back to the store and it was sent off for repair. Weeks later, we hadn’t heard anything so the Scientist checked up on it and it seems the manufacturer wasn’t interested in repair. We got our money back.
We opted not to go back to the mesh system and to investigate getting a couple of extra access points. The Scientist got some quotes and we had someone out this week to do the installation. I am happy to report we have some massive improvements at the front of the house and it’s now possible to sit anywhere with our devices and access the internet.
Meanwhile, we have an ongoing problem with our smart lighting. We got some smart light bulbs a few years ago for most of the rooms in our house. They fall on two systems but mostly worked okay for us. Some of the systems have been enhanced by using automation apps and those have had various rates of success. But mostly we just used voice commands to turn lights on and off. In recent months, we’ve turned off the living room light by voice or through the app for the lights and the light will come back on within seconds or minutes…with no obvious reasons. I got an email from one of the automation apps I once used so thought perhaps I had some routine on there. But there were two things listed, totally unrelated. I deleted those and the app and thought the living room light issue had been solved. Alas, it continues to cause problems. We can turn it off through the app ten times and it will pop back on shortly afterwards. Or just after you feel it’s safe to do so. We assume there must be some other automation that is conflicting but can’t figure it out. So the quest to fix this issue continues…
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Turning Japanese
In our house we have a variety of smart devices, including both Amazon and Google speakers. Last year I got an Echo Show on sale to put in the bedroom and it has been good for us so far. I also have Amazon Prime access and noticed the show was a device listed for it. I tried to remove it and apparently accidentally deregistered the entire device because when we went to bed it was showing a new setup.
So I guessed this was related to the mistake I’d made earlier and went through the set up process. But after going through most of it, I got a message saying there was a mismatch between the account language and the device language. This made no sense but it became clear afterwards the device thought my account was Japanese and the introductory video played in that language. Sigh. I thought maybe I did something wrong and we went through it again a couple more times with the same result.
Meanwhile my Alexa app wasn’t showing the Echo show on the list of devices on any of these occasions. We did a lot of searching and couldn’t find any answers. Eventually I found a contact page where someone would call me and I filled out the details and submitted it.
Within seconds I had a callback and was immediately on hold for about 30-45 seconds. The guy that answers sounded like he might have been in India and his name possibly was Indian. At first he was a bit hard to understand but he got better with time. I am pleased to report that he was extremely helpful and stayed online the entire time we were sorting things out. What happened is I seem to have created an account in Amazon Japan at some point and it had the same login details. I have a vague idea of trying to buy something from their site and trying to sign in but I guess it created a different account. The guy I spoke with deleted that account and reset the password for the Australian account. I think it took around 20 minutes to reset the device and to sign in again. All was working fine when we finished the call.
So I am pleased to have such a good result of this customer service even though it was tricky to actually get to the page to use it. :)
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Into the ether
I’d been planning for some time to get a new iPad in the latter part of the year. I originally had intended to get the iPad Pro but then the specs on the iPad Air came out and it met pretty much all my needs. Nice to have a mid-price item working out for a change.
I had an idea of buying in-store when they were released but then I noticed that even the Apple store didn’t have any available to buy in-store. So I checked out local retailers yesterday and found one that had stock available at one of their stores. It wasn’t our local but it wasn’t terribly far either. So I ordered one online with the expectation of being able to pick it up during the afternoon. But then I realised I hadn’t added the Apple pencil in with my order so did another order for that. I had done the first one using a credit plan but couldn’t do that for the pencil so paid outright for that. I soon got a notice on my phone thanking me for my order. Soon after I got a notice my purchase was available for pick-up. These turned out to be for the pencil and not the iPad. I still hadn’t got anything later in the day so I tried to phone but nobody answered.
I finally went to the store to pick up the pencil and to query the other order. No confirmation ever came through. The original person I spoke to wasn’t that helpful but she was able to eventually get another person to help out. He couldn’t find any other order in the system. I don’t know where it was but it wasn’t there. But my app showed the purchase on my credit account as a pending item. In the end I just purchased one in-store and decided to sort it out later when I could get assistance from staff from the east coast (who were now closed due to time change).
Today, about 27 hours after I made the online order, I finally got a confirmation and then a notice for pick up. It must have gone into the ether and bounced out again a day later. I called the store today to cancel the order and when I explained what had happened, the woman on the phone said she’d heard of that happening a few times lately with the Apple products. Very weird stuff.
Meanwhile, I got my new iPad set up although I had a few hiccups at first. The last few purchases have involved pretty easy transfers but this one wasn’t so straightforward. I did get there in the end and now just have to wait to get the case I ordered from elsewhere. First impressions are quite good and I really like the pencil, especially as it charges up by sticking to the side of the tablet and is easy to write with. I try using it to write on the screen and it worked really well. My last iPad I got a keyboard folio case for it but I have found I hardly use the keyboard compared to my expectations and got a decent case instead. Anyway, I’m looking forward to getting good use out of this tablet and the old one will now pass along to Game Fanatic, who is using a much older one.
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Trackbacks
I am still trying to work out why comments are showing as trackbacks for the last couple of months. It’s maddening because my comments are also showing as trackbacks and I can only see them under the dashboard. Sigh.
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New printer
Early last year it became evident our printer was no longer going to work for us and we set out to find a new one. We seriously looked at laser printers for a while but then found an Epson printer that uses eco tanks instead of the standard cartridges and that kind of won us over. We bought that at great expense and brought it home to set up.
The first thing we found was it was a lot harder than our earlier Canon printers. It took a while to get it set up so we could print from various locations. It was also noted early on that it wasn’t compatible with Airprint and some of the other more current applications for printing. I was a bit bugged by that…but I thought if it does the job, it will be fine.
I won’t go into much detail but we soon realised we both hated that printer. We really wanted to replace it but it was a bit hard to do when we’d spent so much on the purchase. Well, over a year post-printer purchase we started rethinking the idea of a laser printer.
After quite a bit of research it was narrowed down to a Brother printer and then further down to a laser color printer when one of the local stores had a sale via ebay.
It’s quite a big machine but so far I just love it. Printing and scanning are so much easier. I haven’t had to spend nearly as much time sorting things out just so I can use it. On top of that, the ink won’t dry out and since we really don’t print too often this could well last us ten years or more. Plus it has a feed for scanning documents for those times when we need it. Much easier than going back and forth.
Anyway, enough of my techno-gushing…:D
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Upgrade
A while back when the Scientist was doing yet another component replacement/upgrade I said that next time it happened I was going to switch to a laptop. My desktop computer has been problematic for a few weeks. Sometimes it wouldn’t boot properly and then there has been an ongoing problem with trying to update apps and even to do any downloads. So I casually started looking at laptops without much serious consideration. I almost bought a laptop at a local retailer but the only model left was the floor model and the salesperson refused any sort of price reduction for what was essentially a used machine. I really wasn’t keen on having a demo model anyway. Who knows what sort of damage might have been done to it.
I started looking more seriously and ended up at the Dell website. They had a number of models on sale and I wavered between various types. I was really keen on the 2 in 1 machines but wasn’t sure if that was a good direction when I was replacing a desktop. I finally set my sights on what is essentially a low-end laptop. It isn’t cheap but it has plenty of RAM and an I7 processor which should last quite a long time. I ordered it last Thursday and it arrived yesterday. Not bad service considering the ETA was originally the 20th. So far the machine is quite lovely. It has a 256 SSD and a 1 TB HD so it should be good for a while now.
One of the most noticeable things about it is how quiet it is. Admittedly I haven’t used any power hungry programs yet but it has hardly made a sound since I got it, aside from audio sounds. The trackpad is nice and smooth and far easier than others I’ve used. I particularly like that it has a numeric pad on it, which is one of the things I would miss with a laptop.
I’m still setting things up so I am still getting to know it. While waiting for this to arrive I’ve been using an old Samsung PC tablet. I think I’ve had it for four or five years now and I’m amazed at how good it still is for what it is. It’s an i5 processor and it also has an SSD which makes start up really quick. I seriously thinking about using for iTunes so I don’t have to have all the extra programs on my laptop. One thing that neither has is an optical drive so I am waiting for the local shop to get more in stock so I have something to use on the rare occasion when I need it.
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Problem solved
Back in August or maybe September, I bought an iPhone. I’d been waiting for prices to drop on old models when the new ones were announced so I grabbed the model I wanted when this happened. For the most part I’ve been really happy with the phone. I went back to Apple due to my past investment. (I wanted to stick with Windows but there has been less and less support in the past year so I decided to jump back sooner than later.)
There was one problem that happened right from the start when I transferred my data from the old iPhone to the new one. My music did not sync properly and some albums had tracks missing and some tracks played other songs, even for those few tracks I have from the iTunes store. I’d been trying to fix the problem for some time but had had no success. I finally did some real searching on it and found a fix and tried that but it didn’t work. In the midst of this I reset my desktop os due to ongoing problems which may or may not have contributed (I know now this didn’t have any connection). I also deleted all the music I’d been keeping on the hard drive. Over the years music directory had become quite a mess and I thought somewhere in there was yet another iTunes file that I had overlooked. Getting rid of all of it seemed a good idea no matter what. Well the reset didn’t make any difference and the deletion of songs didn’t effect any changes when I added music back again.
I went back to my searching and found so-called fixes on the Apple discussion boards. I again tried all the steps included and reset my phone one more time. This time it worked so I was able to stop pulling out my hair over this issue. Plus my music directory is nice and tidy now that everything is consistent. I still have a lot of music to add back to the directory and then to my phone but I can actually listen to full albums without a problem now.
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Ello
Several weeks ago I became aware of a new social networking site called Ello. It’s an up and coming network that is still very much in beta but the plan is it won’t have ads but will be free to use for everyone. I will point out that further examination shows there will be features added that will have a one-time fee that I assume will cover the costs. I requested an invitation and finally got one on the weekend. Setting up the account was pretty quick and easy and profile options are quite basic right now.
My first impression is of a network that is rather stark and empty, but more like a blank canvas with potential to become something. I’m not quite sure what that something is but I do have hope they have some success with it. Of course the down side is this is a much smaller network than Facebook and it’s unlikely to get too many people moving to it and using it for a while. I was optimistic when Google + came out a few years ago and really liked the look of it but it just hasn’t caught on with most people so it sits and mostly is a place for reading posts from few groups I follow there. And there was another network I joined that had a similar idea to be ad free from the beginning but never went anywhere to my best knowledge. I think it still exists but I can’t even recall its name right now and haven’t logged in for probably a year or more. Perhaps Ello will go further and maybe even be a success. Meanwhile, I need to work out how I want to fit in my social networking life.
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In the thick of it
It seems I am probably a bit further into my journey to menopause than I realised last time I posted. During this time, one period was completely missed and my body is currently trying to play catch up so it’s wreaking a bit of havoc on the body, enough that I wonder at what point I should see a doctor. It’s a bit more complicated than that but it seems likely my hormones have been a lot more off than they had been. Still no hot flashes. :)
Yesterday I had all sorts of problems with my computer and it soon came to my attention that I no longer had Malwarebytes running on my system. It seems to have stopped back in July and after considerable effort (helped immensely by the Scientist) it was apparent my installation was corrupted. Eventually I was able to uninstall it and reinstall. All seems to be running fine at the moment.
The problems on my computer led me to finally getting two step verification on some email accounts set up so that I can access them on the devices I want to use. This took quite a bit of going back and forth between accounts and setting things up but that also seems to be working properly and I can now check the email accounts with frequent use on my current phone, old phone, Ipad, tablet PC and desktop with no issues.
My temporary/casual job finished on the 12th of this month so I am back to the usual day to day stuff. I kind of miss the idea of work as I was earning a bit of money to add to the family accounts. It is nice not to have so many days wiped out at the moment though, particular at those times when I have to take a child to an appointment.
It’s been several months since our old lawn mower died on us and over the winter, the grass had grown rather tall in some areas. The Scientist and I went to a few places to check out potential replacements and after some indecision, we settled on another low-end sort of electric one which is probably a bit better than our previous model. I immediately set out to mow our front yard and after well over an hour, had made good progress. I was mowing along the side of the driveway, back along the side of the carport when the power disappeared abruptly as I accidently mowed over the power cord. We’ve only ever owned electric and I’ve not done this before (although did run over the solar light cord under tree several years ago). Â I discovered that not only had I destroyed the power cord but caused the power to go out in the house. It was too late to do more mowing so I didn’t end up getting a new cord until the next day. By then it was raining so I’ve now had to wait for things to dry again. I did get enough done to make the front yard look much better, much bigger. It’s amazing how much space tall grass seems to take. The backyard is still untouched but I will hopefully get to that in the next couple of days unless we get more rain.
Cutting the grass soon will be quite beneficial for the dogs, who are off to the groomer tomorrow. Little boy dog will get a full clip and finally get all the knotted fur cleared out. It seems to get so difficult to manage once it reaches a certain length. Fortunately it’s now spring so I don’t have to worry too much about him being cold. We had the warmest recorded day in September on Saturday and on Sunday, the high was not much different than the low had been overnight. It’s been considerably cooler the past few days but seems to be warming a bit again. I know to expect changes in temperature but I would prefer to avoid such drastic changes.
I was very happily surprised to find out Neil Finn is playing a concert at a winery down in Margaret River in November. It’s a one-off show and features one support act I’ve not seen but would like to and another one I’ve seen two or three times before. The downside is it’s a 3.5 hour drive to get there, which means a return trip of similar length. We considered trying to stay overnight but it seems there aren’t many options due to this being during a food and wine thing happening during this weekend or week. Anyway, we are going to try to wing it. I suspect it will mean that the Scientist does the driving there and I drive back since I will be more awake.