tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261115602024-03-05T18:22:02.362-07:00Thoughts, Opinions, and a little RantingThis is just a little spot to share my thoughts and opinions. They range from the Smart Home to Smart Phones to Gadgets and Gizmos to any new Technology to with few Personal Asides as well.Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.comBlogger175125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-26424169556018556222023-08-15T17:30:00.023-07:002023-08-15T17:30:00.138-07:00Export and Import Playlists in Plex
I love Plex! It is a great media server that has allowed me to have my movie collection on demand (like Netflix) as well as my music collection. I love being able to play my music at home or on the go. It's like my own private streaming service. So, while I do love Plex, I have run into an issue. It doesn't provide a way to export/import playlists. Say
Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-42888359035114243852023-03-02T18:00:00.005-07:002023-03-02T18:00:00.173-07:00Why I'm staying with InsteonInsteon DevicesAs most smart home enthusiasts know, Insteon closed up shop last year. It did it so suddenly that their servers were shut down before anybody said anything to their customers. All of a sudden, it was gone. Fortunately, Insteon is not 100% reliant on the cloud to work. I didn't notice for a week. All of the switches kept working. What failed is Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-49570105670839619072023-01-31T18:00:00.003-07:002023-01-31T18:00:00.169-07:00Eero - Great Router with a Flawed Security ServiceI've had my Eero for a little over a year now and it's a great router. Moving from a Netgear Orbi, I found the interface to be much simpler and more user friendly. I also like that it does automatic updates so I know that it's getting patches and upgrades. It's a great router. However, this review is about its security service, Eero Plus, which has some issues.First, Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-87884587400471611252022-08-18T18:30:00.012-07:002023-01-31T13:51:32.410-07:00Wired Internet via Cable Lines (MoCA)I work from home and sometimes my WIFI gets a little spotty. Maybe it's the fridge or the microwave running. Maybe it's the kids playing video games or streaming movies. Maybe it's because I have a LOT of wireless devices in my house from Sonos speakers to Nest smoke detectors. Whatever the reason, I don't always have a great internet connection and when you're trying to Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-3854575345348750642022-02-14T01:28:00.001-07:002022-02-14T01:28:00.171-07:00What I Use for Home Movies I think I've finally settled in on what tools I'll be using to edit/produce my home movies. It's not where I thought I'd end up but it's working for me.Conversion - Adobe Media EncoderThe raw output format for my home movies is AVI. It seems nobody uses this anymore and that creates a problem. The solution is to convert the AVI files into a file type I can use. In myJeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-76282471261035809602022-02-07T05:36:00.002-07:002022-02-08T13:50:05.815-07:00Home Movie Production Odyssey - Part 3 - Adobe Bridge I read in a blog on home video production that you don't want to create huge, ponderous videos out of your home movies. The blogger asserted that people don't want to watch 30 minutes of your child learning to crawl. What!? I had to think about that for a minute. You see, my first video project (done 15 years ago) was exactly that. 30 minutes of my eldest Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-64849740848969104822022-02-01T19:11:00.003-07:002022-02-08T13:49:49.716-07:00Home Movie Production Odyssey - Part 2 - The Setup If you’re going to produce your home movies, you need a computer and software. My software was pushing 20 years old - not a good choice. So I started looking around. At first I got excited by Davinci Resolve. It’s professional quality and free. Great! Oh wait, it wants at least 16 GB of RAM and a dedicated video card. My little Intel i3 only has 8 Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-33820450369589953222022-01-25T20:07:00.001-07:002022-02-08T13:49:30.058-07:00Home Movie Production Odyssey - Part 1 - Video Capture I’d been thinking about it for a while and finally decided to take the plunge. I wanted to get my old home movies that I shot on my Panasonic miniDV camcorder transferred onto my computer. From there I planned to stitch them together into a set of fun videos for the kids and adults to enjoy. Basic home video production.I have a collection of about 18 miniDV tapes - of Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-9665136734756655382019-02-21T17:30:00.000-07:002019-02-21T17:30:13.421-07:00My Smart Home
I've been playing with smart home technology for a couple of years and have been having a lot of fun with it. It doesn't do everything I want and it isn't as easy to set up and maintain as I would hope but it's made my home a little more interesting and it's been a fun project. So I thought I'd blog about what I have and how I feel about it.
I started my journey by purchasing an Echo. Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-71267295201278528752018-05-21T18:30:00.000-07:002018-05-21T18:30:18.107-07:00You May Soon Be Able To Back Up Your Insteon Hub
A little while I wrote that the Insteon Hub was the Achilles Heel of Insteon. Why? Because you can't back up your configuration. If your hub dies you have to start all over. It is both frustrating and time consuming - especially if you have a lot of devices and custom scenes.
Well, I've just heard (unofficially) that Insteon is working on a fix for that. I don't Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-10811621991058672632018-05-17T18:30:00.000-07:002018-05-17T18:30:06.291-07:00Smart Home: Amazon Updates Alexa-Enabled-Groups To Work With Insteon Switches
I like Insteon and I really like my Amazon Echo. Having them work together is the best thing that ever happened to my smart home. However, they don't always work together perfectly. I have run into my fair share of glitches and gotchas - enough to be pretty frustrated on occasion. That said, it always warms my heart when a bug gets squashed. That's why I'm writing Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-5038542874748462232018-04-04T20:47:00.000-07:002018-04-04T20:47:36.692-07:00Backing Up with CloudberryFor the last couple of years, I've been a happy customer of Crashplan. A backup service that saves my data to the cloud in almost real time. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) they decided to discontinue their consumer product. My options were to pay more for their commercial solution or find something else. I decided to find something else.
Why do we need backups?
As Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-75663989272854128222018-02-16T18:30:00.000-07:002018-02-16T18:30:07.673-07:00Echo Plus - An Unfair Review
Due to an unfortunate issue with my Insteon Hub, which is a nice way of saying it died, I've started the process of reconsidering how I will continue to build up my smart home. Can I find something with all of the strengths of Insteon and none of the weaknesses? How hard can that be? Not as easy as I had hoped.
My primary candidate is the Echo Plus. Not because it's as Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-2109082719366280482018-02-02T18:30:00.000-07:002018-02-02T18:30:02.245-07:00Insteon: Fanlinc Review
I've had my Fanlincs running for almost a year now and they work great. However, there were some gotchas installing them so I thought I'd write up a little review to shed some light on the subject.
I have two combination light/ceiling fans hooked up to one switch (it's the way my house was wired). It was frustrating to try to manage which lights were on and off and which fans were Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-81192075664954082452018-01-26T18:30:00.000-07:002018-01-26T18:30:27.524-07:00Nokia/Withings Steel HR - Long Term Review
About a year ago, I reviewed my newest smart gadget, the Withings Activite Steel HR watch. I'm happy to say that's it's been over a year and my watch is still going strong. I still wear it every day and I still get a bit of a rush when it vibrates and tells me I've met my step goal. So, after a year, what more can I say?
Wear and Tear
If you wear a watch every day, it gets Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-87610729377061722072018-01-19T17:30:00.000-07:002018-01-19T17:30:04.639-07:00Smart Home: Philips Hue
Hue Starter Kit
Creating a smart home can be fun. I've used my Insteon switches and Amazon Echo to control Christmas lights, movie lights, night lights, and just plain turning off and on lights. But there is one thing that I couldn't get from Insteon - color changing lights. How cool would it be to have your lights be able to change colors! I decided I wanted to try Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-37823266429752200282018-01-10T18:00:00.000-07:002018-01-10T18:00:12.837-07:00Insteon Hub - The Achilles Heel of Insteon
Insteon Hub
A couple of weeks before Christmas, my Insteon hub died. There were no pyrotechnics or alarms and to the disappointment of the TV generation, nothing exploded and no people were thrown across the room. What did happen is that I tried to turn on some lights with my Amazon Echo and it told me that it couldn't connect to the Insteon hub. That's weird - so I took a Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-83569989512442271222017-04-05T17:30:00.000-07:002017-04-05T17:30:14.702-07:00Wii U GamePad Range Issue Fix
My Wii U gamepad started telling me that I needed to be closer to the console - even when I was 6 inches away! Here's how I fixed it:
First I found a YouTube Video that showed how to fix it. I was able to do it fairly quickly since I had the same issue a year ago. I bought the part for $7.99 from eBay so I assumed I would just do that again.
Wrong! The Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-67108614711183876882017-02-21T17:30:00.000-07:002017-03-03T12:48:25.231-07:00The Death of the Nexus Phones
OK - for people following the goings on in the Android phone world, this is old news but Google has come out with their Pixel phones and have discontinued their Nexus phones. This is more than just a name change. The Nexus line had two phones, a midrange phone and a high end phone. The Pixel line has two phones, a high end phone and a high end phone with a bigger screen.  Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-60524708055105609942017-01-26T17:00:00.000-07:002017-01-26T17:00:06.765-07:00Withings Activite Steel HR Fitness Tracker Review
I'm going to start with a little history. I've been a Fitbit fan for quite some time. My first activity tracker was the Fitbit One. I loved how it would give me a step count, stair count, and it's vibrating alarms. I thought it was awesome but one day, after a couple of years, I lost it. I was bummed. I liked it a lot but I decided that I wanted something that wouldn't Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-29656029823781657892017-01-09T18:30:00.000-07:002017-01-10T09:05:45.783-07:00Insteon: Controller vs Responder
This entry is going to be more of a technical article. If you're not planning on setting up scenes in an Insteon environment, this isn't for you. If you are or like me, have been running into some confusion about what should be set up as a controller, what should be a responder, and what should be both. Here's what I learned.
I've been using Insteon switches for a couple ofJeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-69081355168731792142016-08-19T19:30:00.000-07:002016-08-19T19:30:21.329-07:00Wii U - For an "Unpopular" Console, It's Really Fun!
We acquired our Wii U for Christmas last year in spite of all the doom and gloom that the press has been putting out. Why? We wanted a console that focused on family and kid friendly games (my kids range from 14 to 6) and the Wii U fit the bill. Plus we loved our Wii and were excited to get the next generation console.
It does not disappoint. We don't buy games Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-61928637203651757462016-08-15T20:00:00.000-07:002016-08-17T15:12:51.148-07:00Sonos Control with the Amazon Echo - Part 2: Raspberry Pi
So, a little while ago I posted how I set up my Amazon Echo to control my Sonos speakers (the article is here). However, there was a major drawback: If the computer ever went to sleep, got rebooted or if my user got logged out everything would stop working. Compound this with the fact that my PC is shared by my kids and you can see that I had a lot of service interruptions. &Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-13065545809667787252016-08-02T19:30:00.000-07:002016-08-02T19:30:09.026-07:00Awair Air Quality Monitor Review
Awair Air Quality Monitor
This post is a bit tricky for me to write. My Awair air quality monitor is one of the most expensive gadgets I've purchased but it's impact has been the most subtle. Usually when I buy a gadget, it's impact is much more dramatic like smart switches from Insteon, endless jokes and device control from Echo, temperature/humidity readings from Sensorpush, or Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26111560.post-69750702405968481302016-07-27T19:30:00.000-07:002016-08-16T07:52:49.292-07:00Sonos Control with the Amazon Echo - How I did it
I've had my Amazon Echo for a year or so and one thing that I've wanted ever since I purchased it, is to be able to use voice commands to control my Sonos speakers. I waited patiently (OK not patiently) for Sonos skill to appear on the Echo but it still hasn't come. I was encouraged when Sonos announced it was going to focus more on voice but still nothing. Isn't there Jeffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15836232396757605708noreply@blogger.com1