Automated Attendants and the Internet
I have a well-known cable/ISP provider. About 3.5 years back when I moved back to Maryland, I ran into too many interruptions in Internet and/or cable issues which could not be explained by infrequent area outages. I recall back then they explained I was experiencing a cable issue, they did some temp fix and promised to replace the (outside) cable. To this day, I'm not sure that ever happened. I seem to recall their original partner to lay down the replacement had some sort of issue, and the provider never followed up. And when I've inquired about it since, the analysts will not comment.
And I've had spotty service issues on and off since then. Now I really don't watch that much TV, mostly things like "Blue Bloods", live football or baseball, maybe some pro wrestling. But over the last 6 months or so, it seemed after the service did its overnight reset, I would lose my connection on the cable cable box probably once or twice a week. It would eventually reconnect, often after I did the recommended provider suggestion of disconnecting the cable box, pausing for 30 seconds, and reconnecting the power; on occasion it took up to hours to get reconnected. The Internet interruptions weren't quite as bad; I have a Google Hub at my living room computer table, which is my canary in the coal mine. I'll catch it in my peripheral vision switching from a screensaver to a screen where it's lost its connection and cycling to reconnect. (The spooky thing is I experienced one of these glitches seconds after writing the above.) Now weather-related outages are longer but rarer.
So I was regularly calling my cable service with its annoying automated attendant system; it's somewhat sophisticated because it can detect issues with signals getting through to my cable box or modem respectively. At least the interface has limited voice recognition, so you don't have a press a digit on your phone, and it's able to recognize me from my registered cellphone number. But if it detects signals having difficulty getting through, it'll prescribe the reboot regimen earlier discussed and/or remind me to check cable connections, etc. And it'll basically drop the call saying that a live support agent couldn't help me until I did the above; you can argue, "Dude, I did that before I called" to no avail. Sometimes it would promise to text/call 10 minutes later (half the time it never happened); other times it might text me after I finally got a connection, saying "I see you're fixed" as if the provider was taking credit for the fix! Usually though I would call back and finally the attendant would let me through to tech support.
About 2-3 months back I got connected to sort of a sales guy rather than a techie, and when I explained the frequency of my issues, he said, "Dude! Let me schedule a technician; this isn't normal." The technician came days later and said, "Dude! Your outside cable sucks! Let me arrange to get it replaced; they'll be in touch." This was back in October. I got one text to ensure someone would be in my apartment when they replaced the cable and then nothing. So for weeks after the cable was supposedly replaced, I continued having the same old issues; I kept saying "What happened to the cable replacement? Nothing's changed." No comment; I can't even get closure if the cable guys ever came. I finally get a commitment for another technician visit and to bring a replacement cable with him.
For some reason some provider manager (?) started calling me and screaming at me about how it was my responsibility for letting the cable guys leave without getting the job done. Seriously, dude? I never saw or talked to them; I never knew if they ever showed up. I never got an installation date; they don't report to me--they report to you. Long story short, the guy arrives and eventually tells me yes they had installed a fresh cable in October, but they had left a filter in an end of the cable; he said when he checked, his instrument showed all red, meaning little if any signal was getting to me. So he extracted the filter. The question is how they finished laying and attaching the cable without checking on signals getting through the cable effectively.
In the few weeks since then, no major interruptions overnight--I think I was up when the daily reset happened last weekend, and the cable reconnected within a minute or two, which I suspect is normal. Since then just a minor temporary glitch or two, which for all I know is some minor area maintenance, as discussed above.
Alexa, Microwave 3 Minutes
I recently tweeted I never imagined 10 years years ago I would be troubleshooting why my microwave oven wasn't connecting to my WIFI. A couple of months back my old microwave oven finally died. I was well aware as a long-time Amazon customer, they had introduced a budget microwave model (about $60) that came integrated with its infamous Alexa voice recognition interface.
It was surprisingly easy to set the microwave up through the Alexa app assuming you've connected other Amazon devices, e.g., my Amazon Echo Dot. And if you've dealt with traditional microwaves and having to reset the clock after a power blip, the microwave sets the clock when it connects to your WIFI. I haven't even used the Ask Alexa button. Almost immediately I tested the integration by "Alexa, microwave 1 minute" loud enough for my Echo Dot to hear. Now that's not complicated (some microwaves do that as fast as touching the 1 button), but Alexa could handle "Defrost 1-lb. of frozen sausages" without my having to adjust power et al. I could have sworn I heard someone say Alexa can handle commands like "Warm my coffee"; Alexa seemed confused when I tried to say that, but I could easily give her a command to "microwave X seconds".
Until one day I gave Alexa a microwave command and after a long pause, it come back and told me it couldn't connect to the microwave. There were other indications somehow it had gotten disconnected from WIFI, e.g., the clock was off. Besides the typical timer set for microwave on high, it was not at all clear how to manually do anything beyond that like setting the clock, defrosting, etc. And trying to tweak the current microwave in the Alexa app I found to be frustrating. Online resources at Amazon weren't that helpful other than instructions on resetting the microwave. Long story short, eliminating the existing microwave device in the Alexa app in and creating a new microwave device, in conjunction with a reset seemed to resolve the issue.
Bluetooth and Windows
I suspected that my old workhorse 2016 laptop that I'm finally transitioning from (long story, but migrating my applications is a hassle, but still the newer laptop has more memory and storage). I knew the new one did have Bluetooth capabilities. Still I was confused by the Windows 10 Bluetooth presentation on the workhorse; I could try (unsuccessfully) to add the new Bluetooth keyboard I bought for the new laptop on my workhorse. The point that confused me was that Windows seemed to allow me to try to add a Bluetooth device in Settings, even if the laptop didn't have Bluetooth capabilities. Why didn't it provide a visual cue, e.g., a grayed-out Bluetooth interface with inputs disabled?
When I looked at the new laptop's Settings, I noticed its Bluetooth settings includes a toggle switch for Bluetooth, while the older laptop doesn't. You really need to know if you don't have a toggle switch, you don't have Bluetooth functionality. I think it would be more usable if the Bluetooth settings had a more consistent appearance and used a visual cue to identify whether Bluetooth is supported. (It does--for Bluetooth-capable laptops.)
