27 November 2023
I have Samsung SmartThings automatically setting the thermostat and turning things on and off for me based on the location of my phone (and me).
Of course, it stopped working, so I needed to debug. All the other things connected to the hub were working fine.
Restart my phone
Wipe the SmartThings app data on my phone and login again
Restart the SmartThings Hub
Check app permissions on the phone: no optimization, fine location access always on.
Open SmartThings app on the phone
Menu
Settings Cog
Get your location from this phone
Turn it off, then back on
Visit my 2 location-based triggers and re-add myself as a member.
Fixed!
24 September 2022
2022-08-03 Wednesday
Saw Ani Difranco at XL Live in Harrisburg
Didn’t think I stood so close to people, but no mask.
Show was great.
Helped a stumbly drunk guy find a seat, so he could stop bumping into people
2022-08-04 Thursday
Had a work day
Ran ben around to sports practice
Helped with fixing the well pump at parents'
Got home at 12:30am or so
2022-08-05 Friday
Woke with a sore throat and stuffy, not a big deal
Took a Covid test in the afternoon - negative
Went to Penn Cinema drive-in to see Goonies
Marie and Emily in the car
Doug, Sarah, Fizz, and Sarah in other cars
Rained and cut short
Took Marie home
2022-08-06 Saturday
Woke with sore throat and whole-body soreness
Covid test again at emily’s suggestion: positive
Notified kids, movie friends, and parents
Tried online appointment, but no one available but receptionist
Ran to Penn State Health walk-in clinic, got Paxlovid RX
Sat around all night watching Love, Death + Robots
2022-08-07 Sunday
Noon: Emily picks up Paxlovid and groceries and drops them off
Paxlovid day 1
Watched lots of Love, Death + Robots
2022-08-08 Monday
Sore throat
Stuffiness
Aches
Paxlovid day 2
2022-08-09 Tuesday
Terrible sore throat
Start trying throat spray
Stuffiness
2 Ibuprofen every 4-6 hrs seems to manage throat pain
Paxlovid day 3
2022-08-10 Wednesday
Terrible sore throat. Is this Strep?
Call nurse line at doc: this is fine.
Paxlovid day 4
2022-08-11 Thursday
Slept fine!
Throat not bad!
Bad taste in mouth sometimes for past couple days: like bitter, old tea
Gargled full-strength white vinegar. emily then informed me it should be dilluted.
Paxlovid day 5, last day
Last dose, then went to bed pretty early: tired and cranky
2022-08-12 Friday
Slept well
Feeling fine
Tested (slightly) positive today
Test expires today, so i’ll use them all over the next couple days
2022-08-13 Saturday
Listening to "attack surface"
Finished 30 Days Lost in Space Arduino kit — pretty cool
Tested negative at 7pm or so.
2022-08-14 Sunday
Finished "Attack Surface"
Finished Love Death + Robots
Tested negative again at 11am
2022-08-15 Monday
Worked normally
First bike ride in over 2 weeks: 28 miles on Northwest River Trail
28 January 2022
My Google Assistant on my phone has been refusing to turn on and off the 2 devices I have on smart plugs: "Can’t reach SmartThings."
I found an article about the Google Home doing the same thing. Fortunately, the advice there worked: go into Assistant’s settings → Devices → Add Devices. Upon clicking on the SmartThings entry that was already there, it gave me the option to re-link. Once I authorized access, I could again ask Google to control those devices.
21 September 2019
Google Calendar makes the world go 'round, especially for kids who travel between households and have lots of school events. There are a couple things you can do to get the most out of your calendar.
Calendar events obviously come with times and fixed reminders so many minutes before the event. It doesn’t matter where you are or where the event takes place: that notification is coming at the same time.
With a location set on each calendar event, other software, like Waze GPS, can continuously watch your current location and offer you a more useful notification giving you time to travel based on distance and current driving conditions along the way.
Most my calendar events have just one start time, but my kids' events aren’t that simple. A marching band performance may be at 7pm, but the bus to the stadium leaves at 4pm. Since we live by notifications, it’s important to get those notifications at the earliest time at which we need to act. The other times are likely just extra details that can go into the event title or event details. I can get a notification for 4pm and realize I don’t need to be there until 7pm, but I can’t tolerate a 7pm notification if I was supposed to be dropping a kid at the practice at 4pm.
If I find it’s important to see notifications for all the potential times of an event, then it’s probably best to break that event into more than one event: drop-off, performance, and pick-up.
This is the first and most useful collaboration feature of Google Calendar. A personal calendar benefits one person, but invite the other participants (the kids), and then they can start adding and maintaining events and following these rules as well.