Ring Account Problems

Ring Account Problems

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It all started when I realized that I could not confirm that a Christmas gift was delivered to my home December 7, 2022.  I decided to look at my Ring cameras which I have 3 that cover the front of my home.  The Ring web site stated that the history of my cameras should provide at least 30 days history.  Our family had to delay celebrating Christmas because mom and dad came down with Covid on the 17th of December.  We decided to not celebrate until January 1, 2023.  I discovered that the cameras failed to go back from today’s date, December 30, 2022 to December 7, 2022.  I tried everything but I just could not go back and view the cameras for December 7.  I could only go back to December 12.

Ring showed that I had Protect Plus Plan paid active until January 9, 2023.

I then tried to use RING customer support but it appeared to me that the process was automated and I could NOT communicate with a live person.  I kept getting incompetent answers to my question for how I could go back further to view my camera histories.

I then went into my account and found that my credit card information was not up to date.  My prior credit card was hacked a few weeks ago and I tried to update all my accounts but failed to update RING.  I then tried to update my credit card but every time I did, and went back in to confirm that the change was made, it failed to show the new credit card.  The solution for me was to log out from the RING application and then log back in.  Then my account did show the new credit card was active and the old card was removed.

I really enjoyed RING devices up to now.

 

 

Posted:  12-30-2022

Why You Should Consider Not Going To A Resort Prior To Christmas

Why You Should Consider Not Going To A Resort Prior To Christmas

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Let me share with you a view that I utterly failed to appreciate until it took place.  My wife joined 6 other women for a week long vacation visit to the Disney resort located in Florida.  This vacation took place toward the middle of December.

  • Within Florida, COVID-19 related restrictions have been lifted.
  • There is no requirement to quarantine when traveling to Florida.

Florida is not near the top of a list for vacation destinations that help control and fight COVID.

My wife returned about the middle of December 2022 from her vacation.  A few days later, she tested positive for COVID as well as some of the other women in her group.  It appears that some of the ladies in the group came down with COVID while in Florida.  Because typically a full recovery takes about 10 days, doing the math, this means that my wife needs to stay home and we can not entertain visitors until December 23.  This comes very close to Christmas on December 25.  Another rather shocking result is that my wife gave me COVID.  I tested positive  a few days later after she came home.  I tested the day before she arrived back home and did not have COVID which points a clear finger of blame.  Doing the math and adding 10 days to December 19 means that we have to postpone Christmas until December 29 or maybe even later!  Our family agreed to postpone our celebration of Christmas.  What a shock!  My point in telling you this short story is that you might want to consider NOT taking a vacation at least 10 days or more before any important family get together such as Christmas, birthdays, religious events, etc.  Because, you just might have enough days to recover in time to celebrate such an important day of celebration.

I recommend further actions for you to consider to prepare for coming down with COVID and having to self isolate.

Have enough of the following items that you might use every day at your residence that you can use for the next two weeks or more because, for many people, you should not go out and shop for anything.  Here is a list to consider for items to stock up:

  • Food
  • Snacks
  • Deserts
  • Water and non alcoholic drinks.  Due to having COVID, I needed to drink water all the time so I was glad that I had stocked up with three boxes of Figi water (24 carton 16.9 fl oz).  I will not drink tap water.
  • Pet food.  One option for you to consider if you can not get out to buy animal food is to oder from Chewey.  Their order and delivery service is fast.
  • Animal litter along with animal litter disposable bags.
  • Laundry cleaning items such as soap, conditioner and fabric softener.
  • Covid test kits.
  • Covid medication. (Even though I had COVID, my doctor said it was ok to travel to the hospital pharmacy and pick up COVID medication. I just had to be sure to wear a mask and stay at least 6 feet away from every person.)

Summary:  I personally am quite upset with the group of women who decided to go on vacation right before Christmas.  Tomorrow, the time I am posting this blog, is Christmas and I will not be celebrating it.  Note that we have two children and they will not celebrate Christmas also because of the mistake the women made in going to Florida Walt Disney World so close to Christmas.

 

Posted: 12/24/2022

ROKU Express 4K+ Failed Working For My TV Set.

ROKU Express 4K+ Failed Working For My TV Set.

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I watched one of the world cup soccer matches using my HULU subscription that my daughter and I pay for on my large screen 27 inch Apple iMac .  HULU is pretty darn good for providing very good, high quality, TV shows and other content at a much cheaper cost using WiFi instead of getting the programs from my cable provider.  Our family quit live cable TV with our provider and only pay for Internet.  A good reason for this is that my daughter lives in a different home and my son also lives in an apartment not shared with any family member. My daughter has a very close friend who lives somewhere in the United States and all 4 of these separate people can use HULU for a single subscription of $92 a month instead of being charged 4 huge cable charges of $59.99 x 4 = $239.96.

At my home, we have a family room with a well performing HULU TV system.  In that room we use a Playstation to provide the HULU content.  I have an office upstairs and decided that the large screen TV in that room needs the HULU system also. 

My upstairs TV model number: VIZIO GV52; FJDTV10A

My TV Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels

Display/Signal Compatibility for my TV:  1080P (Full HDTV) , 1080i (HDTV) , 720P (HDTV) , 480P (EDTV) 480i (SDTV)

NOTES:

  • Typical UHD 4K is 3840×2160 pixels.
  • Film industry refers to 4096x2160p as 4K
  • Note that my TV is not 4K.

My office has a Playstation 4 which was connected to the large screen TV but for some reason I can not get it connected to receive the World Cup Soccer match (2022).  We have a PlayStation connected to our family room and it works perfectly for providing HULU.  I decided to dash out and buy a ROKU device because it came up as the first choice when I performed an Internet search for devices that can provide HULU.

The ROKU device failed.  Let me list the plus and minus points for that device:

PLUS POINTS:

  • This device is really cheap.  I paid only $ 29.99 before tax.
  • My gosh this device is incredibly small.
  • I love the fact that it uses WiFi to get the Internet so I do not have to wire a Ethernet coax into it.
  • The menu system appears to be quite professional.
  • The image quality is very good for the setup and menus.
  • The power cable was a perfect length for me.

MINUS POINTS:

  • The HDMI cable is a bit short but I found a clever place to put the ROKU.  I put it right under the TV set I had because that set had air space on the left and right side of it’s center swivel stud support.
  • ROKU asks for the user to input a full credit card payment input.  You do not pay any fee to use the ROKU so why ask for my credit card?  They want this information on record in case you want to add any new feature in the future.  I find this despicable and should be a crime.  I should ONLY provide my credit card information if and when I decide to add anything that will cost me more money.
  • I really wanted to watch the last World Cup Soccer match but the ROKU would only provide an error message.  The ROKU showed perfectly good TV images until I asked it to provide the HULU programming.
    I was really pissed that I had spent so much time to enjoy watching HULU on my large screen office TV but ROKU failed saying that there was a video quality signal incompatibility.  (Oddly the ROKU showed excellent quality menu and still images of examples of shows I could watch but failed to show actual programs.). So if ROKU can show wonderful menu and promotions why did it fail to show the World Cup Soccer game? 
ROKU Application Error Message

I never was able to watch the 2022 World Cup Soccer match!

Ring Devices Fail To Provide Alert Sound On Apple Phone.

Ring Devices Fail To Provide Alert Sound On Apple Phone.

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I personally have been very frustrated that my Ring cameras only, some times, fail to make an alert sound on my Apple cell phone. 

Possible Solution that I discovered:  TURN OFF BLUETOOTH.

This sort of makes sense because with bluetooth on, the cell phone is set to send audio to your bluetooth headsets and not your cell phone speaker.  Obviously, most of the time you are not wearing a bluetooth earphone so you should remember to go to cell phone Settings and look down to find Bluetooth and view the toggle switch to run Bluetooth on or off: 

On if wearing bluetooth headsets.  Note that if you are wearing headsets you should hear Ring alerts.
OFF if you want to hear Ring devices from your speaker.

NOTE:  The Apple left side slide switch must be ON to allow the Apple cell phone to provide you the Ring audible alerts.

 

POSTED:  12/10/2022

President Donald Trump, The Alleged Contriver

President Donald Trump, The Alleged Contriver

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Donald Trump learned to use contrived methods to achieve apparent success from his father.  Also, a lot of politicians in this country and foreign nations seem to have embraced contrived methods to achieve political success.  Trumps success for inventing apparent contrived methods is almost unparalleled.

A singular contrived method for Donald Trump is a slogan that has seemed to resonate with a lot of citizens.

“Make America Great Again” is a clever contrived pronouncement for putting forward a campaign slogan for the following reasons:

  • It is true that the United States really needs to improve more in some more areas of it’s operation.
  • Finally, because Trump was in office for a single term of four years he did not have to achieve what is expected from “Make America Great Again”.

Summary:

“The fact that Trump did not tear down the major guardrails of democracy does not mean that all is well in the United States. He attracted the support of millions of voters in 2020 and, even more dangerous is the fact that much of the Republican Party still insists on refuting the results of that election and weakening non-partisan election administration in certain states where they hold legislative majorities. Norms have been broken and could yet result in majorities that overturn laws and weaken institutions.”

 

 

Posted:  11-14-2022

Possible Contrived Inflation Allegedly To Harm Democratic Election Results

Possible Contrived Inflation Allegedly To Harm Democratic Election Results

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Opinion – Suspicion.

Is there a contrived effort by some really powerful people to hurt the next United States elections agains the Democratic Party and favor the Republican Party?

Let’s look at some obvious suspicions:

Voters are very unhappy with the high inflation facing them.  Voters usually blame the current administration, which is Democratic for the high prices.  How interesting it seems that some of the most wealthy countries and wealthy  corporations are making inflation higher at this current moment.

 

 

Posted: 11-4-2022