InsteOFF - Insteon abruptly turned off its cloud and (should have) ceased sales, many devices continue to (mostly) work using local controls

On April 14 2022, Insteon ceased all sales and service operations and shut off their cloud, as was first covered by Stacey on IoT here. Contrary to some very dire looking headlines, this cloud service suspension didn't actually brick all existing devices, and many simple devices like light switches…

May 3 2022

Tesla Model 3 Boston and New York City Road Trip Tips - safely handled rain, snow, and heavy traffic with ease and efficiency

Most modern EVs are great at stop-and-go traffic, with easy modulation and precise control of speed, and largely one-pedal driving thanks to regen. Most EVs have just one gear, so no shifting means smooth driving, with no unexpected power changes. Even better is a Traffic-Aware Cruise Control that…

Mar 24 2022

EV Club of Connecticut Show & Tell video features Will Cross' Hyundai IONIQ 5, compares with his Tesla Model 3

I have a new video to add to the growing library of EV videos in this growing collection: EV Club of Connecticut Show & Tell videos feature owners sharing their real-world experiences This new addition is the 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5, one of many new EVs coming to the US in 2022, coming in at a…

Feb 20 2022

Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 Review

It's already been 5 years since my article about the first generation Ring Video Doorbell Pro: My Ring Video Doorbell story starts a new chapter with Ring Video Doorbell Pro Apr 29 2016 and it's been in daily use on my home ever since. After moving from a 16V to 24V transformer when first…

Apr 4 2021

Sense electricity monitoring gets new superpowers, exclusive Co-founder interview and Product Manager live demonstration

How Does Sense Detect My Devices? Christopher Micali, Co-founder, VP Product Emory Griffith, Senior Product Manager With some persistence, forum participation, and a bit of luck, TinkerTry somehow landed a scoop on some new features and capabilities that Sense is planning to introduce in 2021,…

Feb 10 2021

First look at the Ring Stick Up Cam

This article is a work-in-progress, please come back and refresh. Shop for the Ring Stick Up Cam on Amazon. If you find value in the article and/or video below, please consider using one of these links when buying your own Ring Stick Up Cam, available in black or white with wired, solar, and…

Dec 10 2018

First look at the Ring Alarm Home Security System

If you find value in the article and/or video below, please consider using one of these links when buying your own Ring Alarm Home Security System, available now on Amazon, Best Buy, and directly from (non-affiliate-link) ring.com. My first Ring products were the Ring Video Doorbell and the Ring…

Jul 5 2018

OneJet 7 seater flies you direct with a first-class experience, at as little as 10% more than airliner's indirect coach flight

Pricing subject to change depending upon the airport pair chosen, and the weekday chosen. This is just one example. I recently had two days of last-minute back-to-back business commitments where the only viable way to get from the my hometown airport BDL (Hartford CT) to PIT (Pittsburgh PA) was a…

Mar 5 2017

Ring Video Doorbell users also have PC and Mac apps, faster than unlocking your phone

In case you hadn't spotted this yet, Ring made an announcement on their blog: #AlwaysHome, Even from Your Desktops May 02 2016 by Yul at Ring featuring a nice functionality overview of the free apps, and download links for the Windows and Mac App stores. I've been using the Windows version on…

Sep 8 2016

My Ring Video Doorbell story starts a new chapter with Ring Video Doorbell Pro

April 20 2022 Urgent Update - Insteon ceased all sales and service operations abruptly in mid April of 2022, as covered by arstechnica here. Their abrupt closure left customers without access to their hubs to change any settings, myself included. While smarthome.com hasn't been taken offline yet, I…

Apr 29 2016

Digi AnywhereUSB/2 reliably attaches my keyboard and mouse to Windows 10 VM on a VMware ESXi SuperServer that is also my primary workstation

Backstory Ever since VMware's ESXi 5.1, you've been able to attach a variety of USB devices to your VMs. Those devices were attached to either the server the VM is running on, or the client connecting to the VM. See also at TinkerTry: Click to read reviews or buy at Amazon. ESXi 5.1 has USB 3.0…

Oct 2 2015

Switch Lighting, the liquid cooled LED bulb company, is liquidating its assets

If you've followed TinkerTry for a while, you'll note that I'm a bit of an LED bulb fiend. Always on the lookout for an efficient 60 or 75 watt equivalent A19 bulb that has a CRI of 90 or above, a color temperature between 2700K and 2900K, and a price below $10. Yeah, I know, it's a tall order, but …

Feb 25 2015

Insteon Hub Pro now available for pre-order with HomeKit

April 20 2022 Urgent Update - Insteon ceased all sales and service operations abruptly in mid April of 2022, as covered by arstechnica here. Their abrupt closure left customers without access to their hubs to change any settings, myself included. While smarthome.com hasn't been taken offline yet, I…

Feb 25 2015

Feature and performance comparison between Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials and Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE

Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials is GA for about a year now. It's the evolution of products that originated with Windows Home Server back in late 2007, which was based on 32 bit Window 2003. It's now based on the very capable Windows Server 2012 R2, with a streamlined interface reminiscent of its…

Dec 15 2014

My month in a German hotel with one outlet, many adapters, and a D-Link DIR-506L travel WiFi router

Back in early September 2014, I found myself scrambling to prepare for a month long work trip to Germany. A good situation to be in, but I also wanted to be darn sure I could get my work done on weekday evenings, and my play done on weekends. Given I'm from the US and hadn't been to Europe in over 7…

Nov 18 2014

Motorola Arris SB6183 16 Channel DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem, future-proof through 686 Mbps?

This 16 channel DOCIS 3.0 cable modem shows promise, but will it deliver? Right now, it has a decent price at Best Buy, locally or online, on sale for $129.99 until Saturday, November 15th. My local Best Buy sold out their dozen or so SB6183s in 2 days actually. On Amazon, there's 68 customer re…

Nov 14 2014

Sturdy ProClip USA dashboard mounts for iPhone 6/7/8 Plus or iPhone X allow one handed dock-and-go

Galaxy S5/Lumia 930/iPhone 6 Plus, ProClip holders ProClip USA makes holders for many types of phones, including Android, Windows Phone, and iPhone. I happen to personally have experience with their iPhone holders. I have no affiliation with ProClip USA, I'm just a consumer, who bought mine like a…

Nov 6 2014

Logitech M705 and M560 mice offer smooth scrolling and excellent wireless performance

With all this GPU power we have these days, you'd think we'd all have smooth scrolling, where you can actually read the text as it glides up the page. Turns out we all can, with the right mouse and the right software. Sure wish I upgraded to a better mouse wheel years ago! Then again, it…

Jun 23 2014

Donate twice as much blood, half as often, with a smaller needle

I traveled for work. For years. Decades actually. Been to about 30 of these 50 United States, usually for 3-5 day trips, often confirmed the week before. That lifestyle sure made volunteering for things like giving blood a challenge, canceling most of my appointments last minute. My personal …

Jun 4 2014

Display your iOS and Android devices on Windows, using Reflector and Droid @ Screen

When speaking publicly, it's certainly handy to be able to show a live demo of a smartphone or tablet, on the projected image. It's also best to not have to assume anything about the facility you'll be presenting at, if possible, relying instead on USB cables that'll also serve to keep your gear …

May 4 2014

On blogVault for a year, still happy with its daily backups of TinkerTry.com

This site has grown to 4.9GB of data. Not something you'd want to backup directly to my own home anymore, using something like SFTP, tying up my web host, and bandwidth, for hours. The blogVault WordPress Plugin connects your blog to the $9 monthly backup service. The first backup is full, and from…

May 2 2014

Quick look at tiny and efficient D-Link Gigabit Switches

Disappointing Aug 04 2017 Update - 3 years later, all within the last 3 months, trouble began. Two of my D-Link DGS-1024A 24 port switches started to give me issues, with networking stopping entirely two separate times. A quick power cycle recovered the network, but not my confidence. A few weeks…

Apr 30 2014

CalAlarm for iPhone and iPad, finally an app that repeats an alert until I respond

For years, I've been seeking a reliable way to be alerted to calendar events on my iPhone. One of the drawback with iOS has been the default calendar's behavior, where an event may bet set to trigger an alert or two before or at the start time of some personal or professional appointment that…

Apr 29 2014

Superguide: CyberPower PFCLCD UPS Mini Towers protect your home's computers and entertainment

This is not a sponsored blog post. My extended family has purchased 7 of the various PFCLCD models since 2012, and it's gone well, with just one battery replacement needed so far. I've found them to be very easy to install and configure at friends and family homes. Without a PC, and without a man…

Jan 7 2014