The washer and dryer apps do have a use. If my teenage sons don’t want to run errands with us on Saturday, then they’re in charge of keeping the laundry moving. The washer and dryer apps help me to ensure that happens. A simple “washer and dryer done” text does wonders.
Agree.
But I want to turn off the prompting to buy stuff at the mfg’s store and the prompts to fill in the warranty information.
The app is for MY benefit, not theirs.
My boiler has packed up, and it’s bloody cold here. Predicted high
of 9oC, more like 5oC with wind chill factor.
Bugger.
New one being installed on Monday.
£3000. Great. 
I do the laundry, & rarely on a weekend. I can hear the finish & even if i didn’t hear the buzzer I’d hear nothing later on. Don’t want or need no damn text & dont see why the manufacturer needs to spy on me about every load.
I’m usually several miles away from the washer and dryer, and the teenager at home is probably playing Hearts of Iron, so the house could collapse around him, and he wouldn’t notice. He is aware this privilege comes at the cost of keeping the laundry moving. The machines text me. I text him. My clothes are cleaned.
I got a new refrigerator recently as I no doubt ranted in these threads. It’s a very nice, efficient, modern fridge with more capacity than I really need. To show that it’s truly modern, the interior is illuminated with bright LED lighting. But it has a Ye Olde Dayes style simple rotary control for overall temperature, a slider control in the freezer to fine-tune freezer temperature, and has never expressed any desire to talk to my cell phone, engage me in conversation, question my food choices, or have me install a fucking “app”. This is the way I like my appliances – basic, dumb, and reliable!
Me too! I do not need any apps attached to my appliances or anything else for that matter.
I have to use the phone for enough things as it is.
Just like its owner. Wait, are you reliable? 
Based on your latest post in the “what’s for dinner” thread, what you need is a fridge app that alerts you when your Caesar drink mix is running low!
The only thing I see that’s useful on the Fridge app is alarms if power is disconnected and starts timing so you can determine if stuff is still frozen or my insulin is safe.
My bathroom scale has an app. Fortunately, it’s completely optional.
Though I can see a use for having it automatically keep track of your weight. My wrist blood pressure cuff has this as well.
There’s a “user interface” problem with the new-to-me Camry that is actually quite serious. Never thought much about it until the other day when I was doing a fair bit of driving.
The problem is that in bright sunlight, I cannot see a fucking thing on the instrument panel. My beloved Sebring, like the Dodge Caravan before it, had white dials with black markings. I thought, meh, that was just Chrysler trying to be different. No!!! It made for good visibility in bright sunlight, as well as at night when it was illuminated.
But the traditional black dials with white markings, while fine in cloudy weather or when illuminated at night, just don’t work for me in bright sunlight. It’s like staring into a black hole. Yes, I can see the orange needles on the speedometer and tachometer, but for the life of me I cannot see any numbers.
The only solution I can think of is to stick some sticky arrows around the speedometer dial indicating where 50, 70, and 100 km/hr are. But perhaps after I have cataract surgery my contrast perception will be better.
You can buy a separate entirely mechanical timer. Try your local hardware store, if you’ve still got one, but I’m sure they’re available online. Plug that into the relevant outlet and your light system into it.
There are smart scales that tie into the rest of your health metrics. I don’t own one. I do own a regular scale that I bought a couple of years ago on a doorbuster sale…it’s still in the box.
Make a mental note of where the speedometer needle is for certain speeds & then learn how to read an analog clock & you’re all set.
Yesterday morning the alarm goes off, I toss off the covers & it's cold...*too* cold. I put on some sweatpants & go downstairs & look at the thermostat. It 60° in the house despite being set for 69°. Grumble, grumble, grumble I put on some shoes & go to the basement & turn on the light, which probably took me longer than to fix the problem. I have a high efficiency heater, if it doesn't get enough air it won't run. Fix? Remove the PVC pipe, pick up the leaf that got sucked in from outside & is sitting on the filter, which is blocking the system from getting enough air. Replace PVC. Went back upstairs & had breakfast (just cereal); by the time I was done it was already a couple of degrees warmer in the house. It happens a couple of times a year, usually overnight so I realize when I get out of bed (& therefore, not wearing a lot of clothes) which means it's had hours to drop because I was slumbering peacefully.
This morning was a group run on the rail trail ersatz expressway. – We start out running towards the east, which was slightly blinding as the sun was still low on the horizon. I notice a vehicle coming towards us but can’t make out any details because of the sun glare. I think that the park rangers are out early this morning. Nope, it’s an old dude driving his EV on the trail. Now I know he can’t get out at the trailhead right behind us because there’s a locked pole in the middle that prevents unauthorized vehicles from driving down the path. Person I’m running with calls the cops. Sure enough a few mins later he’s turned around & is now going eastbound, coming up behind us. Get to my turnaround point & then there’s one cop coming down the trail, then a minute later, another one. Then the first cop has turned around & comes back, then a park ranger comes driving down the trail. Every time a bike came up on me I got a bit jumpy; I had to turn around & make sure the tire noise was just from a bike & not some type of automobile.
Repeated head smacks. 
I probably have one around here somewhere.
Oops, wait a second, that won’t work. The switch isn’t a toggle switch, it’s electronic and must be pressed. Using a timer shuts off all power to the thing, which means the switch resets to “off”. I’m guessing that the app uses blue tooth sorcery to activate/deactivate.
Good grief.
Reminds self to triple check everything I buy and make sure that it works offline.
I installed protective grids in the intake and exhaust pipes for my furnace, mainly to keep out birds and mice, but they should work for leaves as well.
I have stocked up on a fair amount of Starkist’s sandwich packets, both tuna and chicken, every time they go on sale; most I have gotten for a buck, tho Meijer’s has recently bumped up the price for the latter.
The chicken ones were on sale again the other day, so grabbed 3 to supplement my stock here. I went and grabbed one of the new ones for some odd reason since I prefer to eat the older ones first (so I don’t end up with expired ones). Now, the chicken ones always come out looser than the tuna ones do, in a little bit of watery sauce, meat is whiter than the greyer tuna, which hardly ever has more than a few drops of water…
I open this packet, grab a fork to get it out and onto my bread–and it is grey, and tight, and drier–just like the tuna packs are. I tasted a piece, and yep, tuna. They got them mixed up at the packaging plant. I was so disgusted that I just tossed the entire kit and kaboodle into the trash and ate some noodles instead.
My wife buys those things like crazy. She loves the stuff. I have bought it in the past, and I think they’re pretty nice too. I particularly like the lemon pepper tuna.
I’ve never tried the chicken though, that’s very intriguing.
Even though I like the tuna, when it comes as a surprise when you were expecting chicken, that sounds pretty nasty.
Precisely my reaction.