Being LED In The Right Direction

Last week, I had an unexpected education in the world of lighting.  We bought a new chandelier for our dining room, and it had the Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulbs.  The problems with CFL (or any fluorescent for that matter) are, one, they have mercury in them and so are toxic, and must be disposed of responsibly, and two, they flicker and are a source of eye irritation and headaches to say the least.  So, being a savvy consumer, I know that LED bulbs (Light-Emitting Diodes) consume a fraction the power of old-fashioned incandescent bulbs, produce less heat, and are environmentally more acceptable, not to mention they last a very long time (supposedly - more below).  So, LED bulbs it was (5 for the fixture), and boy, it would be nice to have a dimmer switch, so I bought a LeGrand dimmer switch from Lowes that says it works with CFL and LED bulbs.

Since we are in the middle of remodeling our bathrooms, we had investigated light fixtures, and found our first lesson:

Ensuring Long Bulb Life

While at a Lowes, we asked a helpful gentleman (who turned out to be a US service veteran, thanks for your service!) about bulbs, and why it seemed that some fixtures bulbs burned out quick, while others they lasted years.  He said his dad, who was an electrician, taught him some important knowledge.  You know that metal tab in the back of the socket?  That is an electrical lead.  It is spring-loaded so that it pushes against the bulb lead and makes good contact.  However, we are taught to screw things in tight, which pushes the spring-loaded metal back.  Then, electricity runs through it, which warms it up, so the metal gets used to the new position, and eventually doesn't make good contact with the bulb lead.  When the leads don't make good contact, it can "stress" the bulb with an inconstant supply of electricity - and LED bulbs are electronic components as opposed to simple wires, so they are much more susceptible to issues arising from poor electrical quality.

To solve this problem, every time you change a bulb, I learned, you should use something non-conductive like a sharpened pencil, and pull the tab up.  When you put the bulb in, don't tighten it, just screw it in until it lights up.  I found that this fixed a "broken" light socket in our kitchen fixture, and it has improved the quality of light produced by the bulbs that did work.

Matching a Switch to a Bulb

In purchasing a dimmer switch for my new chandelier, I was aware that the dimmer had to work for LED bulbs.  However, I was not aware that different bulbs work differently with different switch models (let alone manufacturers).  We did have one bulb that didn't light properly, so it turned out to be a really good learning experience that instead of just returning it to Lowes, I called GE (the bulb manufacturer).  The first thing they asked me was to go to their web page that listed a long list of their bulb products, and for each group of products, a list of switch models that they tested.  The results of the tests were color coded: Green if it worked perfectly, Yellow if there was buzzing or flickering at lower voltages on the dimmer, and Red if it simply didn't work or damaged the bulb.  I told her it was just one bulb, but she insisted, because long-term, a badly-made switch can damage bulbs, and end up being expensive to replace bulb after bulb (these were expensive bulbs to begin with).

Next, I took each of the dimmer switch models that were shown Green for the type of bulb I had, and searched Lowes.com - they didn't have a single one.  I searched HomeDepot.com - and they had in stock a few of the recommended models.  So, on to Home Depot.

While there, we found Ecosmart brand LED bulbs, same form factor and same description, for a lot less.  So, we bought a set to try them out.  At $6.50 per bulb, the GE were pricey compared to $2.67 per bulb Ecosmart.

What we found, as usual, is that if you spend more money, you usually get a better product.  The GE bulbs produced a much more natural light (even though both used the same terminology and description and similar specs), and performed much better with the switch recommended by GE.  Weird that Home Depot doesn't sell the GE bulbs, and Lowes doesn't sell a switch that is recommended by GE.  Both bulb brands were warranted for 5 years, and given a 13 year life estimate; but the GE bulbs went down to completely dark at the bottom end of the dimmer switch, and did NOT buzz or flicker (like they did with the LeGrand switch from Lowes).  Frankly, when you take the cost of the bulb over 13 years, the difference is negligible, and I would rather have something I am happy with.

LED Light Fixtures

At the hardware store, we saw some really beautiful and cool light fixtures that are LED.  They are in really neat shapes, with the light coming down through curved acrylic bars or some other exciting shapes and material.  However, we asked some questions and noticed some massive shortcomings.  One thing we are constantly aware of these days is the serviceability and lifetime of a product.  Another is the packaging.  All products, I wish the packaging were completely recyclable and reduced to minimal packaging.  This is the major shortcoming in federal lawmaking.  However, for these LED fixtures, we noticed that they are made with special bulbs built into them.  And, the bulbs are not replaceable.  This is a big no-no nowadays!  It is bad enough (way bad) that printers are cheap, and after a few years stop working, and are so expensive to fix that nobody fixes them and just buy new, and throw "away" the old ones.  But what happens after the 5 year warranty, when (not if) the proprietary built-in bulb goes out?  You are going to replace the whole fixture?  That is just insane.  As cool as they look, I would only buy them if they had replaceable bulbs.

Conclusion

So, gone are the old days where you get any switch you like, any bulb you like, and just put them in.  And, it does make sense if you think about it.

A dimmer switch is really a small circuit board, and so the quality of the electronics and design and lab testing are really much more important than a simple on-off switch or even an old style dimmer switch that used an electronic pot to vary the output voltage.  Also, the LED bulbs are small circuit boards with diodes on them, and again the electronics, design and testing are important.  The quality of the products take a lot of R&D to perfect, and since we are talking electricity flow, that has to be conditioned and smooth as well.  So, it is important that a dimmer switch be made of sufficient quality to feed good "clean" electricity to the bulb, and the bulb be designed properly to respond to the varying voltages supplied by a dimmer switch.

So, we found that the Lutron switch worked much better than the LeGrand (for about the same price), and the GE bulbs were far superior in light quality to the Ecosmart.

"Smart" is the new "e" and "i"

Remember my post 7 years ago about the vogue-ness of using in-letters to start words?  Apparently my prediction was wrong, just flat out wrong.  I was thinking linearly, like what's the next letter, when I should have been thinking off the curve - what's the next word?  And that word has become "smart" - as in smart watch, smart phone, smart office (yes I actually just read that in an actual, published article).  For crying out loud, PLEASE let's stop using that!  It is way NOT smart.

First of all, calling something smart just because it has a processor on it is a labeling gimmick just like e and i (see above article).  They aren't smart - because if they were actually able to have artificial intelligence, that would scare the (smart) pants off me!  So something has a chip on it and some firmware that lets it take input and alter its behavior.

Second, is it really smart to be covering our lives in computing hardware?  This Internet of Things (or IoT), processors in our speakers, processors in our TVs, and more - this is ushering in, at the very least, an age of George Orwell's 1984, where it is easy for the government, hackers, or what have you to spy on every aspect of your private life.  And that's the least of it.  At worst, with machine learning and AI come self-awareness and then self-preservation, and I tell you, machines will enslave humanity - and we will willingly give in to them.

So the big fad today is smart this and smart that.  And the common theme in product marketing is to call things like they aren't (sound like 1984??).  As in, not smart is called smart.

Aw man, am I just a weirdo shouting into the wind?

Virus Alert

Virus Alert!

I don't know if you are a fan of Weird Al Yankovic, like our family is.  If you are a fan and have been listening to all of his music, you have likely heard this song.  If you haven't, I highly recommend finding it on your music service and listening to it.  Stop reading right now, and go and listen.  Go ahead!

Now, welcome back.  I think now that you've heard it, you will understand my technical take on this: as we listen to this, I tell the kids which warnings in the song are possible, and which aren't.  While listening to my playlist at the gym this morning, it came on, and it occurred to me that more of the warnings in the song are possible now, than when my kids were younger.  Let's make a list of these warnings, and identify which ones actually may happen, and which ones may not.  I think you'd be surprised, what an expert's analysis indicates.  I am also going to predict which ones may become possible in the next few years, with Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (always wondered what IoT stood for??).

First, the Feasibility is on a scale from 0 (Impossible) to 5 (Absolutely possible).  Then, I establish a feasibility now, as of 2019, as well as in the future (meaning probably in the next 10 years, but really any time).

#	Warning	Feasibility Now	Future Feasability
1	Translate your documents into Swahili	5	5
2	Make your TV record "Gigli"	1	3
3	Neuter your pets	0	2
4	Give your laundry static cling	1	5
5	Make your computer screen freeze	5	5
6	Erase the Easter eggs off your DVDs	0	0
7	Erase your hard drive and your backups too	2	5
8	And the hard drives of anyone related to you	1	3
9	Make the paint peel off your walls	0	1
10	Make your keyboard all sticky	0	0
11	Give your poodle a hickey	0	0
12	Invest your cash in stock in Euro Disney	5	5
13	Tie up your phone making crank long distance calls	1	3
14	Set your clocks back an hour	2	5
15	Start clogging the shower	0	0
16	Give you a permanent wedgie	0	0
17	Legally change your name to Reggie	1	2
18	Mess up the pH balance in your pool	0	3
19	Melt your face right off your skull	0	0
20	Make your iPod only play Jethro Tull	0	3
21	Tell you knock-knock jokes while you're trying to sleep	1	5
22	Make you physically attracted to sheep	0	0
23	Steal your identity and your credit cards	5	5
24	Buy you a warehouse full of pink leotards	5	5
25	Cause a major rift in time and space	0	0
26	Leave a bunch of Twinkie wrappers all over the place	0	0
27	Email your grandmother all of your porn	5	5

Did any of them surprise you?  For those whose feasibility values changed, let's discuss my reasoning behind that:

2. Make your TV record "Gigli

Since many of us use streaming TV services, it is quite possible that a hack of them will make it record shows you have no control over.  Whether or not Ben Affleck and J Lo will be on that recording, well, that's another matter entirely.

3. Neuter your pets

"What?" you may say, "You are crazy!"  Believe it or not, I think services like picking up your pet and having things done will become more of a thing, as people get more and more reliant upon technology, and pay less and less attention to the details of life.  A simple hack would make it possible to order a neuter service, have them come and pick it up, and pay for it too.

4. Give your laundry static cling

"Now I know you're whacked!" you say.  But wait!  Think of the IoT.  This brings more and more things connected, and if you get the "smart" devices (which I refuse to), a hack could control them.  The device manufacturers, as has been shown, are not security experts, nor do may do even the basic due diligence (shame on them!).  Heck, the phone system Caller ID is still stuck back in the 1990's vintage protocol it originally was devised with.  I absolutely believe that appliance manufacturers do (and will) drop the security ball, and let hackers do things like maliciously control their devices, even to changing dryer settings and giving your clothes static cling.  And, I fully have faith in Human nature, that there are hackers out there who will do it just to laugh at it.  So I give this one a 1 now, simply because most people don't have smart laundry machines yet, but as they do, it will become absolutely feasible.

7. Erase your hard drive and your backups too

Obviously erasing your hard drive is certainly one of the things viruses can do; but your backups?  If you use online backup services, this can be a risk as well.  I'd say, definitely could happen.  I put a higher future feasibility simply because I believe more people will go to cloud backups.

8. And the hard drives of anyone related to you

Definitely - as social media security has been a big issue lately, and Facebook, for example, has fallen way short of protecting user privacy, this is a big and growing risk.

9. Make the paint peel off your walls

Bear with me here.  You know how they have smart lightbulbs, and smart outlets?  Smart paint.  It will be a thing.  Yeah, not very likely, so I didn't put it as a 5.  But who knows?

13. Tie up your phone making crank long distance calls

What is a "long distance" call?  We almost don't know anymore!  International calls are still costlier, but even calls to Canada and Mexico are treated as domestic US calls nowadays.  Anyhow, as our "telephone" devices become computers, I say the risk becomes higher that this is more likely.

14. Set your clocks back an hour

Don't even get me started on Daylight Savings Time - just abolish it and be done with it.  Until then, yes, as clocks are more and more connected (I use my Apple Watch and "phone" as a clock almost entirely), they are more and more open to this risk.

17. Legally change your name to Reggie

While I admit that would be tragic, I don't think this is very likely.  However, state run records systems where you change your name legally are certainly electronic, and therefore vulnerable.  I'd give this a low but real risk.

18. Mess up the pH balance in your pool

Yeah, you know where I'm going with this one.  IoT.  As great as it may seem to connect everything, I think we need to think more about A) should we, and B) how do we do it, because if we do it in a way that is off-the-shelf, it becomes widely open and widely vulnerable to the same security flaws that everyone and everything else suffers from.  So, is the pool management system connected via WiFi?

20. Make your iPod play only Jethro Tull

What's wrong with Jethro Tull???  And besides, Apple security is primo, so they can't hack that!  But seriously, when I think of iPod, I mean any music playing device - including Alexa, Home Pod, Google Assistant, let alone your "phone."  I'd say this could become more and more possible over time, as things get more and more connected.  Indeed, look at the Apple products, all interconnected and working together.  If someone changes a playlist on one device, all the devices using that account are synced.

21. Tell you knock-knock jokes while you're trying to sleep

Yup.  Alexa.  Home Pod.  Etc.  You already heard of the flaw that let an Alexa user broadcast continuously what was going on in their home to someone else without their knowledge?  Imagine when (not if) someone figures out how to hack Alexa, and exploits some vulnerability.  I think it is quite possible, and growing over time, that they could get it to suddenly blurt out knock knock jokes (among other things) in the middle of the night.

So, that's my analysis, and yes, Weird Al is a visionary!  Rock on!