{"id":177755,"date":"2019-06-20T19:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-21T00:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/06\/20\/the-joys-of-technology\/"},"modified":"2019-06-20T19:12:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T00:12:00","slug":"the-joys-of-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2019\/06\/20\/the-joys-of-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joys of Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border: 1px solid black; float: right; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 5px; text-align: center; width: 330px;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1BB6wj6RyKo\" width=\"320\"><\/iframe><br \/><i>Bring good thing to life, my flabby white ass!<\/i><\/div>\n<p>GE has an instructional video on how to reset the software on their light bulb.<\/p>\n<p>You got that right, they had to release a video showing people how to reset the software on their light bulb.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, they had to two versions of the instructions for different software versions.<\/p>\n<p>This is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2019\/06\/20\/think-you-know-how-lightbulb-works-wait-until-you-see-this-ge-how-to-video\/\">remarkably poor user interface decision<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">How many lamp owners does it take to change a high-tech lightbulb? <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Actually, it may be more complicated than you\u2019d think \u2014 and make you miss the good old days when all you had to do was screw it in. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">But rest assured that the people at General Electric have put together <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1BB6wj6RyKo&amp;feature=youtu.be\">an instructional video<\/a> to show you how to troubleshoot the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbyge.com\/\">C by GE lightbulbs<\/a>, and all that\u2019s required is knowing how to count. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">First, according to the narrator, turn off the lightbulb for five seconds. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Then turn it on for eight seconds. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Then turn it off for two seconds. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">On for eight more seconds. Off for two more seconds. On for eight seconds. Off for two seconds. On for eight seconds. Off for two seconds. On for eight seconds. (Gasp!) Off for two more seconds. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Now turn it on, and it should work. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">If not, maybe you missed a second or two somewhere. It\u2019s unclear how much of an effect that would have, but GE does recommend counting using the \u201cMississippi\u201d method \u2014 one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi and so on. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">At this point, you may be reaching a breaking point. If so, try <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.navy.mil\/sites\/nmcphc\/Documents\/health-promotion-wellness\/psychological-emotional-wellbeing\/Combat-Tactical-Breathing.pdf\">a simple breathing exercise<\/a>: Breathe in for four seconds. Hold your breath for four seconds. Exhale for four seconds. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">The C by GE smart bulbs are Bluetooth-enabled, allowing users to set a schedule for their lights and control them with their voices, among other things. GE Lighting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1BB6wj6RyKo&amp;feature=youtu.be\">posted the tutorial on YouTube<\/a> this year to show users how to troubleshoot by returning to factory settings. <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">But the three-minute video appears to have gained widespread attention this week after it was shared on Reddit and Twitter. It has since drawn hundreds of comments from people both mocking GE for its long-winded instructions as well as applauding it for its unintended comedy.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-cards=\"hidden\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\"><span style=\"color: blue;\">This (real) video from GE on how to reset their &#8220;C&#8221; light bulbs is the most incredible how-to video you&#8217;ll ever see.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">They want to see how far they can push their customers before they snap.   <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gbXOc543fy\">https:\/\/t.co\/gbXOc543fy<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2014 Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NumbersMuncher\/status\/1141527175394410498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 20, 2019<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\"><span style=\"color: blue;\">Thomas Edison may have just rolled over in his grave.<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thomas Edison is laughing his ass off. <\/p>\n<p>Seriously, they couldn&#8217;t have a little hole that you insert a paper clip into?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bring good thing to life, my flabby white ass! GE has an instructional video on how to reset the software on their light bulb. You got that right, they had to release a video showing people how to reset the software on their light bulb. Actually, they had to two versions of the instructions for &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[420,588,406,382],"class_list":["post-177755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-consumer-electronics","tag-fail","tag-stupid","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}