Amazon Alexa Service is Down and People Can't Turn on Their Lights.

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Amazon's Alexa service went down temporarily for some people and as normal there were widespread complaints. What isn't normal about these complaints is that people seem to have forgotten how to turn on their lights without using the Alexa service. In the age of convenience, this is truly a first world problem.

Complaints were posted to Twitter like this one from Mark Hopkins, "With Alexa down, I had to open the Philips Hue app to turn off the lamp like some kind of f**king barbarian." Dennis Jackson lodged his complaint in this manner, "Holy crap, Alexa is down. I can't live. I don't know what to do next. I'm just going to stand still and wait. #scared #alone" Makes you wonder what these people would do during a natural disaster.

Owners vented their frustrations on Twitter early on Wednesday morning, with many of them complaining that they couldn't operate other connected devices, such as lights and music systems, in the way they usually would.
 
Geez what a bunch of whiney little snowflakes. Sadly in American society what first appears as a joke in The Onion soon appears as a non-joke in reality. Get a light switch you lazy turds.
 
This defies the natural order of things......

if those idiots are for real, they would never survive in a world where you have to grow crops and do physical work.
 
Those probably are the people whose douchebag meter is going into alarm as well. Sadly they probably won't even understand the real problem.
 
I couldn't set my alarm and had to resort to a clock. I'm pissed.
 
rezerekted said:
Buying smart devices ain't so smart.
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Been using one since they were Beta/Prime only. I think that's 2 years or so.

While totally inconvient, it's the first time it's happened.

It also proves just how useful the damn things actually are.
 
I noticed it down last night also.

My Fan that Alexa controls wouldn't turn on....I had to ACTUALLY GET UP and turn it on.. can you believe that?
It was like the end of the world as we know it....:confused:
 
This is sort of like when the network is down to the main corporate office. You can see the server in the rack, but you cannot log in because it cannot hit the domain controller. It's always a little comical to me.

Now that same experience with your lights! HAHA!
 
I had to decrease my laziness and use my phone to turn off my lights. Damn you technology!
 
I wake up to Danger Zone every morning. I was lost today... ruined my whole day.
 
You can't just turn on/off the lights manually. If you flip the power switch, you kill power to the device. That's like unplugging your TV from the wall when you want to shut it off. I'm still trying to find a remote control that replaces a light switch.
 
People unable to do ANYTHING because the technology broke? That sounds familiar....

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Didn't go down for me today, but I would be a little lost for a few seconds carrying two babies into the living room and having to turn the lights on by hand. The inconvenience of going online to complain would be greater than walking across the room to hit the switch..
 
Abhaxus said:
Didn't go down for me today, but I would be a little lost for a few seconds carrying two babies into the living room and having to turn the lights on by hand. The inconvenience of going online to complain would be greater than walking across the room to hit the switch..
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Yea, I usually just assume someone else complained and they know about the outage so i don't bother.

Anything can and will break eventually.
 
Sufu said:
You can't just turn on/off the lights manually. If you flip the power switch, you kill power to the device. That's like unplugging your TV from the wall when you want to shut it off. I'm still trying to find a remote control that replaces a light switch.
Click to expand...

Just get the light switch with an occupancy sensor. Can't get any lazier than walking out of a room when your done with it.
 
cageymaru said:
Amazon's Alexa service went down temporarily for some people and as normal there were widespread complaints. What isn't normal about these complaints is that people seem to have forgotten how to turn on their lights without using the Alexa service. In the age of convenience, this is truly a first world problem.

Complaints were posted to Twitter like this one from Mark Hopkins, "With Alexa down, I had to open the Philips Hue app to turn off the lamp like some kind of f**king barbarian." Dennis Jackson lodged his complaint in this manner, "Holy crap, Alexa is down. I can't live. I don't know what to do next. I'm just going to stand still and wait. #scared #alone" Makes you wonder what these people would do during a natural disaster.

Owners vented their frustrations on Twitter early on Wednesday morning, with many of them complaining that they couldn't operate other connected devices, such as lights and music systems, in the way they usually would.
Click to expand...

56098863.jpg


56098863.jpg
 
Looks like clear sarcasm to me.

Does everyone need to insert a '/s' for people to get it? It's the ones ones that don't clearly see it that are sad.
 
Shantarr said:
It's painfully obvious those people were jokingly giving Amazon a hard time.
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Is it though? Each current year, it gets harder and harder to tell what is sarcasm and what is a real honest statement.


Anyway, good for a laugh at the insanity of the Internet of Things and the "cloud".
 
Sufu said:
That's a horrible device to use in a living room.
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As is the voice remote that comcast gives you, and apparently any "Smart" TV with a Camera and microphone embedded.

I play Dr. MLK audio mp3's, or rap music, or country, or german death metal into the little caddy it sits in, with an old pos ipod wannabe; that should keep them on their toes, lol.
 
Sufu said:
You can't just turn on/off the lights manually. If you flip the power switch, you kill power to the device. That's like unplugging your TV from the wall when you want to shut it off. I'm still trying to find a remote control that replaces a light switch.
Click to expand...
Check out the Lutron Connected Bulb remote. It fits a standard decorator switch plate, so you can just put it in a double gang plate next to a regular switch. I have a few of them. Works pretty well but hacky on Smartthings. I am using Cree zigbee bulbs linked directly to the ST hub.

There's also some guides on using GE/Jasco z wave switches as remotes without actually having them switch a load, I think. Haven't done it myself.

There's also some Aeon z wave remotes that can be wall mounted. Also haven't tried.

Edit: should have been clearer... You can mount the Lutron remotes (both connected bulb and caseta Pico) to a 2gang switch cover plate using a kit from Lutron, then mount only one side to a switch that's in a single gang box. To any visitor it looks like just another switch.
 
Litfod said:
"Widespread"? Or almost entirely on Twitter and Reddit?
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From the article:

Monitoring service Downdetector shows that Alexa experienced a sharp increase in "problems" on Wednesday morning.

screen shot 2017-03-08 at 094010.png
 
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