Major AWS outage took down Fortnite, Alexa, Snapchat, and more
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Many of the internet’s largest services rely on AWS.
  • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 hours ago

    At the risk of resurrecting an old thread, I had a somewhat similar scenario today, but totally opposite results …

    I rely on my Apple Watch as an alarm: the tapping always wakes me without being loud or obtrusive.

    However I forgot to charge my watch, brought the cable to work, forgot to charge it at work, and forgot to bring the charging cable home. Point is, my watch battery is dead, so how did I get up on time this morning?

    1. Apple integration for the win! My iPhone automatically took over the alarm. It was loud and obnoxious, but worked
    2. My music came on. While I set the schedule through the SONOS app, I’m pretty sure it runs locally. While that relies on streaming music, I have in the past awakened to a shriek as a backup for when streaming doesn’t work

    So, vendors that “just work”, devices with intelligent failure, multiple independent sources, local control.

    • dan@upvote.auEnglish
      15·
      15 days ago

      There’s way too much stuff that relies on internet access. If I’m at home, and my washing machine (which is also at home) wants to tell me when it’s done, why does that need to use the internet?

      I try to stick to Zigbee or Z-wave devices where possible, since they’re guaranteed to be local-only. If I need access when I’m away from home, I connect with a VPN to access Home Assistant.

      • Lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        15 days ago

        I’ve got a Zigbee power metering plug on our washing machine. Set up an automation for it to notify us when it’s done. Just that sold my wife on HA, she’s asking for other things like this now.

      • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.websiteEnglish
        1·
        15 days ago

        Matter is also local—provisioning can be a PITA but once done I’ve been pretty happy with even the cheap Matter WiFi smart bulbs. Home Assistant supports them very well.

        Cheap bulbs can be a little buggy, which usually means I need to power cycle some of them now and then.

        • dan@upvote.auEnglish
          3·
          15 days ago

          I mainly use smart switches rather than smart bulbs. Currently I’m using the Inovelli Blue switches which use Zigbee.

    • nogooduser@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      16 days ago

      They don’t rely on the server to sound an already scheduled alarm but they do rely on the server to set the next one for a repeating alarm.

    • renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.netEnglish
      9·
      15 days ago

      A frustrating number of devices rely on cloud connectivity for astoundingly rudimentary tasks.

      I was once at a friend’s house for a game night and it was really cold; everyone was under blankets. I asked to turn up the heat and they said, “The internet is down, so the heat doesn’t work.” 🤯

      • early_riser@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        12 days ago

        ugh I hate this. I have two absolutes when it comes to what makes a good smart device. First, it has to be able to be controlled via a local network, be it wifi, zigbee, z-wave, bluetooth, etc. There is no reason why my communication needs to leave my network when both the sender and receiver are in the same network. Second, it must work as a dumb device. If my LAN goes down or access is otherwise impeded I don’t want it to be a brick.

    • Ravi@feddit.orgEnglish
      10·
      16 days ago

      Not using my phone, but a dedicated alarm clock on my nightstand. Mainly because I can see the time and what alarm preset is active at a glance.

    • kurikai@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      16 days ago

      I have home assistant(no internet needed) turn in the light from off to dim to bright over 5 mins. Such a nicer way to wake up than an alarm.

      • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
        6·
        16 days ago

        Me too, it’s so much more.natural way to wake up… but it’s still tied to the alarm time of my phone (which also fades in slowly)

          • SayCyberOnceMore@feddit.ukEnglish
            2·
            15 days ago

            Install the HA Companion app on your phone (I use the “minimal” one.from FDroid), and enable the Alarm Sensor - that provides the next alarm time (so, be careful if you have different alarms throughout the day!)

            Then, I use that time to trigger the lights to start ramping up about 30mins beforehand.

            Also… be careful to check if you’re at home… took me a while to realise the lights were coming on whilst we were away.

            Oh, and I use Simple Alarm Clock - also from FDroid - because it fades in the alarm sound.

    • 🔍🦘🛎@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      15 days ago

      There have been a few times my phone has had an update and didn’t load in, thus not triggering the alarm. I still use my phone, but I have a backup ‘dumb alarm’

    • falseWhite@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      15 days ago

      Sometimes if I want to take a short nap, it’s way easier to ask alexa or google to wake me up in 30mins, than set up an alarm.