It seems like all the technology in my house is controlled by some nefarious Hal 9000-wannabe AI entity determined to cause havoc in every internet controlled system, just to drive me fucking ape-shit crazy. At this juncture I feel like I'm right at the point Bowman here was dutifully retrieving a perfectly fine AE-35 unit from the main antennae of Discovery. When he brings it back in the ship and its status is analyzed by him, Poole and Mission Control, it's confirmed it was fine and they all assume Hal is malfunctioning. When Bowman and Poole try to sneakily discuss their options in what they assume is a muted-out pod, Hal reads their lips and discovers they mean to potentially disconnect him and all hell breaks loose. Maybe this post is my pod plot and the Hal-wannabe haunting me will initiate his Murder Protocol? Or maybe it's all in my head? But I mean, look at all this shit:
First, as I mentioned in this post, there were the problems with my WYZE web view events thumbnails. Here's a screenshot of what I was talking about. These grey boxes should all be images. And sometimes they are. It all just depends how the page seems to feel, I guess. I don't know why it displays them sometimes and sometimes it doesn't, or sometimes it's just a few of them.
Then the WYZE app on my phone started not consistently displaying event videos when I touched a thumbnail as they should. Like, just ignoring my input entirely.
I called WYZE about all of this and of course they were no help. They either couldn't or chose not to understand my problem. I was "escalated" as an open ticket to their tier II support, but they clearly were just another agent roleplaying. Kiddies, I was in this field. I know all the games. The app tech support was also worthless since you could submit an issue but it clearly stated that you would NOT receive a response at all. So basically you don't even know if anyone even works it.
Needless to say, WYZE Cam Plus is cancelled and it will not be renewed for another year as of the end of the month so now I won't have video clips in the clous of events and no web view. Fine. Saves me $60 a year.
Next is my fav little game I play on my phone. Actually, the only game I play on my phone, Harry Potter Puzzles and Spells. It frequently updates and I guess with the latest update, it did something and locks up during the load screen. I can't move on from this. I've done a force stop, I've uninstalled and reinstalled twice. So now this is dead. Murdered by the Hal-wannabe.
Then there's my streaming apps on my Fire TV stick. Prime TV and the subs within it, namely HBO Max. Slow response, blank fields where images showed instantly appear on the selection screens, and error messages for any video attempted.
Similar problem with Peacock as well... videos won't play. They seems to try to load with a rotating little golden circle then, boom, back to the selection screen without a single explanation as to why it failed to load.
YouTube app worked fine and dandy until today when I tried to load a movie and it just froze up.
I tried emptying each apps cache, I tried a hard reboot of the Fire TV stick from the power cord twice, repositioned it to a different HDMI slot and reset it to factory settings and set up the device like new with all my info like it was just installed. No change... still the same issues.
I ordered a new Fire TV stick and it'll arrive tomorrow. I'll update with the results.
Now, I know what you're thinking... is it all related to the internet itself? Perhaps the actual AE-35 Unit?
You see, in case I haven't ever mentioned it, back when I set up my Xfinity router, I named it "AE-35 Unit." I like witty named routers. Your neighbors can read them when they search for available networks when they're setting up new devices. I remember back when I lived in apartments there'd be all sorts of funny names like "FBI surveillance van" or "Wi-Fi is always right" or some shit like that. Around here, my neighbors are boring and uncreative. It seems they all just leave the default name like "Xfinitywifi" or "Verizon 5634" or whatever. But I digress, back to my dilemma...
I could call Xfinity customer service. They have been okay in the past. But it's a crap shoot when it comes to customer service and tech support these days, I'm sure you've noticed. Plus, Xfinity has been consistent in one thing... they like to lie.
Here's a recent email they sent me about my internet speed.
But here's the Speedof.me test.
Big difference in download speed, but what I don't get is the upload speed. I've never seen it that high in proportion to the download rate before. The stupid "AI Overview" says it's a good thing, but I don't know 'bout that. To me, it seems like something's wrong there. Why would I be getting that much of an upload rate? The only sneaky suspicion I have... and here's my pod moment...
Could it be some virus that has been using my system to mine for crypto and send data in a constant upload stream to some nefarious entity? I think I've read where that's a thing. Sure, my rig and its piddling Radeon graphics card wouldn't amount to anything on its own trying to mine crypto, but coupled with thousands of other corrupted computers uploading their packets to the "mothership" and you got the start of something, I guess.
All I know for sure is I hope I can work this tech shit out soon 'cause I don't need my biological body and my technological spirit to both fall to pieces together and manage to murder what's left my ever-lovin' freakin' also-fragile mind!