I figured out why it wasn't working. For whatever reason, my router was shuffling local IPs on a few things, including the Hubitat. So it's now a static IP, and it shall behave properly or it will get the hose. I haven't tried killing the internet and trying to connect yet, gotta wait till the Hulu binge ceases before I can do that. I'm digging all this, thanks you guys for bearing with me on this. I don't rite too gud, an stuf.
So I'm used to the likes of Tasker and IFTTT, as they validated a longstanding theory I would bandy about at IT people at work when they were trying to tell me something wasn't possible. Their computers, they will do whatever the hell they told them to. For the record, I really do love the computers, I'm a gadgetry kinda guy, you sort of have to be to get into this stuff! I'm as happy as a clam... right up to that point, and every single person reading this can relate to this, albeit likely responding in far more ma-toor ways. That point that it does something uncommanded for no reason and with no warning. Like when Word just disappears periodically after working for 3-6 hours. It Auto-saves, great, but that's the equivalent of putting a parachute which is too small for the pilot in his airplane because it periodically disappears and instead of fixing it, a couple broken legs a few hundred thousand ties a day is just easier than fixing it. Or when the computer or phone decides that it's too busy doing something I don't know about, care about, and will never care about it, instead of something like....opening Maps when I take a wrong turn, want to get a quick picture of something awesome, but ahhhh, nope.
I know, I know it's a computer, a machine, and it's doing exactly what it was told to do, or is failing a process because some coder at Microsoft played one too many matches of ping-pong at the office the day (s)he was writing that section. And I also know it's almost certainly at least partially my own fault for having 27 dancing cat video apps that seem to be far larger than they should be, but I'm sure it's safe! I get it, but when I light off because that stupid phone is so slow I could literally write the 1's and 0's on a napkin faster than it was processing simple things, common-sense and level-headed grown-up behavior works better. But hey, who amongst us is without their character flaws? Right? Like that one guy, T-Bone who beats up bums on the weekends, Freddy has no shame that he doesn't believe woman are actually people. I will admit that on occasion, while in the throws of man-truming, I am not above making very serious (at the time) attempts to shame the stupid computer or phone by telling it that the Voyager spacecraft, a calculator watch, and my first computer bought in 1986, a straight ballin' chick magnet, the venerable Macintosh Plus were all better add calculating things than it is.....I'm thinking that with Bezos's Alexa, as well as them WhizKidzs over at the Goog's who are both getting better at this Voice Automation thing, some day....Those stupid computers will feel bad. The best part, and I promise I'm not making this part up, but I have almost an infinite level of patience with almost all non-adolescent people, and in some ways too much. So no, I'd never treat anyone.....well, 99.99999% of people that way, but will and have overhand fast pitched a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge into a cinder block wall because that absolutely worthles curved screen that I'll never accept again had decided I was going to do something different. Dudes....I was in awe......I've dropped an iPhone 5 (accidentally) from literally 2.5 feet onto a deck and the screen literally exploded out, in what I can only describe as an enthusiastically motivated way like it had been waiting for this all it's life. I was a little shocked, but didn't care, it was a dead phone anyway. But the S7 Edge? Yeah, so it survived it's introduction into Parcour, with a single crack in a corner, and the scuffed to hell. But then, I had that piece of garbage for probably 6 months after that, and (again, no shame here), I would almost on a daily basis decide the phone needed to learn it's lesson, and would smash the screen over and over on the steering wheel with as much force as I could muster. Sure, it frustrated me a little, but I couldn't help but be impressed as hell, that stupid thing cracked more, but never stopped being "functional" and worked right up until the day I got the best phone I've ever had, S8 Active. Thing is a brick poo-house, and I don't have to teach it lessons, it behaves ...mostly. Having really been looking up to a final, satisfying Mid-evil inspired beat down of the S-7 Edge, this wasn't a decision made lightly. But because I was so impressed with the sheer ability to absorb the ass beatings I would provide, and would have turned an iPhone to dust, I decided instead to allow it to live out it's life as a one of my Alfred Camera cameras. See, THAT is what I call, Ma-toor and reasonable!
So this may surprise you, but there was a point to all that, I have a question. So about 1500 lines ago, I mentioned a concept I truly believe. Computers should do whatever we want them to, it's nothing more than taking all those 1's a 0's and putting them all, in the exact order to make it work! I also mentioned that the Tasker family of apps, which I truly believe are the absolute most powerful tools anyone could learn to use, validated that concept. That app actually lives that phrase and I love it.
I have a Meross Smart Powerstrip which I had planned to configure in such a way that whenever my Internet went out (it does a lot), it would automatically cycle the power of the cable modem and router in a deliberate sequence. Well obviously that didn't work for obvious reasons, and compelled me to buy the Hubitat and get some new pen pals. I was saddened to see that Meross isn't on the Hubitat list of compatible devices. In the Tasker world, this would simply mean it was going to be difficult, but doable because you can put the 1's and 0's in the right order. However, Tasker does nothing for me with this situation for the same reasons ST is. So is it plausible to get your Java-Groovy Coding skills rocking and rattle out an app or handler that would let me do this? Or does Hubitat wag the finger at anything they having put the special sauce into?
That's all I got. And I'm sorry, but this won't really ever end. I really like writing stuff....
Pete
