Re: Insteon now or wait?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Robert L Bass" <robertlbass@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> >> I know that flickering can cause premature
> >> burnout but I have not heard of it causing a
> >> bulb to blow though it may indeed be possible.
> >
> > The point that's important is that it's possible...
>
> I'm not sure I agree that it is possible, Bob.  Maybe so, but IME it
hasn't
> happened.

Dude.  You haven't been reading closely enough. For the fourth or fifth time
I'll repeat:.  It doesn't matter if YOU or I or anyone here thinks it's
possible or not, we would NEVER be seated on any jury hearing this very
hypothetical case.  We're too familiar with the subject matter on a number
of fronts and both the judge and the attorneys would feel we could override
any evidence they presented with information from outside the case.  They
hate outside influence so much they sequester important juries in hotels.

When you ask a jury to believe something could *never* happen, you're asking
them to go against their own experience as well as memories of things like
the unsinkable Titanic.  There were plenty of experts who would have told
you jet plane impacts could not have brought down the World Trade Center
buildings.  They didn't factor in the new, novel "pan" building design and
the heat from a full tank of jet fuel.

When you say "can't happen" you immediately alienate a jury as being a
know-it-all.  Smart lawyers and experts nearly *never* talk that way.
Almost nearly never.  Very, very rarely.  Maybe one in one hundred.  :-)
They talk in probabilities.

Here's how it would go between SH and opposing counsel:

"You say that a device called a choke was at fault.  What does a choke do?"

(Detailed explanation of how a choke works inserted here, jury enters a coma
thinking defense expert is an even more boring dweeb than their science
teacher was. This is where they remember nothing more than "Millie choked
Henry after he got inducted because he was not big enough to stop the
noise.")

(Plaintiff's attorney drops an exhibit on the desk to break the jury out of
their technotrance)  "So, a choke keeps this bad thing - this noise - from
going where it shouldn't?"

(Expert has to say "yes", doesn't he?)

"And you admit this choke was defective and had to be replaced?"

(Expert has to say "yes" once again)

"And you agree that the old choke was too small and it let more this "bad
stuff" this "noise" pass than it should?"

(Expert has to say "yes")

"And this bad stuff, this noise that makes your own switch misbehave reached
the bulb as well?"

(Expert is dying to say, "Yes, but so what? Triac noise *always* gets to the
bulb - it's how you dim it" but he can't add what he hasn't been asked
because it would be stricken as unresponsive so he says, once again, simply
"yes" because the triac noise does, indeed, reach the bulb.  A lot of what
the jury gets to know is based on whether opposing counsel is smart enough
to object when being led into a trap during direct examination. )

Now the jury thinks, they had a bad whozit that let evil out into the house
wires!  Judgement for the plaintiff!!!!  This is really how lawyers connect
dots that don't necessarily connect for people who really don't know the
details of any of the dots.

After the dots have been laid out and connections suggested by both sides,
the jury will decide the case based on which lawyer or litigant looked more
like Brad Pitt.  (-:

And all of the above is why I am still stunned that Smarthome would push
their way onto the arena floor of the coliseum of American product liability
litigation.  By not suspending sales when it was clear they were having
widespread problems on a number of fronts, they made themselves a sitting
duck for a serious legal problem if something bad happened to any device
with an unfixed Smarthome switch attached to it.

Here are some things to "doubt" about the depth of Smarthome's beta testing
from someone who's been posting at Homeseer's board for 4+ years:

http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=114189

*****************************************************
    "Here are some of the things you can expect if you install
    Insteon Today(some already mentioned above)

1)  Applianclincs frying when trying to run some loads
2)  Blinking of lights when dimmed if high load attached (flicker
             problem)
3) Group communication that is less reliable than individual
             communication
4) Slooooow dowloading and adding of links (minutes per
            switch in some cases)
5) SDM freezing/locking up requiring restart of SDM
6) PLC locking up requiring unplugging/plugging back in
7) Poor Signallinc Range, it takes a while to find a good spot
            to install these
8) Unreliable communication in some places, may require extra
             Signallincs, x10 filters, or large number of switches installed
             to resolve.
9) No way to delete stale links with plugin, need to reset switches
10)  Possibly lights coming on during power outages

    Not everyone has experienced all of these, but I have
    experienced all but the last one in my 12 switch install.

******************************************************

That's not the warm, fuzzy feeling that's going to make me torture my nearly
70 year-old cloth-covered wall box pigtails and take out the old X-10
switches.  Maybe three or four years from now they'll get the kinks worked
out.  I'll be keeping my eye on them, though.  :-)

--
Bobby G.