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homeautomation·Home AutomationbyZac

Wemo outage, and abandoned by Belkin

I plan to look for devices that support open protocols and open firmware, but in the meantime I need to vent about this.

Here's the only status I can find of the Wemo app/service:
https://downdetector.com/status/wemo/

While investigating not being able to login to the Wemo app for three days, I discovered that Belkin announced they're turning off their cloud services for Wemo in a couple months. They only announced it in July of this year.

https://www.belkin.com/support-article/?articleNum=335419 (archive.org)

Some of the light switches will still work with HomeKit, but I have one that doesn't have the necessary QR code. Belkin (Wemo) says to find an e-waste recycler. Companies should be required to provide a path to install open firmware when they stop supporting their products. Apparently you can install OpenWRT on these if you haven't patched an old exploit:
https://www.realmtech.net/2016-04/openwrt-on-a-belkin-wemo-easy-way

One more gripe: They apparently emailed their customers (but who reads email?) but failed to put an announcement in their app—the obvious place to put it.

It's such a "fuck you, we've got your money" move that I have no plans of buying any Belkin product again.

I guess I'll get to enjoy the journey I'll be taking to find out what the latest developments in open devices has been since I installed my closed-system devices. Thankfully the options and community has been growing.

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powershell·PowershellbyZac

Does `Out-Host` also signify `Copy-Item` has finished (as `Out-Null` does)?

I have a script where I copy a file using this code:

Copy-Item "$SourceRoot\$SourceFolder\$SourceFile" -Destination "$DestinationRoot\$DestinationFolder" -Verbose *>&1 | Out-File -FilePath "$LogFile" -Append

I want to make sure the file being copied is done being copied, and I have seen that one way to do this is to use Out-Null. I'm wondering if Out-File can be used instead. That would be helpful since that's what I'm already using. I seem to be seeing that this is true, but I would like assurance that this is indeed true.

Secondary question: Does redirecting all streams make any difference?

Here are some pages referring to using Out-Null to make sure the command has completed:

https://theitbros.com/wait-for-a-command-powershell/
This page seems to indicate that Out-File should have the same effect: "The Out-Null cmdlet is used when you don’t care about the output of an external command. To redirect the command output, you can use Out-File or Out-Host instead."

https://www.sharepointdiary.com/2022/03/powershell-wait-for-command-to-finish.html#h-piping-to-out-null-to-wait-for-the-operation-to-complete

https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerShell/comments/5c1jpn/waiting_for_a_cmdlet_to_finish_before_moving_on/

https://www.delftstack.com/howto/powershell/wait-for-each-command-to-finish-in-powershell/#using-the-out-commands-to-wait-for-each-command-to-finish-in-powershell
"Other examples of Out commands that we can use are the following: … Out-File …"

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12211131/want-to-wait-till-copy-complete-using-powershell-copy-item
references:
https://www.itprotoday.com/powershell/forcing-powershell-to-wait-for-a-process-to-complete

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