JAMES LILEKS: The Wolf is at the Door: If I duplicated this article, I could say the Ringman always Posts Twice.

I needed a Ring with a camera, so when the button was pressed a small box in the kitchen said ding-dong, and then I would call up the app to see who was there. In the past you could see who was there by using a thing called “glass,” but somehow the act of seeing them obligated you to open the the door and tell them to go away. That was the genius of the Ring: you could quietly, passively ignore them.

Plus, it recoded crimes! Yes, you could have footage of skulking miscreants, which you could give to the cops, who would do nothing. But best of all, you could customize the ding and/or the dong. What a world! Everything should be customized to conform to one’s particular aesthetic. You can even vary it by season – and here I got a good lesson in the capabilities of dog brains.

Uh oh. That’s never good, either way ….