This makes me glad to have not bought any “Smart” appliance’s.
If you have bought them and had issues please share your experiences.
Having sold white goods in the past, you learn real quick computer boards are the devil. Not if they will go bad, but when and how severe.
Anyway here is the latest screwup to ruin peoples day;
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If a device has network communication capabilities, it falls into one of these two categories:
- Remove the stock firmware and software, and install my own open-source software. This may be a good device worth owning. But I’ll probably still not allow it to communicate outside of my private network.
- Otherwise, if it contains any software I did not install, any software which is proprietary… it must not be allowed to have any network access, at all. It must be unplugged, or in some cases, have its radios physically ripped out, to render it completely unable to communicate with other devices. Only then can it be considered an option for actual use. And if it collects data regardless, even without the ability to send it anywhere, it’ll still be a liability.
“Smart” appliances, refrigerators, televisions, cars, phones, home assistants, game consoles, doorbells, thermostats, even light bulbs… if it runs software you didn’t explicitly choose and install yourself, then you don’t really own it. And if I can’t own it, I’m not going to buy it.
I’ve always been into free / open-source software… but lately, it’s becoming less of a personal preference and more of a necessity. Proprietary corporate stuff is getting so out of control that it’s an existential risk on a scale big enough to crash economies and destabilize entire societies. A giant ticking timebomb that everyone seems to be aware of, expecting it to explode any day now, but nobody knows when. Meanwhile, its other effects continue to build up, with smaller incidents happening daily while regular folks get squeezed harder and harder as corporations grow fatter and more openly corrupt.
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Best description I can remember said something to the effect of;
When you heard it was free software, Instead of locking them out/up, you invited them in.
1984 just came a little late and it was wrapped in a big bow.
I am considered a dinosaur because of refusal to install apps on my smartphone.
Hate the thing, wish didn’t need it, but do for business.
Know am missing out on “App Only” deals, but ohh well better safe than sorry.
Should have bought burner phone and just loaded with all the crap apps.
Anyway, enjoy your weekend everyone, you have earned it!
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I don’t have any so-called “smart” anythings. I don’t just want dumb, I want retarded.
When I wanted a bigger teevee, I went out of my way to look for and eventually found a NIB 2- or 3yo model. No wifi, no cameras, no microphones, nothing. Not even bluetooth, if I’m not mistaken. Don’t want it, don’t need it.
One way to get around that is to get a “monitor”, like a conventional monitor but usually include an OTA tuner. They’re used as displays in hotels and the like.
I heard of teevees that need to be connected to The Cloud™ just to access anything more than the most basic functions. Or those that phone home to The Mothership™ and when triggered, lock themselves into a screen that you can’t shake loose from unless you click “agree” to the next update and to agree to all the new additions to the TOS. So it’s a brick until you do.
Yeah, no.
Washers, get a Speed Queen. No smarts, just solid and durable.
My gf got a washer that she’s always fighting with, that dispenses water by the spoonful. Too often, the part of clothes that sits above water never even sees water for the entire cycle. And once it starts, as soon as you open the hatch like to add water, it drains all the water already inside!!
That’s why I’m keeping my Maytag that dates back to the Nixon Administration. I could drownd a single pair of sox in a filled to the brim tub of scorching hot water if I wanted to.
Pushbuttons for S/M/L/XL loads, hot/warm/cold, and a mechanical twist-timer knob.
If it breaks, I’ll spend whatever I have to to get it back to life. And when I move, I’m taking it with me.
Fridge is almost as old. Simple Kenmore, dial inside for setting the temperature.
I should replace the door seals, as I can feel a faint cool… not even breeze, but leakage… of cool air from one corner of the freezer door. Wx remote in the freezer makes sure the temp stays in the teens to maybe low 20s.
Thermostat used to be a Hg switch on a bimetallic coil, now is a… Johnson Controls?.. doodad with the only smarts being something like 4 “timezones” per day. I just set all of them to the same temp.
With 4 cats, I have zero concept of “night” or “day” anymore. So I don’t/can’t lower the heat at night for sleeping because I might be awake… like right now.
So, nope, nothing “smart”, nothing connected to wifi, nothing. And I intend to keep it that way.
Yeah, my only smartphone is a cheap Maven that’s already stuffed with bloatware that there’s literally no room to install any spyware or anything. I even get warnings to delete shiite else I might not be able to get any more texts!
My daily driver is a 12buk tracfone flippy that was on the Amazon deals page a coupla years ago. Android based, but still kinda retarded. Uses midi ringtones and can’t even grok mp3s! Texts are key-key-key or at best T9, which is why I only send texts pretty much at gunpoint.
I miss my Nokia Nuron, though. Ran Symbian, so yeah, pretty much zero hacking attempts. But the beastie had GPS with built-in maps! (Ovi Maps?.. Yeh, that was it.) No need to connect outside and get goggle maps or anything. Also did most onboard apps nigh perfectly. Notes, calendar, clock, mp3 player, you name it. Simple intuitive interfaces.
Had to have it pried out of my hands before I gave it up.
Newer stuff is pretty much bug-ridden trash.
With Cars the they go out of there way to make this hard and Illegal.
Basically impossible to get a new car in Europ /Germany without a modem and cameras. For your safety of of cause.
You are not allowed to modify this Because safety and Emissions…
You can maybe get a older car but then you are not allowed to drive it because Emissions.