OT:Echo dot

[spdrun]

I’ve heard good things about Vera.

[millennial]

[quote=spdrun]
Are Amazon users antisocial? No idea.
Are they wrong to support a service that’s destroying decent jobs, destroying privacy, etc? At the very least, they don’t care about the harm their shopping habits are causing.[/quote]

Probably opening Pandora’s box, but how does shopping on amazon destroy privacy, and “decent” jobs? Also what harm is this causing? Are we talking about big corp. versus local retailers like everyone was worried about 15 years ago (aka Walmart/Budweiser/McDonalds). Well we can see what happened with that now that sales and market share of all 3 have been consistently sliding. Privacy? Well like I said, privacy is a very subjective and individual thing; and should be handled as such. If you want more of it, feel free to not use internet; abstain from social media; move to the woods and live off the land.

[millennial]

[quote=spdrun]I’ve heard good things about Vera.[/quote]

I have too, but unfortunately bought the SmartHub a year or so ago. Right now have that working with Alexa for my home automation. Btw, my wife hates Alexa since it only listens to me. I keep telling her she can always just use the lights manually if she wants…she doesn’t listen. I kinda like Alexa more now, at least she listens…

[spdrun]

Need I really list the ways?
(1) Amazon warehouse jobs are utter fucking crap, even as compared to the black pit of awfulness that’s brick-and-mortar retail. Utter monotonous work without even an opportunity to interact with interesting customers occasionally. Warehouse workers are basically bio-robots, soon to be replaced by real robots…

http://gizmodo.com/tell-us-your-horror-stories-about-working-in-an-amazon-1787750865
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-07/amazon-s-story-time-is-kind-of-a-bummer

(2) Amazon doesn’t allow for anonymous (cash) payment, and in fact, makes money tracking users’ purchase habits. Local stores simply don’t have the same kind of computing power behind them. Thankfully.

Lastly, I have no interest in living in the woods. I have more interest living in a less-developed part of the world where technology is significantly behind that of the US suburbs. And where cash and other anonymous means of payment are commonly accepted by necessity.

I like being around people. I can do without corporate and/or goverment snooping, which makes my ideal area a poorer one, where there’s less money to be made marketing to it, and where people don’t care enough to focus government resources on it.

Probably opening Pandora’s box, but how does shopping on amazon destroy privacy, and “decent” jobs? Also what harm is this causing? Are we talking about big corp. versus local retailers like everyone was worried about 15 years ago (aka Walmart/Budweiser/McDonalds). Well we can see what happened with that now that sales and market share of all 3 have been consistently sliding. Privacy? Well like I said, privacy is a very subjective and individual thing; and should be handled as such. If you want more of it, feel free to not use internet; abstain from social media; move to the woods and live off the land.

[FlyerInHi]

I see your point spd. But amazon has some good products you can’t find in stores.
For example modern door handles (i hate the transitional curvy ones at the home
store), noise dampening blankets which I will get sewn to the drapes at my condo near by busy road.

I’m enjoying the avaialabilty of all kinds of products at commodity prices. In the past only the very rich could have good design. Many things had to be custom fabricated. In the future, we will have custom fabrication by robots for cheap. Humans will be able to sit back and enjoy leisure (sarcastic here, don’t bet on it)

[spdrun]

Actually, I like the idea of custom fabrication if it can be done locally (the robots are cheap enough). This would actually help local businesses — think about being fitted for a suit at your local robo-tailor shop, with a human helping you pick designs and doing final adjustments.

[FlyerInHi]

I have not yet used the Apple Home app.
Anyone like it? And how does it compare to the other home automation solutions out there?

[FlyerInHi]

Spd, I had the Vera lite which I now use in a different place. But it’s not like there is no third party you’re so worried about (BTW I don’t like it either, but it is what it is).

I just finished changing all the switches and outlets in my apartment. Need to install door sensors. I went with wink hub, because I like the Wink Relay which is a wall mounted control screen. Looks modern Jetsons like. I may pair it to an Amazon echo later so I can listen to NPR and music via voice command. Still thinking about it.

Apple HomeKit is still new and lacking support. Plus for now, I’d rather not support the big powerful guys Apple and Google. It’s actually a good thing that amazon is the leader with Alexa.

Home automation wise, the holy grail for me is smart glass because I really hate window shades and drapes. I hope good cheap solutions come to market soon.

[spdrun]

Electrochromic glass doesn’t need “smarts”, just a switch to supply power or not.

I’m not so crippled that I can’t get up and turn a switch off. Home automation = tits on a boar.

[FlyerInHi]

Smarts saves time and enhance quality of life. When you go away, everything turns off and the windows darken automatically.

Rich people have servants to do things for them. We can use smart devices as our servants.

[spdrun]

Same problem with servants as with cloud-crap automation.

You’re sharing a home with something that’s all up in your business. If it’s just a question of turning things off when you leave, no need for cloud-crap — a few wireless relays would do just fine without the privacy implications.

[FlyerInHi]

I guess if you’re worried about privacy you could setup on the LAN and forego remote control.

I think home automation is a good thing because that will deter burglaries, maybe do away with them entirely.

Want to monitor you daughter? Or worriy she’ll be molested by intruder? Get an alarm when a window opens or when her bedroom light comes on at night. Haha… so many things for the paranoid.

I would like a device to record the MAC address of people who walk by my house then gives me a report on how often and when.

[ucodegen]

[quote=FlyerInHi]
I think home automation is a good thing because that will deter burglaries, maybe do away with them entirely.[/quote]
I only wish that ‘open standards’ would be mandated as well as not having ‘tie-in’ with cable companies – giving them access to your privies as well (as well as potentially your daughter).

[quote=FlyerInHi]
I would like a device to record the MAC address of people who walk by my house then gives me a report on how often and when.[/quote]That statement brings back memories – because I worked on such a system, but we monitored MAC addresses from over 1 mile away using a high gain directional antenna. Kind of ‘spook’y stuff. One thing about WiFi, for the most part, whether you get the MAC depends if the person’s client WiFi is trying to make a connection. If the client WiFi is set to only connect to known ‘routers’/’hubs’ – then it will generally be silent until is sees it. Constant querying burns through power on cell phones. However, there is a way to ‘ping’ a client side WiFi – and make it reveal itself in some cases.

[FlyerInHi]

FYI, for those concerned about security. I did some reading on local control without internet.

Wink allows you to that. The Wink Relay would work as the control module like back in 1980s. The article says the Hub works offline, so the app should too since that’s the way to access the Hub. I will have to test it.

http://www.techhive.com/article/3031251/hubs-controllers/wink-turns-on-local-control-for-connected-light-switches-bulbs.html

Samsung SmartThings will also run locally, with limitations.
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/209979766-Local-processing

Obviously, Alexa, Siri, Google won’t work locally.

[spdrun]

I think home automation is a good thing because that will deter burglaries, maybe do away with them entirely.

Want to monitor you daughter? Or worriy she’ll be molested by intruder? Get an alarm when a window opens or when her bedroom light comes on at night. Haha… so many things for the paranoid.

I would like a device to record the MAC address of people who walk by my house then gives me a report on how often and when.

I don’t want to totally deter property crime — it keeps the rich and powerful honest.

Home invasions are extremely rare, so rare as to be a non-issue.

Recording MAC addresses — no thanks, no plans to be a stalker 🙂

[Author]

Posts