Technology Memes

Like, I'm looking into robotic lawnmowers. Which seem to come in three types:

1. Perimeter wire "10 drive forward until you hit something; 20 turn a random amount; 30 goto 10" types

2. GPS plus a beacon you install on your property guided things that don't work under trees and still require an internet uplink

3. Camera/LIDAR guided ones that require an internet uplink because the processing is done on "the cloud."

Meanwhile there's some kid in Europe who's put together a GPS guided one that does all the processing on a raspberry pi onboard. You teach it its boundaries by driving it around with an Xbox controller. Why does this need "the cloud?"

I still love the idea of digital automation, I don't want anything to do with this world where a multi-thousand dollar lawn bot is dependent on a server on the internet somewhere and they can either sell your data to Lithuanian data rapists or "iMow is now a subscription service, to ever mow your lawn again, enter your payment details so that we can charge you $9.99 while leaking your data to Lithuanian data rapists."

Yep, that's me. I have my smart phone but I try not to keep it on my person for large swaths of the day. I've stopped wearing a smart watch entirely. I'm slowly getting the traditional "smart" devices out of my life. I recently bought an inexpensive sewing machine too, and I went with Brother brand, but I got one that was adjusted mechanically rather than computerized, just in case.

But I do love me some free/libre technology! In was just getting a bunch of games installed on my son's Linux PC (I am bringing LAN parties back in this home), and if hobby time permits this winter I might start getting into home assistant and locally controlled smart devices. And since I'm already an embedded systems dev, I'll probably come up with some fun stuff to do with raspberry pi's or similar.

Smart phone? Sure.

Smart Speaker? Sure.

Smart refrigerator? Fuck off with that. Even the Roomba was better when it just wandered everywhere. Now it gets confused if a door is closed.

I just learned that there are alarm clocks that expect you to pay a 5€/month subscription to fully use their app...

I was looking for a sunrise alarm clock to not want to snooze as much. Ended up buying a 12 year old model second hand for nothing. Does exactly its job.

I was never into bullshit/garbage/pseudo tech. The only thing that really changed is there is more bullshit/garbage/pseudo tech than ever before.

Yup. I was all in on everything technical. It's been draining more and more over the years. And in the last 5 years I'm honestly looking at getting rid of my phone for a dumb phone, getting a stable linux install, pretending there are no new games or things by getting internet so slow all I can do is pay bills and fill forms or read text based forums, and fucking off into the sunset.

Yeah, this is me entirely.

smart systems that feed me MORE advertising? well shit.... no thanks

Or that exist solely to sell the data it collects about you. Living in the panopticon sucks.

I thought tech would be a lot cooler, it's just all shitty touchscreens with bland interfaces attached to intrusive companies, no thanks I'll just do it myself.

Exactly me.

Everything turned to crap around 2012 id say. No actual innovation since then only pure capitalism slop.

I miss the early years of smart phones when there was real innovation driven by competition. Now it’s just the same boring phone every year.

If you want to have control over smart devices and don't want to be reliant on an internet connection, I highly recommend trying Home Assistant.

It does require a dedicated device, but it's remarkably simple to get started, and amazingly powerful if you want to get into the scripting side.

While some integrations do require internet (getting the weather, or tracking a delivery), most run entirely locally (smart lights, solar tracking, printer stats). The main problem I have is that I keep finding new things I can do with it.

I relate to that title 100%

Just buy versions that are hackable and dont rely on external services :D

Smart devices can be cool again: this is a failure of consumer protection and privacy regulation.

Matter/Thread is coming to save the day (extremely slowly)! We’ve had local mesh networks like z-wave and zigbee for many years (no telemetry, no internet “portals” to grab your data and advertise) but it’s always been kind of a niche. Matter/Thread could change that

• Consumers think an automation hub is complicated, but with Alexa, Apple, Google onboard, tens (hundreds?) of millions already have a hub.
• Consumers never knew about local mesh networks to prioritize them, but Matter/Thread is the new hotness (ok, at least a bit)
• Corps never saw enough profit in zwave or zigbee, but Matter/Thread opens a much wider market.

Insist on Thread (or zigbee or z-wave) for your smart devices and the shit just flushes away.

Even how slowly they’re rolling out Matter/Thread is a good thing. All that time is manufacturers coming to a consensus on device profiles, which is a huge win for interoperability.