Additional to that account thing: Why does one have to install an app in order to access all functions and to toggle options of a device?
My girlfriend once has bought new headphones. In order to switch off the telephone function (you can - among other things -answer calls from the connected smartphone by touching one side of the headphones) it is required to download an app (a sloppily programmed one as well) to switch off this specific function. All other functions (volume, play, back and forward) are operated with buttons.
I heard about the same thing but with printers: The scan settings can only be toggled by an app (I think it was HP who has that feature - who else!?)
I got Sonoff relay switch, you can use guest account for it. But yeah all these smaet thing require a server and internet connection, so creating an account is mandatory in most case. One time my internet is down outside my control and i can’t switch on my ventilation fan and have to use the manual switch on it, it’s quite annoying. Kinda wish there’s one made for just local because i don’t need to use it remotely.
If you’re willing to take the time to learn, you could always setup your own local home assistant server.
https://www.home-assistant.io/
I personally love having full control over my smart devices locally, as well as being able to use a variety of different brands seamlessly!
The learning curve can be rather steep though, especially if you aren’t already tech savvy.
That’s the annoying part. From what i can tell, unless i read it wrong, Home Assistant basically merge every devices from multiple app into one central control unit, but it seems to me that i still need an account and connect my device to all those app in order for it to function.
but it seems to me that i still need an account and connect my device to all those app in order for it to function.
It depends. Some devices are fully local and don’t require an account, some require an account temporarily and then never again (can use a throwaway email), some require an ongoing cloud connection.
I’d look into zigbee, since those devices inherently don’t connect with the outside world at all. Maybe Matter as well, although I don’t know enough about it to confirm.
Why does my TIVO think I want to record Swamp Loggers?
grocery stores trying to get me to sign up for their reward program or whatever
Im surprised Aldi hasnt completely taken over the entire country by now because of how they skip all the bullshit
its a grocery store. i walk in, i buy food, i leave
could not be simpler.
My local Kroger, however, has automated price cards that adjust to scalp their customers during high-traffic periods.
this is a practice that should be rewarded via targetted arson of distribution centers until our demands are met
oops autocorrect lmao
i meant this is a practice that should be outlawed via legislation that follows our due processes
Lidl does a reward scheme in lots of countries, so I’m surprised actually that Aldi hasn’t done the same.
if they start, itll be the last straw that finally gets me to just go find a local farm and buy food direct from the source
My nephew says that about everything. Millennials seem to be totally okay with giving away personal stuff as long as it’s by choice. Otherwise it’s a hard fuckno.
My lightbulbs don’t require an account, I just get up from the couch and turn them off, has been working perfectly for decades 😘👌
It is possible to have lights that automatically turn on and off and not have to log in to the bespoke lightbulb app that stops being updated in three months while simultaneously rendering your lightbulb worse than useless because now it’s stuck on a dim shade of green that you can’t change because the last update broke the app.
The future we were promised is there, we just need to help it into the world.
its a shame you have to do this, but you can use HomeAssistant to disconnect a lot of those lights from their ‘clouds’ I bought dirt cheap RGBW bulbs from walmart and now I’m essentially emulating their ‘cloud’ on my local network. (tuya)
no more losing ability to control lights if the ISP goes down
- I am the only person in the entire country who knows and follows the rules for operating a vehicle.
This is a constant source of frustration for me. Im on the spectrum and even though my logical, intelligent side of the brain understands that rules are just words; the emotional part of my brain just screams “THATS NOT HOW THIS WORKS” every time someone hits their hazard lights and just gets out of their car in the middle of a 35mph road.
- Streaming services were better than cable for about 3 years somewhere between 2013 and 2019. Now there’s too many, they’re too expensive, and they shuffle their libraries around too much.
I wanna watch key and peele. oops its not on the comedy central app? who owns comedy central…hmmm…paramount? okay its on paramount plus…and its just a link that takes me to Amazon video? why? just play the show what is this
For me it’s that I don’t want short form video anywhere near my view.
I went to a bar for a drink the other day. They had TVs all over the place which I normally don’t care for but it looked like golf or something I could just ignore. After I ordered my drink I realized how wrong was.
It was actually some weird short form video TV channel. They croped the 16:9 screen into a 1:1 square with moving neon lines in the “empty space” where there was no video. Each video was about 5 seconds long and showed brainless content of people using a Rube Goldburg machine or doing card tricks and other such nonsense.
Once I realized what was happening it was too late as I got my drink and I felt compelled to finish it and pay. I tried to ignore the 5+ screens in my view but they were too big and eye-catching to really ignore. I kept catching myself looking at one of the screens after a minute or so. I felt like I was getting serotonin raped between ads.
Eventually I moved to sit by a window and stare at a tree. I’ll never go back to a bar like that again.
This reads like a cyberpunk vignette; I enjoyed it. Thank you. I’ve started to take note when something decidedly cyberpunk happens in day-to-day life. I make a lot of notes.
I could increase the cyberpunk feeling by turning the TVs off with a flipper zero. I haven’t felt the need to yet but it’s always an option.
Remember when phones had ir transmitters
I was so jealous of my dad’s HTC one, haha.
That’s an idea…
that’s the direction we all need to be moving, if we’re going to survive/avert the water wars.
Extrapolating a bit, here are the next steps
- screens in places where people might look at an ad will all have built in image recognition and eye-tracking.
- an algorithm/model will calculate the number of people within view and an acceptable level of eyes on screen per minute (or some other time increment tbd by an industry leading marketing psychologist) depending on the task they are doing.
- the algorithm/model can also calculate the local demographic
- the short format video content can be easily tweaked to improve engagement. If the racing crash clips aren’t generating enough engagement, then it can try indoor cat clips.
- when the eye to screen levels are at or above minimum advertising levels, display an ad that would best match the target demographic that the advertiser set. The ad contents will also match the actions of the local population.
Certainly. Having worked in advertising for 25 years, that’s probably just phase one. Those short videos will eventually be different for each person seeing the screen… and largely A.I. generated with few humans in the loop. In the flip side, people will probably be able to program their smart glasses to hide all that shit. It’s an arms race over our attention already. See: Trudell’s “mined mind.” Or Bo Burnham, for that matter.
It’s like a race to the bottom.
CHILI’S IS ABLEIST AND HAS LITTLE SCREENS KN EVERY DAMN TABLE THAT DISTRACT ME.
I went to a restaurant awhile ago and they told me to order using the little screen on the table. I said “no thanks” and left.
I have this exact same reaction.
I’m a grumpy bastard and hate similar things but honestly, this doesn’t sound so bad that I’d be particularly bothered by it or leave if I hadn’t already ordered that beer. It’s just wallpaper. If I was by myself I’d probably appreciate it on some level and if I’m with other people I’d likely stop noticing. Overall I think I’d probably prefer the bar not have them at all but it’s really not that bad.
Loud sports or music that can fuck right off but otherwise, meh.
Normally I would agree with you. But they had these 50" screens in every direction except for down. I was literally staring at the floor in an attempt not to look at them. The swirling colorful “boarders” of the short format square video was eye catching enough. But with the video changing scenes every 5 seconds it was a similar effect to the Eisenstein editing style in Battleship Potemkin. The screens were screaming at you to stare at it.
It was also just total garbage content, the type of stuff I left reddit for. It was just a step above what Americans of the future watched in Idiocracy. It was truly a bizarre experience for me and also one of the most “boomer” moments I’ve had. Although out of everyone else in the bar, only the boomers were happily watching the short format video.
That’s not a boomer thing. Boomer will be like “sure, I’ll give you all the informations you want, even the name of my dog and my credit card number”.
Not wanting to be exploited by tech coorporations, technological literacy, is not a boomer thing.
I mean, have you met zoomers? Technological literacy as we knew it is dead.
but also have you met boomers? Tech literacy as we knew never existed.
Boomers were the generation that invented a lot of this tech. Most of them weren’t literate, but I have known quite a few who were. Honestly same with Gen x, we grew up with it but, a lot of the good tech didn’t come until later in our lives. There are tons of illiterate gen xers and millennials and gen y and z. Some people care and some people don’t.
Quick, invent everything before we get too old!
Born too late to be blissfully unaware about technology
Born too early to be blissfully unaware about technology
Born in just the right time to have the cursed knowledge on how all of the cobbled together tech stack out there barely works
Every time I use an ATM I get the mental image of a 70 year old COBOL programmer desperately trying to patch holes in a sinking ship with a roll of duct tape.
Me too, except any time I have to deal with the US banking system. Ever used ACH? What a wreck.
It’s a fucking nightmare, but I have heard rumors that it is in the process of being replaced with a new nightmare.
Gen X and Millennials to the rescue
Laugh it up now. When we’re 50, our holoshere is going to require us to submit to genetic modifications to get our next soylent nutrition paste to dispense. God only knows how we connect to a person young enough in 2040 to know if it’s even possible to bypass. That kind of stuff was laughed at the last time we tried.
just keep an eye on pirate forums or learn how to steal ig
Gen X would like a word
Anyone remember Lyle and Dexter Manning from the Machinima series “Sanity not Included?”
And that’s why boomers are constantly ‘hacked’.
If you don’t want someone else controlling those things, you do indeed need an account. If you are fine with a physical switch to control lights then just stick to that.
Oi m8, you got an account for that?
The real question is why our government in the USA hasn’t stepped in and made any protections for our data, which would solve this issue entirely. Apps like Temu or Character.AI have very sketchy data management and privacy practices, you have no idea what they’re really doing with your data, it’s required to make an account for both of them. Clearly they are selling them and obtaining lots of your data to do all sorts of things with. Frankly, I don’t think it should be legal to obtain huge amounts of people’s data, specifying nothing about what it is actually, truly being used for
Add tik tok, meta, google, and amazon to that list
