It's in everything now. It became like a museum exhibit to me seeing the most wild things. Wifi toaster WHYY? Like I knew about smart fridges but I was seeing like overly technical smart phone connectable kettles and like some griddle made for just bacon?? Whyyy
I'm just gonna start buying every single "dumb" appliance I see at goodwill thrifting from now on. I'll make a little collection and gift some to friends who want out of the techno hellscape too. I keep thinking about the absurd amount of lights and screens on things that have no reason to have one and how fast they'll likely break. All that shit will be in landfill in like 10 years max
In high school around the turn of the millennium (:chomsky-yes-honey:) I lost marks on a paper where I stated that a need to move to IPv6 was due to address space exhaustion, and that in the future even toasters would have IP addresses. I was told I was wrong and toasters would never have IP addresses.
The future may be awful, but I can rest easy knowing that I was indeed right :gaddafi-happy:
Oh I definitely lack any real forecasting powers! I think it was from a general assumption that more and more things were gonna get connected to the net at some point, and watching too much Red Dwarf as a kid.
I did a speech in speech class on Net Neutrality like 10 years ago or something and nobody understood what i was talking about and it feels like only a small percent of people more now know what that stuff is even about lmao. reddit did go hard on it though for awhile which was good i guess. but the whole thing has always felt like such a lurking monster that is gonna fuck us hard before most people realize what's happening. dems are essentially back seating it being any sort of priority and a senate vote for a new FCC chairperson. It's been over a year that the vote has been in senate limbo. If nothing is actually done things are just gonna slowly get worse for everyone
This isn't the half of it - because of the various machinations of licensing and money, Pantone will no longer allow certain colours and finishes in Adobe products unless you pay Pantone a bunch of money each month. So if you open an old document in newer versions, those process colours are blacked out and you get a popup saying Pantone want cash.
So now we are at the point where we are paying for colours - and using the RGB values isn't an alternative - Pantone exists as an industry baseline profile for printers, so if you specifiy a value, you will get the same result every time. So you have to pay if you want to produce print-ready designs.
Adobe have done this before - with Creative Cloud you can roll back to previous versions of their products, but a couple of years ago vast swathes of apps disappeared - turns out Adobe didn't want to continue their deal with Dolby despite having more money that God so any older product that used their audio/video tech - even Photoshop which can edit video - was removed. Real cool, man. So rolling back a couple of years to a nice, stable, version of Ps is impossible because it no longer exists.
I'm still using my torrented brain version of CS4 and I'm never gonna update.
Indeed. I know of a few illustrators who regularly use CS5 because it is regarded as the best version. I switched to Clip Studio a couple of years ago for my illustration work and never looked back - I only use Adobe at my professional job.
this is a hell of a wormhole i didn't ask for but i needed to hear. thats fucked
Yeah, it's a bit of a tangent from your post but it all eventually folds into things that will eventually become useless because of capitalist pressure and failure.
Like you constantly hear about why people's lightbulbs stop working because the firmware update wrecked everything or they used a cheaper, third-party bulb.
Oh btw they didn't even have an electric standalone wok burner like I wanted. It was all one big waste of time lmfao
Ooh nice, like an induction one? I've got one of those and it is extremely fun and good
yeah! my current setup with my stove is so bad it's a constant headache for a wok. I've been debating getting a propane outdoor one since i do think having that flame contributes a bit the the wok hei flavor for many foods but an electric one will get more use out of me considering i don't really want to have to go outside, setup a table and deal with the weather while making dinner a couple nights a week lol. Still might get one of those though for summer, I could use it for quite a few things i've been stewing on.
Nice!
I love the induction one because it's ridiculously fast and you can set a temp for doing things like deep frying.
IoT was a really obvious attempt at gathering more customer data. You don't want a smart cup, but advertisers might want to know when/what you last drank, for example.
And it's not only IoT, check out Meta: they've been fixated on eye tracking for a while, claiming it's the key for successful VR (this might have some merit BTW, but that's besides the point).
I'm in no way a ludite, it's just undeniable that data gathering is what moves the tech world these days. Maybe all this data will lead to actually interesting applications (machine learning babyyy), but I'm skeptical about mass adoption, they've been trying and failing for years. Worse case scenario, it'll inform the new and improved cybersyn 2.0 :cyber-lenin:
It's wild how advertising is both totally unprofitable, and a huge bubble, and has driven everything tech focused that isn't a gun for the last ten or 15 years.
Everything needs to be on the internet and everything needs to register your details and everything requires an app to use, this is definitely more efficient
I legitimately get annoyed now whenever an appliance starts dying on me because I know I'm going to have to navigate through all this bullshit just to get a replacement. I don't need a microwave or a fridge with a touchscreen, let alone apps or wifi.
i only swipe right on girls who have their toaster data uploaded. sorry—actually not sorry! i need to know what your carb intake is at
if my fridge actually was one of those amazon cashless stores that could inventory every single thing in my fridge at any given moment i'd consider it cause i hate buying two of the same thing sometimes or not knowing if i even have it when i'm planning to use it
I agree there's utility to it. A toaster with a small display showing weather/time shouldn't be a bad thing. But its never that simple, there's always going to be data collection and updates at the worst times as well as dodgy apps (which probably have ads on them already). So it won't be the fridge telling you what you have and need, it'll be the fridge uploading all your data and then telling you there's a deal at local Walmart for your missing groceries.
Not only that, but terrible security that'll mean your toaster will be hacked and probably used to either mine crypto or be used in a DDOS attack
A few weeks ago I bought a pound of butter when I already had 3 pounds in the fridge. It was okay, I just made ghee.
Oh no! your espresso machine is depressoed(R), please PayPal 50usd to Keurig
lmao yeah you just reminded me that i've ranted about the Keurig and other DRM coffee pod makers. Those things were wack, though I'm pretty sure they ended the DRM stuff now? But I think that is a great example of putting technology into something that never needed it and serves very little to no purpose as a consumer.
Fucking water pitchers have data tracking technology now and Internet of Things themselves to other surveillance devices expected in your house such as the refrigerator. :no-mouth-must-scream:
omg i saw some tweet the other day i can't sadly find but someone plugged their vape into their computer to charge and it literally had a bootloader on it lol. thankfully apple's security warned them but i feel like things like that are way more common than we realize. anyways, they do make USB condoms which prevent anything but charging to happen, really useful when traveling somewhere and they only have USB charging
i would love to see it if you did ever end up finding it because i was doing something maybe two, three weeks ago on my lenovo (and the something required a secure environment, so i was using a specific os for this too) and i was going to charge this vape via one ofthe usb ports but then decided against it because of something in that same realm as what you said and i thought i was being paranoid..
thats really just like so fucked up to hear that something like that happened to someone.. so if you do find the tweet please link it
Someone else here mentioned the Internet of Shit account, who happened to retweet it. https://twitter.com/Malarkey/status/1585707761588912128
Logistics get longer and more complex, whole system teeters a little further over the precipice.
:sicko-hyper:
very good info! and not to also preach to choir but Amazon Ring cameras and probably other camera doorbells can and will give any of the footage to law enforcement without a warrant. there was actually a big push these last few years by LEO to get people to buy these so they can access footage from them with or without your consent. just by owning one you've waived your rights apparently lmao https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/07/ring-reveals-they-give-videos-police-without-user-consent-or-warrant
of course if you setup a pi-hole you can avoid this while still enjoying the luxury of camera doorbells but i'd imagine most people who even have the knowledge of pi-hole would know that already. When I was delivering for doodash for awhile I was actually surprised just how many people have, it was way more popular than I would have imagined, but I'm also in the bay area so stuff like this is definitely skewed a bit i think
Edit edit: I’m going to get off my ass and write that “home assistant for absolute beginners” post I’ve been meaning to get around to.
Please DM me when this happens.
The next time I'm not deeply underwater on my mortgage and going rice-and-beans-vegan out of necessity, I'd like to smart up my house to potentially save some energy over the long haul. (read: never, LOL, home ownership is just outsourcing your landlord to Jamie Dimon's thugs.)
Home assistant is absolutely necessary for anyone wanting to get the promise of smart home tech out of their devices. No company's "ecosystem" lets you set up the same level of complex interdevice smarts that home assistant does.
Second this! The solution here is to eschew alienation and seize the means of home automation. You can also get a zigbee/zwave dongle and be able to use that whole other family of iot products too!
As a disabled person, I really like having smart devices. Sometimes it's hard to get up and switch off my lights or turn off my TV. I like having the ability to check when my laundry will be done (actually I have a smart laundromat for that, but still) because I can plan my day around it. Whether it's intentional or not, it's genuinely helpful for disabled people.
Now obviously capitalism, the vile hellbeast that it is, has found a way to profit even more off these devices than the 'dumb' alternatives. Along with the obvious problems of FBI spying and whatnot. But there are open source projects to free yourself from these services and take full control of your smart devices.
absolutely not trying to take away from anyone's personal needs and i completely understand how some people can find things like that very useful and a great quality of life. i was truly just ranting after being bombarded by seeing how many screens and connectability are in just regular appliances now. I haven't shopped for a new appliance in quite a long time in an actual appliance store. It was kinda surreal to see just how much the "smart" thing has infiltrated even the most mundane of appliances. i do think almost anything that has to connect to wifi though is likely very bad for the vast majority of people though, especially if they have to update to be used when there are thousands of similar alternatives without wifi. everyone needs different things and i'm fortunate that i don't most things to have a screen on it to be able to use it and it was all a bit eye opening, especially when imagining where a lot of this stuff is actually headed with how bloated it has become.
There are some massive issues with IoT, like what you have pointed here and what I have said in my comment. But if you do the research to get the right product, you can probably have a house full of smart devices on entirely open source firmware. I am fortunate enough to have the ability to make my own smart devices with cheap electronics and some 3d printed parts when the need arises even, because of open source projects like esphome. There are people working to crack all of these devices open and keep them running and secure for years to come.
If it's any consolation, nearly every kitchen 'gadget' you see in an infomercial or in the kitchen section of sharper image was originally designed to help the elderly or disabled. There is a long history of products being pushed on the abled-bodied so that it's profitable to make them for the disabled.
there is sadly just no middle ground in capitalism most of the time. we're in the golden era(lmao) of smart devices becoming a functional and useful feature for many people and at the same time it's constantly skewing towards a more idealistic and less functional device. Strides are made while we also take multiple leaps backwards in functionality. progress is definitely being made but what i saw today was a gross way to force so much pretend advancements in appliances, it just made me really annoyed to think this might truly be the future of household items.
Wifi toaster WHYY? Like I knew about smart fridges but I was seeing like overly technical smart phone connectable kettles and like some griddle made for just bacon?? Whyyy
Because you already have a toaster and a fridge and a kettle. They need to justify why you're buying a new one - it's ""better"" with all the latest gadgets.
Calm down comrade, you're just seeing the simulacrum of technological progress in the process of gobbling up the real thing.
Can't wait to eventually be forced to sit through a commercial break every time I make coffee.
To think I wanted to be a programmer, and likely have to contribute to this BS. Although I suppose making free, open-source software like Hexbear would be a much better use of those skills.
There’s a very nice cuisinart drip coffee maker that has a metal toggle switch to start the cycle that always ends up at the goodwill here.
The switch isn’t actually “wired” to the circuit board, it’s a lever with leaf spring contacts bolted to the front panel that wipes em across some traces on the pcb.
This sounds like it would be a real pain in the ass when it goes loose and the leaf spring contacts don’t make contact anymore or the traces oxidize. Not so, you can clean the traces easily, bend the contacts back into their correct shape or just replace the stupid thing with a normal 80 cent dpdt momentary from mouser.
Anyway there’s an ifixit article about this particular problem that leaves out the replacing of the switch outright and also doesn’t explain all the screws you need to take out.
The "Internet of Shit" account is really good for tracking and bitching about this kind of thing.
Oh that's where I saw the bootloader inside the vape! I couldn't find it ty
