If you’re relying on Google for anything you’re a fool.
I’m still a little foolish but trying to wise up.
this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2024
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I've ordered gizmos that will work with Home Assistant to replace my minis. I'm working my way off Gmail...
I'm seriously de-googling. Apartment uses a nest thermostat, but... I may be able to get that far.
Matter devices help in many ways. De-clouding is one.
Which gizmos, do you have them? How well do they work?
I haven't received these yet. They're in significant demand and order times are long.
When I ordered I was supposed to receive them about now. Now the order is pushed to June. According to those who have them, they work well enough. If I want, I can tie in an AI (cloud or local).
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/oSKBWtBJyDE?si=E7vqbO3GMFRDynTR
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Ok, ya I've seen those... I love the idea and am excited to see them become mature.
I am, unfortunately tied to Google right now with our "whole house audio". Using old Chromecast audios. When those are EOL it is going to create a real headache here.
We use minis to initiate the CCAs by making their (minis) default speaker the CCA running through a centralized amp for that room (to ceiling speakers)
It works quite well
Remind me again why IoT is a good idea
I remember some years ago, per-pandemic, when my coworkers and friends were getting hyped up about this stuff. I was the Luddite who they mocked for not being excited about it.
But I knew it was just more data gathering (spying) tech, and I knew the products would be made with planned obsolescence in mind, and I knew they would require subscriptions for cloud services. It doesn't take any super power or precognition to know these things, it just requires paying a modicum of attention to trends and past performance from these corporations.
It's discouraging how many otherwise smart people I know who are absolute suckers for tech bro marketing.
Don't have FOMO (fear of missing out), cultivate FOBAD (fear of being a dumbass).
Yeh luckily they (corporations) beat hype for new toys out of me before iot really took off. Now I just see everything that connects to the net through the lense of how are they screwing ne and how soon are they killing it
Home Assistant is open source, privacy oriented and working to make local non-cloud, non-Spyware) the norm.
It's getting easier and easier to adopt and matter devices avoid cloud silliness.
All right smart guy, explain to me how else I'd know if I'm out of ketchup if I can't use an app to access the remote camera in my fridge? Can't do it can ya? Yeah that's what I thought
IoT doesn't have to mean controlled by someone else. It's the "cloud" part that breaks the concept, not the networking part.
Most of these products are adding features that are nice to have. (And security cameras don't really count; being networked is their core functionality.) If you actually owned them, so you could hook them into an arbitrary hub (preferably with some sort of certificate system), those features add value.
They just don't add enough value to let someone else use them to spy on you and be able remotely shut down your property.
Well said. I had hardware that was killed by "upgrades" or manufacturers discontinuing them from their cloud features. I now instal locally controllable hardware as much as possible and it has led to a much more stable and long term reliable smart home. Everything ties back into Home Assistant. The only remaining things I have with a cloud-reliant integration are the robovac our Nest Protect Smoke Alarms, and smart vents. The only reason they're cloud controlled is there wasn't a viable option that met feature and price point requirements. Everything else, (65+devices) is local Wi-Fi/Homekit ZigBee or Z-Wave
You are of course correct. Guess my definition of iot must include going over the Internet. Comes with being an old cunt I guess. I do have a couple network devices but nothing that has packets that need to leave the house
It actually is, if done right. But doing it right means you have to do things properly and care about doing them properly. In general data collection about various things can be useful, from optimizing energy consumption of your home to making your own life a tiny bit easier.
The problem is, manufacturers saw the potential and rushed in to be the first on the market and forgot that online things need maintenance and patching. Goes to show how selfless the admin job is. As long as things keep working properly no one even knows they exist.
I have wifi cameras which were never allowed online from first second they were connected to my network. But on the other hand I have few air filters that I do allow to send data so I can contribute to global statistics on air quality and similar.
I guess I'm the odd one out. I quite enjoy my Arlec / grid connect stuff for simple things that could be done with wires, timers and the like.
Tasks include: Controlling the aircon and a basic heater with Universal IR. Running ventilation fans to force air through the house when the missus opens a door for a smoke. Letting the goats out on schedule when they were young. Enabling different banks of batteries to run or charge for the inverter circuit by schedule or sunlight amount. Monitor power usage on the chargers and output to the inverter circuit. Charge the battery mower to 80% only, roughly. Charge my phone to 80% only, roughly. Power up the office lighting / TV / monitors / amp etc when I enter, off when I leave. Keep my dog cool at night but not too cold. (fan control)
Granted I'm not looking forward to the day that grid connect dies, but I belive I can convert to Tuya locally hosted if that happens.
None of these need a subscription.
Likewise my outdoor Reolink camera has free cloud storage but only if you renew it every month, which is a pain.
If you’re looking for a security camera solution with the benefits of big name cloud camera providers (footage is stored off site, accessible if all your cameras are down), but that keeps your data private (everything is encrypted before being uploaded to the cloud), I’m working on one:
https://github.com/sciactive/soteria
It’s not ready yet, but when it is, it will let you use an Amazon S3 compatible server to upload all of your footage, and that will all be encrypted before being uploaded.
Eh, couldn't you just use backup software like Borg or Restic? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding the niche here.
The benefit of doing it this way is that the stream is uploaded nearly live. So anything that happens that kills the cameras should be caught and uploaded. (Like if someone breaks into your house and knows where your cameras are.) Partial uploads, because the streams are fragmented MP4 streams, should be viewable. I’ll also be able to use WebRTC to support actual live feeds from the camera.
Ah, interesting. I'll keep an eye on your project then. :)
Oh no... no need. Just frustrating how Google buys up good companies to expand their footprint and then shutters them when they've used them up for their temporary worth. It's like Smartthings. Amazing Kickstarter. Amazing community. Amazing API. Samsung slowly ruined it all to connect their devices.
We're up in arms about the discontinuation of a 12-year-old security camera? I think 12 years of support is more than reasonable.
Welcome to the world of business. First time here huh? Might wanna strap in, this is pretty harmless when it comes to capitalists and its by-products.