I’m horrified when I see someone with an Alexa in their home
Yup, my parents have Google Home and Alexa, and my brother has Alexa. And here I am, the only one in the family who works in tech with neither. In fact, I got a free Google Home and gave it away because I don’t want it anywhere near my home network.
One of these days I’ll figure out how to DIY it, but until then, I just use my phone (GrapheneOS, so some protections there) to play music and look stuff up.
I got a free Google Home and gave it away because I don’t want it anywhere near my home network.
You should have destroyed it.
I like having something in the garage. It’s in a place where I only stay when I’m working on something and my hands are super dirty. It can be isolated to a vlan by itself.
But if my hands are covered in oil. I like being able to yell at it to play music and not get one more thing dirty.
Makes sense. I’m also interested in getting something like it, I just don’t want anything by Google or Amazon, and I’ve been too lazy to go the DIY route.
When I’m working in my garage, I’m usually listening to an audiobook, and all I need to do to pause is bump a button on the side with the back of my hand or something. Or sometimes I’ll listen to a playlist. But if I’m working on something in the garage, it’s usually not for very long (e.g. maybe an oil change, brake job, or headlights), so I’m usually in and out in 30 min to an hour. Some people love working in their garage though, I personally see it as a chore that I do to save some time and money.
Mine was a hacked Google home mini (physical hack, not software) where I took the speaker out to an aux jack to have it loud enough.
I was in there for hours for all sorts of projects like engine and trans rebuilds.
I got a free Google Home and gave it away
To an enemy, I hope! Otherwise, you should’ve just thrown it out, or stripped it for parts or something.
I think it was to my parents, who already had a Google Home and an Alexa. I figured it was safe to add it to the rest of the dumpster fire…
I refuse to buy products for my home that require an app. No, I am not signing your fucking privacy policy to use my lightbulbs.
Your entire house is
smarthackable and tracks your every step for advertising revenue of big companies.I’m starting to get old.
I can smart my house in a fully closed network and automate so much shit. But then I have to stay on top of it. I’m already at the point where it’s becoming a chore to catch up on the industry for new hardware for my rigs and I’ve done it so many times; it’s not fun anymore, it’s a job… I’m tired.
Solace is found in my headphones and a fire pit. The day Steam becomes fuckery, I’m retiring from technology and fully absolving myself into disconnection.
Hell of a time to be born, but fatigue.
Edit: Ah, who amI kidding? I’m a career data analyst. I’ll be chasing digital dragons until I die
Dont you fucking say that about steam. They will forever be a beacon of hope.
I’m paranoid at work because that’s my job.
At home, I’m off the clock and my digital hygiene and organization is atrocious.
The shoemaker’s children oft go barefoot.
I wish it was more common for printers to have or be supported by open source firmware. Maybe then I might start to trust them enough to buy one.
BRB, attaching a pen to my GRBL-based CNC and looking for a PostScript to G-Code converter…
This is actually a really easy conversion for popular 3d printers like the ender3, there are so many plotter mods.
This gives a new meaning to trouble shooting. 🤔
In more civilized countries, we keep a sledgehammer read to bash the printer with, rather than a gun.
Real techies know that the only way to be sure is to use an EMP device.
I’m a tech worker, and I’ve got tons of smart things. They’re just all local. (Except my garage door opener. Man, fuck LiftMaster. Oh and my thermostat. Ecobee is ok, but I wish they would offer a local only option.)
Check out to GDOBlaq from konnected. I have the alarm panels and they’re great.
I program for a living.
I can’t stand all the smart shit people talk about. I hate installing software updates. I hate having to download an app just to use some shitty hardware. I hate needing an internet connection to use something. I hate having to charge yet another device.
I really hate software. I try to avoid it as much as possible.
There’s an offshoot of smart device enthusiasts that insist everything is local and reproducible. But if you don’t like software, it only makes it worse to try to keep things self-hosted, not to mention the learning curve is much, much steeper.
It’s an Okidata ribbon printer.
So how do you send documents to the printer?
cocking my gun
Nice try, Printer, but this is your last warning.
As a tech worker, it’s stunning how many of my colleagues have smart Amazon or Apple surveillance home
Because being a tech worker doesn’t mean you have privacy concerns, after all someone made those privacy intruding devices
I’m not being flippant but how else would or should I control my smart plugs and lights? Or set a timer with a voice command? Get my devices set up for “movie time” or control music ?
I paid for the Mycroft and that was a flop and they are now out of business.
Using an app is kind of a shitty interface for that type of thing. Even if I managed to do the rain dance to get home assistant up and running with my stuff…
It’s always risk vs convenience.
Personally I respect folks keen on privacy. But I’m old, I don’t have kids, and don’t give a fuck. Give me my voice commands and no hassle set up/use…
Smart switches are programmable, and can easily configure smart switches and lights. You can get a touch screen interface to home assistant, and do all of that on it, embed it on the wall. It doesn’t need to be an app on your phone.
Voice is definitely easier and more convenient, with HA being more configurable and difficult.
There are always going to be trade-offs in life, but you’re definitely getting convenience in exchange for privacy here
Home assistant is making great strides and will get there eventually but it’s probably still several years and two or three hardware revisions away from replacing Alexa for anyone that isn’t a total geek about these things. They just don’t have the money to produce loss leaders like Amazon can.
Damn, I also paid Mycroft ai, it’s a shame what happened to them. But this is the kind of convenience that is not worth giving away my entire life to a corporation.
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Tech worker here and my whole house is smart. Using Home Assistant, zwave, zigbee and EspHome, tasmota devices. So it’s all offline, local, and homemade. Only have a few devices that are too complex or expensive to home make. For example radon detector, Bond bridge, ShieldTV.
This is part of the reason I have no intention of having anything to do with IT once I retire.
