[HN Gopher] Cold Call
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       Cold Call
        
       Author : Alex3917
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2021-08-27 12:47 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (theupsizers.wordpress.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (theupsizers.wordpress.com)
        
       | TrainedMonkey wrote:
       | Ability to check refrigerator temperature sounds really cool, but
       | with great functionality comes great complexity. And with great
       | complexity comes increased risk of failure and restricted ability
       | to self-repair the device. Note that I am clumping not only
       | refrigerator stopped working because wifi is out class of risk
       | but also privacy implications due to increased PII exposure
       | surface.
       | 
       | Compared to a smart refrigerator without an internet connection
       | the only killer feature of this setup is notification that the
       | door is open, even that is only relevant to people who have
       | forgot to close the fridge problem.
       | 
       | The future is bright with fridge, oven, tv, toaster, phone, echo,
       | thermostat, et. al. happily sending data about your usage habits
       | which companies will resell until it gets combined into a
       | gigantic database. Then someone will analyze that info and figure
       | out how to make money by sending you personalized ads.
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | I have a standard bi-metallic dial thermometer hanging below a
       | shelf in my refrigerator. Costs about US$3.
       | 
       | Most Internet of Things technology is so underwhelming.
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | Arguably it's worth knowing that the temperature of this
         | refrigerator got above X degrees for an extended period of time
         | but that can still be handled by a cheap local device. And for
         | a refrigerator at least, if I'm away for an extended period of
         | time, it's not like I can do anything if there's an extended
         | outage.
         | 
         | There is something to be said for detecting whole house
         | temperature drops in winter, but that's probably because you
         | lost power and mostly won't be able to do anything about
         | remotely. I did once get an alert for this and the problem was
         | that the power _had_ been out as my neighbor confirmed.
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-27 23:00 UTC)