[HN Gopher] I found a backdoor into my bed
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       I found a backdoor into my bed
        
       Author : riverdroid
       Score  : 498 points
       Date   : 2025-02-21 16:27 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (trufflesecurity.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (trufflesecurity.com)
        
       | nadis wrote:
       | "When I say backdoor, what am I referring to? Sure, Eight Sleep
       | needs a way to push updates, provide service, and offer support.
       | That's expected.
       | 
       | What goes too far in my opinion, is allowing all of Eight Sleep's
       | engineers to remotely SSH into every customer's bed and run
       | arbitrary code that bypasses all forms of formal code review
       | process.
       | 
       | And yes, I found evidence that this is exactly what's happening."
       | 
       | ^ wow, this is pretty wild. <insert joke about being careful
       | about who you share a bed with>
        
         | SeanAnderson wrote:
         | Sounds like a good way to get bed bugs.
         | 
         | .. I'll see myself out.
        
         | Linkd wrote:
         | even more so combined with the fact that these are supposedly
         | being sent into the government.
        
       | EvanAnderson wrote:
       | The state of the product's security wasn't unexpected. I was,
       | however, shocked by this part:                 > I was willing to
       | overlook:       >   The bed costs $2,000       >   It won't
       | function if the internet goes down       >   Basic features are
       | behind an additional $19/mo subscription       >   The bed's only
       | controls are via mobile app
       | 
       | Nothing about this bed should depend on off-site servers. Nothing
       | about the product should necessitate a subscription fee.
       | 
       | The market is clearly too stupid to vote against the rent seeking
       | tech industry. It makes me so sad.
        
         | readthenotes1 wrote:
         | Conspicuous consumption drives a lot of irrational behavior
        
         | jjice wrote:
         | I've heard the sleep people get with this is excellent, but no
         | way in hell am I paying a subscription and requiring an
         | internet connection for my bed. The entire concept is just
         | absurd. If it sells, it sells, I guess.
        
           | megadata wrote:
           | I've also heard people are having excellent sleep in their
           | traditional modern beds. Me included.
        
             | amarcheschi wrote:
             | I've also heard about people finding new foam mattresses
             | too hot :(
             | 
             | like me. will buy a spring mattress next time
             | 
             | Edit thank you for your recommendation but I'm in italy,
             | European and American mattresses are quite different.
             | 
             | Before discovering this, I once wrote to the customer
             | support of the flamingo hotel, Las Vegas, because I loved
             | their mattress: Hi, i do think that what i'm gonna write is
             | weird, but anyway haha. On july of the summer 2019 i
             | visited the fabulous las vegas. nor the nightlife neither
             | the opulence of sin city could, however, reach the pinnacle
             | of the human civilization, the mattress on which i slept at
             | flamingo. I now have to change my own mattress at home, and
             | i'm looking for the model on which i slept. the website
             | only says "Simmons beautyrest", although Beautyrest is just
             | a brand name used by simmons and doesn't mean a specific
             | model. could you help me in this modern day divine comedy,
             | be my Virgil and help me find the mattress name? Regards
             | Name
             | 
             | I got an answer: Thank you for contacting Caesars
             | Entertainment. I was delighted to hear that you enjoyed our
             | mattress on your visit! Currently, we are using the Simmons
             | Hospitality Beautyrest Felicity Pillow Top. They can be
             | purchased at https://caesarsguestpurchase.com/shop or
             | 1-866-926-8233. Please feel free to write back if you have
             | any further questions.
             | 
             | Thank you for choosing Caesars for your gaming
             | entertainment!
             | 
             | Have an amazing day!
             | 
             | Shirley
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Have you tried a more firm foam mattress? I had similar
               | sentiments about foam mattresses but they were all the
               | type where you just feel like you're sinking into the
               | foam.
        
               | amarcheschi wrote:
               | I did, but in the showrooms in the short time I tried
               | them (and with jeans and clothes and so on) I didn't got
               | that it was warmer than other firmer mattresses
        
               | vl wrote:
               | I use latex topper because of this. It works like foam,
               | but has cold feel to it, and hypoallergenic dust mite
               | resistant on top of that.
        
               | quickgist wrote:
               | How can a latex topper be hypoallergenic when tons of
               | people are allergic to latex?
        
               | craftkiller wrote:
               | While going with a non-foam mattress will be colder than
               | a foam mattress, if you were interested in a colder foam
               | then I'd like to recommend latex mattresses. They're more
               | expensive than memory foam and they feel different but I
               | no longer overheat at night. Also I sleep better knowing
               | my bed has proper kerning.
        
           | cthalupa wrote:
           | This all has me quite torn.
           | 
           | The "smart" features on it are genuinely useful for me - I
           | have sleep apnea, as well as an eight sleep + the electronic
           | platform. It automatically changes the elevation of my head
           | based on apnea events, and I see a marked reduction in them
           | when using this feature.
           | 
           | I have a cpap machine that also makes automatic adjustments
           | but I still get noticeably better sleep quality with the
           | eight sleep. I also really enjoy the temperature control,
           | since it saves on HVAC costs vs. climate controlling the
           | whole house. I've not tried an aquarium chiller for this
           | purpose, though I have used one for doing temperature control
           | on a beer fermenter, and I can extrapolate from there that I
           | value the management of the actual eight sleep device vs.
           | managing an aquarium chiller's temp control.
        
             | EvanAnderson wrote:
             | > The "smart" features on it are genuinely useful for me...
             | 
             | All of those features could be provided by local compute,
             | either nestled somewhere in the soft and fluffy gross
             | profit margin of a $2,000 product, or with Bluetooth to a
             | "thick" application running on a phone.
             | 
             | The reason this product, and so many other "IoT" products,
             | put their compute across the Internet is to facilitate a
             | business model. The industry has the technology to put as
             | much compute, storage, and reliability on-site with a high-
             | margin, high-cost product like this.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Even if it were a nightstand device rather than a phone.
               | The immediate loss of functionality when loss of signal
               | to the mothership is an egregious design flaw. There's no
               | reason the thing can't have a bit of storage so it can
               | then upload the logged data when the signal returns.
               | 
               | Of course, they'll probably claim AI running in the cloud
               | is making the decisions which makes the local first
               | controller not possible.
        
               | gopher_space wrote:
               | It's not a design flaw, they created a hardware loss-
               | leader and then couldn't come up with any useful services
               | you couldn't write yourself.
        
             | plagiarist wrote:
             | It would be nice if we could provide medical assistance to
             | people who need it without jamming these devices full of
             | adware garbage and forcing people to connect to the
             | internet to use their own possessions.
        
           | darksaints wrote:
           | I love my device...it has profoundly changed my quality of
           | sleep on the same scale that CPAP therapy has.
           | 
           | Seeing the founder fellate Elon and his Doge employees has
           | given me second thoughts. I may be looking for an aquarium
           | chiller in my near future.
        
         | balls187 wrote:
         | Don't blame the market.
         | 
         | Blame the engineers who know the risks of such foolishness that
         | lack the courage and conviction to stand up to decision makers.
        
           | dralley wrote:
           | The market deserves _some_ blame here.
        
             | balls187 wrote:
             | My partner has difficulty sleep unless it is the perfect
             | environment (black out curtains, noise cancellation, sound
             | bath, temperature), and is more prone to the effects of a
             | single bad nights sleep. For people like her, $20/mo +
             | $2000 fee is a small price to pay for a solution to a very
             | difficult problem.
             | 
             | I would of course, attempt to veto unnecessary IoT devices
             | and subscriptions for usage, but this would be a fight I
             | would likely not win.
        
               | squeaky-clean wrote:
               | They're not complaining about the price. They're
               | complaining about the high price for a bed where those
               | high priced features stop working if your internet goes
               | down, or there is a server outage, or you stop paying a
               | monthly fee, or the original company goes bankrupt.
        
               | binarymax wrote:
               | How in the world does this necessitate a subscription?
               | All of these things can work without centralization,
               | setup once, and contained entirely within the home.
        
               | balls187 wrote:
               | > How in the world does this necessitate a subscription?
               | 
               | I can only speculate.
               | 
               | But, there is demand to improve sleep quality. The
               | provider wants to charge a monthly fee for that.
               | 
               | The market simply puts buys and sellers together. People
               | making business decisions will stick with Econ 101--
               | charge what the market will bare, and why shouldn't they?
        
               | hn_acc1 wrote:
               | >charge what they market will bare
               | 
               | They want you to sleep without any clothing?
        
               | exe34 wrote:
               | She won't get any sleep if the wifi is down.
        
               | balls187 wrote:
               | Or if the power is out.
        
               | geodel wrote:
               | I think there is some naming convention gap here. I would
               | call it Sleep Equipment as we have exercise equipments.
               | Then folks will find pricing more reasonable. There is
               | further opportunity to differentiate market with Sleep,
               | Sleep Pro and Sleep Enterprise products.
               | 
               | The pro and enterprise version would allow local server
               | setup for critical sleep equipment functioning and can
               | manage all beds in a household or hotel etc . It can
               | update the version of software or data models when its
               | online and new features are available on cloud server.
               | 
               | I surmise at 300 dollar/month for pro version could be
               | really attractive proposition. Of course local server
               | setup and maintenance can be charged separately.
        
             | kevincox wrote:
             | How easy is it to know what works when the network is down
             | before purchasing? Do you expect everyone to take down
             | their wifi after purchase to test and return if it doesn't
             | work?
             | 
             | Maybe there should be a mandatory information sheet such as
             | listing all functionality that stops working without a
             | network connection.
        
               | EvanAnderson wrote:
               | Consumer protection regulation with mandatory labeling
               | would be a good answer but, at least in the US, we're not
               | going to have anything like that anytime soon (if ever).
               | 
               | I don't have the enthusiasm to start a competing company.
               | It sounds like the barrier to entry to the market is
               | fairly low, the tech isn't unproven, and there appears to
               | be a ton of margin.
               | 
               | I assume Eight Sleep has a patent moat.
        
           | mrighele wrote:
           | Both. I also blame the guy willing to spend $2,000 for a
           | glorified blanket that also needs a monthly subscription to
           | work properly.
        
             | dmonitor wrote:
             | The real gem of this post is the aquarium temperature
             | regulator solution. I'm tempted to implement it myself to
             | deal with hot summers.
        
           | dhosek wrote:
           | I used to work for match.com and we had a readout in the
           | office that streamed customer feedback. 90% of it was people
           | who had paid subscriptions complaining about intrusive
           | advertising on the site or in the app while logged in.
           | 
           | I raised this at a meeting and was told that they weren't
           | going to change it because it made too much money.
           | 
           | I'm sure engineers raised issues about this as well and were
           | shut down by the business people who are more than happy to
           | risk customer satisfaction and security if it means more
           | revenue.
        
             | balls187 wrote:
             | Respectfully, raising an issue isn't the same as taking a
             | stand.
        
               | hinkley wrote:
               | At the very least, many products have unpopular features
               | that are easier than one might expect to disable. And
               | that's quite often down to a developer who disagrees
               | creating or leaving a covert channel lying around to
               | circumvent the feature. Their boss didn't tell them to
               | put it in, and they didn't tell anyone about it so that
               | it was insubordination if they didn't agree to take it
               | out. Just a little something we accidentally left in for
               | debugging or PoC purposes. Whupsie!
        
             | adamc wrote:
             | Finding another job and marking them as unethical on
             | glassdoor would be more like taking a stand. Raising
             | awareness of management is just the polite first step.
        
               | yubblegum wrote:
               | one of the reasons wallstreet invented outsourcing of
               | uppity techs.
        
           | exe34 wrote:
           | I have a mortgage so I will follow all lawful orders. I'll
           | blow the whistle if illegal activities are forced upon me,
           | but if there's an ethical issue bothering you, I'd suggest
           | you write to your MP or if you believe they are incompetent
           | or hostile, to run against them in the next election and
           | change the law yourself.
        
           | triceratops wrote:
           | > Blame the engineers
           | 
           | I actually commend them for making money off the morons who
           | dreamed this up. They've hopefully put it to better use.
        
         | AtlasBarfed wrote:
         | Software is devil-is-in-the-details to the extreme, and
         | maximally opaque even to programmer-capable consumers, much
         | less general consumers.
         | 
         | And all tech companies are now founded with zero regard for
         | good behavior. I mean, they don't even do minimal amounts of
         | customer service, which is the bare minimum of having regard
         | for your customers.
         | 
         | In general, the IoT industry has suffered and adopters get
         | burned over and over and over so the market is what it deserves
         | in the long run. But that doesn't mean that snooping and
         | monitoring doesn't increase insidiously year after year.
         | 
         | This is a serious problem with future technology. What person
         | would do cybernetics or similar life saving products from
         | companies like this? Perhaps the rigor that Medtronic and
         | similar device companies are subjected to would apply, but I'm
         | not sure those regulations cover information security and
         | privacy.
         | 
         | We are clearly in an age of increasing authoritarianism. China
         | has become far more authoritarian under Xi, right wing fascists
         | are on the rise in Europe, and extreme partisanism just leads
         | to round robin authoritarianism on the path we're on, assuming
         | the next election happens. Russia is trying to expand its
         | reach, and disrupt democratic institutions worldwide.
         | 
         | Undermined privacy and data collection is the tools for total
         | information awareness by authoritarian states, only made far
         | far far far far far far worse by the rise of functional AI.
         | 
         | The future of humanity is bleak. The filter approaches.
        
           | waveBidder wrote:
           | > Perhaps the rigor that Medtronic and similar device
           | companies are subjected to would apply, but I'm not sure
           | those regulations cover information security and privacy.
           | 
           | As someone on an insulin pump they do. Iirc they have reps
           | showing up at hacker conferences looking for red teams.
           | 
           | Definitely agree with your worries generally though.
        
           | hinkley wrote:
           | You could probably extend from medical devices to children's
           | toys. And once those are entrenched, go after the rest.
        
           | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
           | > but I'm not sure those regulations cover information
           | security
           | 
           | They most certainly do. I'm deep into a security analysis of
           | a similar device rn.
        
         | moolcool wrote:
         | I wonder if there'd be a cottage industry for new control
         | boards which de-shittify IOT devices but keep their
         | functionality. Like buy the bed, and then buy a little pre-
         | programmed ESP32 logic board to replace the factory board.
        
           | mikepurvis wrote:
           | Probably could never make that kind of thing work at scale,
           | but maybe as something within the maker community, perhaps
           | adjacent to the world of 3d printing, Arduino, and RPi.
        
             | moolcool wrote:
             | There'd probably be a few liability concerns at scale. Like
             | if you made a replacement board for a Keurig to allow
             | aftermarket k-cups, it'd likely be a matter of time before
             | Keurig sued you, or someone burnt their house down.
        
           | hinkley wrote:
           | If smart devices were required to have standard pinouts that
           | were arduino or raspberry Pi compatible, that would make me
           | so happy.
        
           | willglynn wrote:
           | ESPHome fills much of this niche for me. It's a framework for
           | turning YAML device definitions into custom microcontroller
           | firmware, with myriad supporting tools. The official device
           | database at https://devices.esphome.io lists 554 devices but
           | that's nowhere near the end of it.
           | 
           | Most manufacturers bolt on IOT functions by dropping an off-
           | the-shelf module onto their device-specific board. It's
           | sometimes possible to replace the factory firmware with
           | ESPHome, sometimes even using over-the-air updates. For
           | example, AirGradient air quality sensors:
           | https://github.com/MallocArray/airgradient_esphome
           | 
           | Even when it isn't possible to commandeer the factory IOT
           | module, the fact that it _is_ a module is still useful,
           | because it's almost always possible to inhibit or remove the
           | factory module and connect your own instead. The factory IOT
           | module controls and senses the device, so your replacement
           | module can too, using the same pins. For example, an IOT air
           | filter: https://github.com/mill1000/esphome-winix-c545#final-
           | assembl...
           | 
           | Some devices are designed around multidrop communication
           | busses. These are usually even easier, since the ability to
           | join the bus is an intended design feature, even if the
           | device you're using is not intended. For example, many
           | Samsung residential HVAC systems:
           | https://github.com/omerfaruk-
           | aran/esphome_samsung_hvac_bus/d...
        
           | haliskerbas wrote:
           | I feel like websites like https://www.tindie.com could
           | definitely fill that gap. It's like an Etsy + Hackaday where
           | people sell different levels of hardware etc.
        
           | LeifCarrotson wrote:
           | As an EE, there's a healthy amount of this in some industries
           | with very high costs, equipment use beyond manufacturer
           | obsolescence, and in hobby circles with technical
           | enthusiasts. But not generic devices for the general
           | population.
           | 
           | At my day job, we've replaced and re-engineered controllers
           | in industrial laser cutters, CNCs, welders, robots, and
           | similar equipment. There are replacement control boards for
           | hobbyist stuff like pinball machines, motorcycles, retro
           | computers, and retro game consoles.
           | 
           | But as evidenced by the fact that people are buying shitty
           | cloud-only IoT devices, neither the interest nor the capacity
           | to do this is common.
        
             | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
             | Likewise, I've looked into this after being asked to build
             | retrofit electronics for both expensive machine tools and
             | consumer goods (I had a client who was adding bill
             | acceptors to massage chairs and other items). I was never
             | able to find a niche with a consistent need. They do exist
             | but are hard to find.
        
           | Rebelgecko wrote:
           | These do exist for a number of devices. There's actually a
           | number of options for things like alarm systems
        
           | boogieup wrote:
           | I wonder if we could just make this kind of thing illegal so
           | companies can't get away with it anymore.
        
           | nicoburns wrote:
           | I think this would need to be enabled by regulation that
           | forced the original manufacturers to make their products
           | open. Hopefully we'll get that eventually.
        
         | xg15 wrote:
         | In addition to everything else, also love how a bed with the
         | express purpose to increase sleep quality requires you to open
         | your phone every time you want to adjust a setting.
        
           | cthalupa wrote:
           | The newer models have a touch control panel on the side.
           | Different taps to adjust settings.
           | 
           | Not that this ameliorates all the other issues here.
        
           | hinkley wrote:
           | I'm still fairly upset that ambient devices never really took
           | off. Nanoleaf at least made a remote like this. It's a
           | dodecahedron with an accelerometer, so you can program each
           | face with a different setting. The simplest being to program
           | opposing faces for two different light levels. You want to
           | take a nap, turn the controller upside down.
        
             | kevindamm wrote:
             | I like this idea, now I want to make one of those. Even a
             | two- or six-sided one would be useful, and I can print
             | different enclosures and reprogram the feather or ESP if I
             | want to add sides.
        
               | hinkley wrote:
               | I don't think they sell it anymore, but I forgot it's
               | actually a HomeKit controller, so you could (try) to use
               | it to control several devices at once. Since only one
               | face is up at a time you would have to gang the
               | behaviors, such as turning off several lights or turning
               | them on.
               | 
               | Old CNet article: https://www.cnet.com/reviews/nanoleaf-
               | remote-review/
        
               | kolektiv wrote:
               | See my comment to a sibling:
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43132279 - there's a
               | few simple little functional objects out there which make
               | this kind of process quite easy.
        
             | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
             | Wow. I love that UI concept!
        
             | mrWiz wrote:
             | I've got a cube that's hooked into my Home Assistant setup
             | that works similarly. Flipping the cube upside down turns
             | my bedside light on or off, rotating it clockwise increases
             | the brightness, and counterclockwise decreases it.
        
               | lblume wrote:
               | How exactly does it communicate these changes, if I might
               | ask?
        
               | Tyr42 wrote:
               | Check out the zigbee2mqtt page for the cube
               | 
               | https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/devices/MFKZQ01LM.html
        
               | kolektiv wrote:
               | I did something similar using these:
               | https://eu.aqara.com/products/aqara-cube-t1-pro (or
               | rather, an earlier iteration). Just Zigbee, nothing too
               | complex, and then you hook it into something which knows
               | how to interpret the events it sends (or events + current
               | state if you want it to be a little more contextually
               | smart). I generally tried to centralise the smarts, dumb
               | devices and a smart interpreter always worked out more
               | robust than clever devices. It's amazing how many
               | combinations of actions you can indicate just by
               | shaking/tapping/turning/flipping - more than enough to do
               | the things you commonly do with one actuator (a light or
               | set of lights for example).
        
               | hinkley wrote:
               | One that comes to mind is: flip over to turn on/off, flip
               | over and back again to randomize (like a snow globe).
        
               | TheSpiceIsLife wrote:
               | And if a guest comes round and messes it, the lights dim,
               | blood runs down the walls, nails come out of your head,
               | and the furniture starts moving.
        
             | Freak_NL wrote:
             | Sounds good until you come home to a house flashing like a
             | Christmas tree because your kid needed another D12 for
             | their table-top role-playing game.
        
               | burnished wrote:
               | You see a bug, I see a feature
        
             | stavros wrote:
             | There are a bunch of Zigbee switches, rockers, etc
             | (including the Aqara cube people mentioned) that you can
             | use as rich controls.
        
             | KPGv2 wrote:
             | There was a cool device I saw once, used for timing your
             | work. You'd program the faces for different tasks (bug
             | fixes, new features, etc.) and whatever you worked on,
             | you'd have that face up, and when you changed tasks, you'd
             | turn it to something else, and it would track how you spent
             | your time.
        
             | BobaFloutist wrote:
             | That sounds cool, but I'm a little resistant to being asked
             | to remember to charge my lightswitch.
        
               | gpm wrote:
               | Could maybe be made low enough power that it can power
               | itself via ambient light (like an old school calculator)
               | or radio waves.
        
               | BobaFloutist wrote:
               | That would be cool, but I haven't actually seen it in
               | anything other than an old school calculator so I assume
               | the limitations are pretty significant.
        
           | connicpu wrote:
           | I agree with this so much. Opening an app is the last thing I
           | want to do to adjust something while I'm in bed. I have a
           | zigbee lightswitch so I can turn the light off from bed, and
           | sure I could open an app to do that, but it's so much better
           | to get a zigbee button and stick it to the wall above my head
           | and program it to control the lightswitch.
           | 
           | Unlike all the cloud garbage, my zigbee devices continue to
           | function even when the internet is down. I have my zigbee hub
           | (Home Assistant Yellow) on a battery backup, so all the
           | zigbee devices with a battery keep functioning even when the
           | power is out (like my automatic cat feeders)
        
             | mvanbaak wrote:
             | Totally agree. I got a philips hue dimmer switch for next
             | to the bed. One of the best things I got for the home
             | automation. Just click it and everything in the house goes
             | into night mode. no phone needed.
        
               | westmeal wrote:
               | My room mate had one of these and I found out there was a
               | script online someone put together on github I think to
               | control it over a shell. Was hilarious because I kept
               | turning off their light at weird times.
        
               | lostlogin wrote:
               | I'm doing this with some Tapo buttons.
               | 
               | And double tap turns on a fan.
               | 
               | Tapo is likely a security nightmare.
        
           | palmotea wrote:
           | > In addition to everything else, also love how a bed with
           | the express purpose to increase sleep quality requires you to
           | open your phone every time you want to adjust a setting.
           | 
           | Don't worry, they'll repeat over and over how their product
           | was thoughtfully designed with exquisite craftsmanship by the
           | re-animated corpse of Johnny Ive [1] until people believe
           | it's true.
           | 
           | [1] I know he's not dead.
           | 
           | Also...
           | 
           | > ... Essentially all you need to do is unplug the rubber
           | tubing from the Eight Sleep cover, which is available on eBay
           | for a few hundred bucks, and plug it into a $150 aquarium
           | chiller.
           | 
           | > That's it. Aquarium chillers are somewhat of a misnomer, as
           | they can also provide heat. They use thermoelectric devices
           | to regulate temperature, either cooling or warming the liquid
           | that flows through them, which is the same technology found
           | in eight sleep.
           | 
           | How much do you want to bet the Eight Sleep is _literally_ an
           | off-the-shelf Chinese Aquarium chiller in a custom case
           | marked up 15x, with a shitily-programmed computer bolted on
           | to enable a $20 /month subscription?
        
             | geodel wrote:
             | I mean this comment is slightly disconcerting to next
             | generation of brilliant hackers sleeping on this bed and
             | dreaming big of a _Cloud controlled Toilet Paper Dispenser_
             | , Effececy(r). It will always give right amount of paper
             | based of amount and moisture content of just delivered
             | product.
        
               | 0_____0 wrote:
               | I rolled my own solution to this using a Boston Dynamics
               | Spot (2nd gen). With the structured light scanner, YOLO
               | v5 for classification, and a custom IK solver (BD's is
               | too hard for me), I can just lay back like a baby once
               | I'm finished and Spot takes care of everything.
        
               | collingreen wrote:
               | This is a super funny idea if it works (in theory; I get
               | it's a joke) and a SUPER funny idea if it malfunctions in
               | particular ways.
        
             | florbo wrote:
             | I'm sure they do use a prefab thermoelectric assembly model
             | that they designed their case around. It's usually cheaper.
        
           | mohaine wrote:
           | And not true, at least for the newest version. V4 has touch
           | sensors for adjusting the temps on the side of the mattress.
           | 
           | I do own of these and while I hate the price, the
           | subscription, the fact that it didn't work for an hour last
           | night due to the internet being down (first time ever really)
           | but there really isn't a better option. I love the temp
           | control and would use anyone else if they had a valid
           | competitor, but sadly there isn't one (or at least wasn't
           | when I bought mine). The alternative is to not have temp
           | control which is pretty amazing.
        
           | geodel wrote:
           | I mean while you are opening your phone you might as well
           | check latest savings by DOGE, wouldn't it help you sleep even
           | more safe and sound?
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | What DOGE say they have saved, what has been saved, and how
             | that looks in 5-10 years time are all very different
             | answers.
             | 
             | Maybe there needs to be a red answer and a blue answer?
        
           | knallfrosch wrote:
           | You can buy the new 3249EUR Pod4: "Control without a phone"
           | https://www.eightsleep.com/eu/product/pod-cover/
        
         | hinkley wrote:
         | I think one would also assume that some fraction of that $2000
         | would go into a fund to keep those servers up.
         | 
         | One thing SaaS has not learned from nonprofits with longevity:
         | you do big fund raisers to get money so you can live on the
         | interest payments. If you think of a new project that will
         | increase your burn rate, you throw another fund raiser.
         | 
         | Figure out how many of those beds you expect to be junked for
         | breakage or obsolescence each year and set your margins to keep
         | the long tail running for 10-15 years.
        
           | EvanAnderson wrote:
           | > One thing SaaS has not learned from nonprofits with
           | longevity...
           | 
           | I think SaaS has eschewed strategies for longevitiy because
           | it's contrary to the market's "wisdom" that for-profit
           | companies must have sustained high-rate growth.
        
             | hinkley wrote:
             | So they can get more rounds of VC money or get bought out,
             | yes.
             | 
             | Sometimes it's clearly the founders who go extractive, but
             | others it's clearly the new owners or partial owners.
        
           | chpatrick wrote:
           | If they sell one a month for $2000 that would be enough to
           | keep the lights on with a sensible backend setup.
        
         | cyberax wrote:
         | > It won't function if the internet goes down
         | 
         | Come on. We can improve that! The next version of the bed will
         | go into carnivorous mode if the subscription lapses:
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXrAK6sUZ_0
        
           | EvanAnderson wrote:
           | I'm thinking a Thomas Midgley, Jr.[0] mode.
           | 
           | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.#Death
        
             | hinkley wrote:
             | Thomas has three different inventions with a massive body
             | count. The last one had a fatality rate of 100%.
        
             | smitelli wrote:
             | Wikipedia seldom disappoints on this kind of thing: https:/
             | /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_inventors_killed_by_th...
        
           | hinkley wrote:
           | Well, you remember that total eclipse of the sun about a week
           | ago?
        
         | api wrote:
         | This product would be hard to believe if it showed up in an
         | episode of Black Mirror.
        
         | janpot wrote:
         | step one is to stop pretending the market is a democracy
        
           | kibwen wrote:
           | Step two is to stop pretending the market isn't a
           | kakistocracy.
        
         | sweeter wrote:
         | There is no amount of consumer choices and consumer "activism"
         | that can fix these issues. They are ineffective by design.
        
         | from-nibly wrote:
         | And if we try to parent them by fixing it for them, they will
         | stay that way.
        
         | autoexec wrote:
         | > The market is clearly too stupid to vote against the rent
         | seeking tech industry. It makes me so sad.
         | 
         | A lot of this bullshit only happens long after the sale has
         | been made and consumers are blindsided when things advertised
         | as free are suddenly paywalled off behind a subscription
         | following a ToS update.
         | 
         | "The market" is never going to solve this. What we need are
         | consumer protections in the form of laws and regulations with
         | real teeth and consistent enforcement.
        
         | robertlagrant wrote:
         | It's not rent-seeking if you don't have to buy the bed. The
         | market mostly does not buy this bed.
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | >The market is clearly too stupid to vote against the rent
         | seeking tech industry. It makes me so sad.
         | 
         | It is a $2000 dollar internet connected bed. The market in this
         | case is probably people who could wipe their ass with that $20
         | every day and not miss it. I don't think they are stupid. This
         | class of Americans has always been about paying for ongoing
         | service instead of being pragmatic or doing things themselves.
         | "Let the help over in bangladesh fiddle with the connectivity
         | and updating the mobile app for me, while I merely rest my head
         | and make plenty of money," they probably figure, at least
         | subconsciously.
        
           | EvanAnderson wrote:
           | I don't think the people buying the bed are stupid.
           | 
           | The collective mass of people who buy these "IoT" devices
           | that (1) don't actually need to use Internet-hosted services
           | to function, (2) don't actually need a subscription for their
           | business model to work _except_ for having been unnecessarily
           | tied to an Internet-hosted service, and (3) will fail to
           | function when the Internet-hosted service is gone do not
           | understand the ramifications of the buying decisions they're
           | making.
           | 
           | They're enabling these awful companies and business models.
           | They're making the world worse by buying this soon-to-be
           | e-waste garbage.
           | 
           | Stupid is a bad word. Let's say ignorant, instead. They don't
           | even know what they don't even know. Our asinine industry
           | normalizes these practices because profit.
           | 
           | I think computers have tremendous power to make life better
           | for humanity. I think that can happen without being
           | contingent on this kind of business model.
           | 
           | The bed is an egregious example. There are certainly other
           | lower-priced products that still have this kind of stupid
           | unnecessary "tie" to Internet-hosted services and
           | subscriptions.
        
           | nicoburns wrote:
           | One might argue that the market itself becomes "stupid"
           | (stops accurately indicating value) when people have so much
           | money that they stop caring about how they spend it.
        
             | uoaei wrote:
             | Exactly, it indicates profoundly inefficient dynamics. That
             | money could be put to use far more productively.
        
             | thatfrenchguy wrote:
             | Anyone who has risen through social classes knows that
             | poorer people use their money much more wisely than richer
             | people :)
        
         | chiph wrote:
         | This is the sort of thing I would have expected to see during
         | the dot-com era, if they had had the idea to charge a
         | subscription for things back then.
         | 
         | I mean, it's the :CueCat. But comfy.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat
        
       | dsalzman wrote:
       | Using the aquarium chillers is really smart! Just need someone to
       | mfg the mattress membrane covers.
        
         | hangonhn wrote:
         | I didn't realize they've come down so much in price. Another
         | really useful application would be to hook it up to pads used
         | to ice joints post joint surgery. I was sold a $100+ dollar
         | medical device which was basically a water pump in a cooler
         | chest (like one of those Polar ones) that circulated water
         | through some pads. I had to refill it every hour or so with
         | ice. This is right after a knee surgery so caring the cooler
         | around was literally painful. Having it connected to the
         | aquarium chiller would have been great.
        
           | LoganDark wrote:
           | you know those "VR backpacks"? imagine... knee chiller
           | backpack
        
         | beala wrote:
         | I'd love to be wrong about this, but I'm very skeptical that
         | the aquarium chiller pictured in the post can move enough heat
         | to cool a human. As mentioned in the article, it uses
         | thermoelectric coolers which are extremely inefficient.
         | 
         | I see at least one aquarium chiller on amazon that uses a
         | compressor, but then you have to wonder if it's quiet enough to
         | sleep next to.
        
           | zemvpferreira wrote:
           | Same, though I've seen thermoelectric chillers of that size
           | moving ~200 Watt and a human produces less than 100 Watt at
           | rest. The ones I saw on Amazon for $150 claimed to move
           | around 70 Watt which is ballpark useful. You wouldn't want to
           | cool down to a very low temperature anyway, just remove the
           | heat you produce yourself.
        
             | beala wrote:
             | Good point. That does sound plausible then. Here's my
             | napkin math after some quick googling:
             | 
             | - A human produces about 40 watts of heat while sleeping.
             | 
             | - Thermoelectric coolers have a coefficient of performance
             | (CoP) between 0.3-0.6. So for every watt consumed, they can
             | move 0.3-0.6 watts of heat.
             | 
             | - The wattage consumed and moved all needs to be
             | dissipated.
             | 
             | This random chiller [0] on amazon consumes 100 watts, so
             | perhaps this could move 60 watts max. CoP drops as the
             | temperature difference increases. And it's unclear if the
             | unit can dissipate 160 watts steady state.
             | 
             | But it could plausibly keep you from heating up on a warm
             | night. It doesn't seem like there's much margin for
             | actually cooling you down tho. If someone wanted to
             | experiment with this, I'd definitely read that post.
             | 
             | [0] https://www.amazon.com/MOQNISE-Aquarium-Circulation-
             | Function...
        
       | AtlasBarfed wrote:
       | Um, is that Bezos or the AWS account of the company?
       | 
       | Alas, our hope to recover whatever social benefit was in SpaceX
       | and Tesla is with Bezos's companies, although at least the EV
       | space is more diverse. SpaceX cannot be wrested from Musk and
       | TSLA and its board is preferred-stock controlled by Musk.
        
         | lotsofpulp wrote:
         | > TSLA and its board is preferred-stock controlled by Musk.
         | 
         | Any source for this? I can't find anything that says the Musk
         | has enough voting power in Tesla to not need others' votes:
         | 
         | https://www.techopedia.com/largest-tesla-shareholders
         | 
         | This is a pretty in depth analysis that shows that Musk needed
         | retail votes for last year's compensation and re-domiciling
         | votes:
         | 
         | https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2024/07/01/how-tesla-pum...
        
           | rtkwe wrote:
           | Tesla actually has a 1 share 1 vote right now but it also has
           | super majority voting rules which means Musk's ~22% stake is
           | nearly a veto unless the entire rest of the stockholders vote
           | for a measure he's against.
           | 
           | https://www.thestreet.com/investing/stocks/how-elon-musk-
           | con...
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | That is an Apr 2018 article. Elon has a substantially
             | smaller share now. From first link in above post:
             | 
             | > Elon Musk is the largest individual Tesla shareholder,
             | with 410.79 million shares, representing 12.8% of Tesla
             | ownership as of December 2024.
             | 
             | https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1494730.htm
        
       | kaonwarb wrote:
       | Interesting article; clickbait title. There's very little about
       | Amazon in here, never mind its chairman.
        
         | martinsnow wrote:
         | It drives clicks! I don't understand why someone would buy a
         | bed chiller. But perhaps the US is a unique market.
        
           | skizm wrote:
           | I'm in the market for one. I want a cool sleep in the summer
           | with fresh air (not recycled AC air). I haven't found one
           | with good reviews and also no required spyware unfortunately.
           | So AC plus humidifier is needed, but I still sweat on the
           | parts of my body in contact with the mattress no matter how
           | much I crank the AC in the middle of Aug.
        
             | martinsnow wrote:
             | What's the difference between recycled air thats been
             | cooled and then blown into your bed and the air from your
             | air conditioner?
        
               | BobaFloutist wrote:
               | I can't speak to the person you're replying to, but it's
               | like the difference between an electric blanket and a
               | space heater. It's energetically cheaper to cool just the
               | bed than the whole room, and it won't dry out the air as
               | much.
        
               | skizm wrote:
               | The air from my air conditioner sits on top of me like a
               | blanket, not touching the parts of me in contact with the
               | mattress. If the mattress itself is actually cool, it
               | will stop me from sweating. The recycled air thing is
               | just personal preference, breathing fresh air feels
               | subjectively better than recycled air so I keep my window
               | open as much as possible. If the weather is hot, but my
               | mattress is cold, then I can keep the window open and
               | still be cool on hot days.
        
           | geodel wrote:
           | I mean when someone says they are chilling in bed, they don't
           | want to be lying.
        
           | bobsmooth wrote:
           | You don't prefer a cool bed?
        
       | j2kun wrote:
       | > While the Eight Sleep CEO Matteo seems focused on providing
       | DOGE with great sleep
       | 
       | More sycophants coming out of the woodwork.
        
         | LordShredda wrote:
         | It's him and that mattress guy, and the whole stereotype of
         | mattress stores being money laundering fronts. What's up with
         | the bed industry in general?
        
           | bloopernova wrote:
           | Could you please let me know who the "mattress guy" is?
        
             | duskwuff wrote:
             | Possibly thinking of Mike Lindell? He sold pillows, not
             | mattresses, but I'll count that as close enough.
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Lindell
        
         | ta1243 wrote:
         | "We may not have that many outright Nazis in America, but we
         | have plenty of cowards and bootlickers, and once those fleshy
         | dominoes start tumbling into the Trump camp, the game is up"
         | 
         | That's the health secretary's words.
        
       | dangoodmanUT wrote:
       | Title is bad, but the piece is good
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Ok, we've replaced the article title with a more representative
         | sentence from the article.
        
       | sxp wrote:
       | I have an EightSleep from before their enshittification into a
       | subscription model. It is a good piece of hardware, but I can no
       | longer recommend it because the software is so crappy. I checked
       | the logs on my router and found that it was streaming tons of
       | data to servers even when I wasn't using it. I have no idea why
       | it would stream that much data since the trivial sensors it has
       | shouldn't be producing that much data even if it had multi Hz
       | sampling. I can't tell if this is incompetence or some sort of
       | malfeasance where they are secretly recording audio data via
       | motion sensors and streaming that.
        
         | wedn3sday wrote:
         | Maybe this guy isnt the first person to discover the backdoor
         | and your mattress has been mining crypto. This whole thing is
         | straight out of a Cory Doctorow novel.
        
         | micromacrofoot wrote:
         | > I have no idea why it would stream that much data
         | 
         | I think the blog post uncovered that here... the CEO is a total
         | creep
        
         | throwway120385 wrote:
         | Because they want to know what you're doing in bed and when.
        
       | j2kun wrote:
       | > but the eight sleep sure does harvest people's bed data, and
       | occasionally tweet about how they're watching you sleep
       | 
       | [Followed by a screenshot of the EightSleep CEO publicly tweeting
       | about SF sleep data in Nov 2023.]
       | 
       | This is reason enough to not patronize this business. What a
       | creep.
        
         | hackernewds wrote:
         | The company itself is also run by a race car driver and has
         | typical Miami hype. Not sure why they are often tagged as tech
         | companies, besides making a black version of Casper. Could be
         | the heavy Elon association.
        
         | xyst wrote:
         | This brand was heavily advertised on social media (TT, YT ads)
         | as well.
         | 
         | I remember because I signed up for e-mail updates. Glad I never
         | signed up though. IIRC, I was turned off by the same issues the
         | author "overlooked".
         | 
         | A subscription for a bed? Fuck off
        
       | WalterBright wrote:
       | I've bought several internet radio streaming devices over the
       | years, and they all eventually brick when the server goes out of
       | business.
        
         | neogodless wrote:
         | I was so pleasantly surprised when my Microsoft / Harman Kardon
         | "smart" speaker (Invoke) issued a firmware update upgrading it
         | to act as a simple Bluetooth speaker. It's wildly more useful
         | now!
         | 
         | A rare exception to the usual.
        
           | modeless wrote:
           | Google has done this with the Stadia controller, and also
           | recently open sourced the firmware for the Pebble smartwatch.
           | They may discontinue a lot of stuff but their track record
           | for discontinued hardware is pretty decent IMO.
        
         | NotYourLawyer wrote:
         | ROI!
        
         | optymizer wrote:
         | Offtopic: I grew up in a tiny post-soviet third world country.
         | Aside from the usual daily struggles, one lesser known aspect
         | of that life is that we did not have access to primary sources
         | of information or the people who invented the things we were
         | using.
         | 
         | We only had a book in my native language on Pascal. I had heard
         | of C from a magazine that had a CD with a C compiler on it, and
         | I walked into a library wanting to learn C but all they had was
         | a dusty book on COBOL in Russian. Later I bought a book on x86
         | assembly, also in Russian, because that's all I could find, and
         | it just felt like I'm living inside a leaky bucket whereas I
         | was hungry for the firehose of knowledge.
         | 
         | When we got dial-up Internet, I did not sleep for days. The
         | floodgates were open. I had access to tons of information
         | online, in original English, from primary sources. People I've
         | only had heard about, like Torvalds, would just share
         | information directly on the Internet, like it's another
         | Tuesday. To me it felt like I went to Disneyland and I was
         | meeting all my heroes. You can just... learn about any topic
         | and see the people who invented those topics. You could even
         | send them messages.
         | 
         | 25 years later, I still feel like that kid sometimes. I'm
         | thankful for HN. Alan Kay replied to me once, and it made my
         | year! Alan M-Fing Kay. I met rms once in the flesh and could
         | not believe my eyes. I regularly see messages from Walter
         | Bright on HN like he's a real human being and I have to remind
         | myself that yes, he's alive, real and I exist in the same world
         | as him and can actually interact.
         | 
         | I and kids around the world these days are lucky to not be
         | stuck in a world where you cannot learn more than they let you.
        
         | rahimnathwani wrote:
         | A lot of them didn't use their own server, but relied on
         | Reciva, which was shut down a few years ago:
         | 
         | https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/headlines/reciv...
        
       | blackeyeblitzar wrote:
       | Clickbait title.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Ok, we've replaced the article title with a more representative
         | sentence from the article.
        
       | nrki wrote:
       | Love the part about the CEO being a Musk sycophant. Right down to
       | the similar language in tweets: "Some of SF got poor sleep. We
       | must fix this."
        
         | duxup wrote:
         | I remember when mimicking Steve Jobs dress and etc was a thing
         | and how it was kinda cringey. Man I could go for some of that
         | these days.
        
       | amarcheschi wrote:
       | here a related discussion about a guy who did a similar thing
       | with an aquarium cooler to cool his bed
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41824138
        
       | modeless wrote:
       | > the Eight Sleep cover, which is available on eBay for a few
       | hundred
       | 
       | Uh, I don't think I want to buy a used mattress cover on eBay,
       | thanks.
        
       | pimlottc wrote:
       | While we're all here, what are some good alternatives to Eight
       | Sleep? The idea seems to have merit but the required IoT
       | subscription is a dealbraker.
        
         | 0x2a wrote:
         | I use one of their competitors (Sleepme Ooler) but they're not
         | great either. Did not know about aquarium chillers, that seems
         | like a better option. Could probably pair it with Home
         | Assistant too if you wanted to more easily set the temperature.
        
       | WalterBright wrote:
       | I always knew that internet-connected thermostat was a bad idea.
        
       | whatshisface wrote:
       | You would have to be insane to buy a computer that remains
       | someone else's computer...
        
       | wedn3sday wrote:
       | A $20/month bed subscription is objectively hilarious. I cant
       | imagine how this company attracts a non-zero number of clients.
        
         | lijok wrote:
         | *subjectively.
         | 
         | Once you realize just how important quality sleep is, and how
         | much this can help, $20/month bed subscription becomes a
         | laughably small price to pay.
        
           | JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B wrote:
           | Do you have the same reasoning with cigarettes? $10 every day
           | is a small price to pay to avoid having to stop smoking.
        
             | lijok wrote:
             | I don't follow, sorry
        
           | low_tech_love wrote:
           | How much can this help?
        
             | lijok wrote:
             | Depends person to person. For me it's the difference
             | between waking up 6-8 times throughout the night, and
             | sleeping for a sound 8 hours without interruption. For my
             | wife, not much difference, other than we are able to sleep
             | together, where as before our wildly different temperature
             | tolerances meant separate rooms. I've seen a few people in
             | this thread state it negatively impacted their sleep.
        
           | aucisson_masque wrote:
           | in a way, yes. 20$/month to marginally improve sleep
           | efficiency can be worth it, especially when you have high
           | energy expenditure and need to be able to keep up.
           | 
           | on the other hand, paying 20$/month for the right to use the
           | bed, that your purchased at 2000$ cost is a ripoff.
           | 
           | sleeping isn't costly, has never been, yet a company is
           | trying to enforce it and i can see how it doesn't go well
           | with most people.
        
         | JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B wrote:
         | I also wonder what kind of bed costs $2000. Is it a bed made of
         | gold and caviar? This article is confusing.
        
           | lifeinthevoid wrote:
           | A $2000 bed (incl. mattress) is not that extraordinarily
           | expensive.
        
           | kevingadd wrote:
           | The baseline for mattresses in the US is upwards of $500
           | according to Costco. If you want a bigger, higher quality
           | regular mattress you get into the neighborhood of $1000. If
           | you want one made with more exotic materials or you want to
           | throw in something like a boxspring or a frame for a bed that
           | sleeps two, you can approach $2000.
        
           | lilyball wrote:
           | It's not actually a bed, it's a mattress cover. They are
           | willing to sell you a mattress with it if you want, but the
           | product itself is designed to go over your existing mattress.
           | That said, good-quality beds cost money!
        
             | hn_acc1 wrote:
             | Wait - it's $2000 just for a mattress cover? You still need
             | to spend $1k+ for frame + mattress?
        
         | ok_computer wrote:
         | If I could afford it, I'd certainly get a >$2000 queen size
         | mattress in a few years. Nice firm mattresses are expensive.
         | Internet connection and temperature control are not something
         | I'm remotely interested in. A subscription doubly so. This is
         | hilarious and illustrates how naive and reliant people are for
         | technology to solve every problem in their lives.
        
           | pedalpete wrote:
           | I think that's just the price for the cover. You still need
           | to supply your expensive mattress.
        
       | avalys wrote:
       | This is a bunch of nonsense, assumption and leaping to
       | conclusions without evidence.
       | 
       | "In the second screenshot, we have the public key that's
       | authorized to access the device. The email address attached to
       | the public key, eng@eightsleep.com, to me suggests the private
       | key is likely accessible to the entire engineering team."
       | 
       | He has no evidence for this whatsoever and not really any good
       | reason to assume it either.
       | 
       | "In the first image, we see evidence SSH is being exposed
       | remotely, to a far away host, remote-connectivity-api.8slp.net.
       | Typically SSH would only be accessible to the local area network,
       | but the variables in production.json would seem to imply this
       | access was opened up to a remote host."
       | 
       | This isn't how SSH works and he doesn't seem to have enough
       | information, or enough knowledge of SSH, to understand what's
       | being done with the "far away" hostname.
       | 
       | This article is just clickbait nonsense, which should have been
       | obvious from the title. It is clearly intended to draw traffic to
       | their company website, which is some kind of venture-backed
       | security startup. Based on the fact that the founders seem to
       | have a superficial understanding of technology but a well-
       | developed understanding of hype and bullshit, I am not interested
       | in exploring their business further.
        
         | ta1243 wrote:
         | Are you denying the existence of an authorised ssh key on each
         | of these beds allowing the holder of the key?
         | 
         | Are you denying there is a config file pointing to a target
         | called remote-connectivity-api.8slp.net?
         | 
         | No there's not enough evidence to prove in a court of law who
         | has access to the private key, or that the config file is
         | enabling a return ssh connection, but it's pretty damning.
         | 
         | The only thing that's not newsworthy about this is that large
         | amounts of IOT shit does this.
        
           | duskwuff wrote:
           | > Are you denying there is a config file pointing to a target
           | called remote-connectivity-api.8slp.net?
           | 
           | Under the path ".ssh.endpoint", too. It's not like it's just
           | a mystery hostname; it clearly has something to do with SSH.
           | 
           | > The only thing that's not newsworthy about this is that
           | large amounts of IOT shit does this.
           | 
           | And - just to be clear - that doesn't mean it shouldn't be
           | reported on! Talking about this stuff, and having concrete,
           | specific examples, is _good_.
        
             | avalys wrote:
             | "I downloaded the firmware and I found an SSH key and a
             | configuration file that mentions an SSH endpoint;
             | therefore, I know that all of Eight Sleep's engineers are
             | allowed to remotely SSH into every customer's bed and run
             | arbitrary code!"
             | 
             | Do you not see a problem with this line of reasoning?
             | That's literally what he says in the article, and he
             | presents it as a near-certainty, not the wild leap of
             | unsupported reasoning that it is.
        
         | paldepind2 wrote:
         | I don't really understand the take here. The post makes it very
         | clear what is concrete evidence, what is speculation based on
         | that, and the reasoning is much better than what you give it
         | credit for. For instance, what would you suggest the "remote-
         | connectivity-api" SSH endpoint URL and the authorized public
         | SSH key is for if not for remotely SSHing into the bed's
         | computer?
        
           | avalys wrote:
           | This is a Linux image that is, somehow, remotely flashed onto
           | the bed. He found the SSH key on the filesystem.
           | 
           | 1. He didn't even bother to check and see if the bed is
           | running an SSH server - ten seconds with nmap could have told
           | him this!
           | 
           | 2. Essentially every one of these beds would be behind a NAT
           | and thus the SSH server which he didn't even bother to look
           | for would not be accessible to the internet or to the
           | nefarious engineers he imagines have access to the key - he
           | ignores this fact.
           | 
           | 3. The fact that the firmware includes the URL of a specific
           | external endpoint, suggests that the bed connects _to_ that
           | endpoint, not that this is somehow used to screen incoming
           | requests by reverse DNS lookup or anything like that. The
           | architecture he is supposing exists (all remote access
           | requests must come from a host whose reverse DNS resolves to
           | this host?) makes no sense.
           | 
           | 4. The fact that the public key exists on the filesystem
           | means nothing if no SSH server is running, or accessible. It
           | might be used, for instance, as part of the manufacturing
           | test process or a maintenance procedure, and then disabled.
           | The SSH public key on the filesystem isn't necessarily
           | related to the JSON config file for their own application
           | which he found!
           | 
           | 5. SSH keys don't have "email addresses" associated with
           | them, they have a plaintext field which is used merely for
           | identification purposes, and this is commonly used for the
           | _user account_ that created the key. But it's not an email
           | address and even if it were, it doesn't mean that that email
           | address, much less every engineer at the company, somehow has
           | access to the key!
           | 
           | The sloppiness and level of jumping to conclusions here, for
           | a supposed security company, is ridiculous.
        
         | perching_aix wrote:
         | > He has no evidence for this whatsoever and not really any
         | good reason to assume it either.
         | 
         | I'm not sure what kind of evidence or reason you're looking
         | for, I think their assumption is pretty sensible.
         | 
         | > This isn't how SSH works
         | 
         | Maybe I'm just naive, but the wording of it to me seems
         | nontechnical enough that I think the author is skipping over
         | things on purpose. For example, how exactly that "far way" host
         | he thinks is involved.
         | 
         | I'd personally imagine it's a reverse shell type deal going on,
         | although why SSH needed to be involved in that I'm not sure.
         | Could be just a hacky implementation. But it's really not that
         | far removed from sensibility, vendors popping reverse shells
         | without authorization really wouldn't be new.
         | 
         | > It is clearly intended to draw traffic to their company
         | website, which is some kind of venture-backed security startup.
         | 
         | Didn't even notice that. Can't imagine too many other people
         | did either. So maybe not so clearly?
        
           | avalys wrote:
           | Please see my reply to another person in this same thread. He
           | didn't even verify that the bed is running an SSH server in
           | the first place!
        
             | perching_aix wrote:
             | I saw it. It's not necessary if the process that maintains
             | the reverse connection can just start it as needed.
             | 
             | That said, some actual investigation of that supposed
             | binary would have been a strong support for this whole
             | thing, and indeed an evidence for this theory, so I will
             | give you that.
        
               | avalys wrote:
               | If the bed requires going through some kind of production
               | endpoint interaction in order to set up the remote
               | connection (as is most likely the case), then his claim
               | that any engineer can connect to any bed is simply false,
               | and this is no more of a security hole than the idea of
               | having a cloud-connected bed which is updated OTA in the
               | first place.
        
       | bloopernova wrote:
       | My wife uses a Bedjet which has both a remote and app. Thankfully
       | it works without an active Internet connection.
       | 
       | It uses a bag-like sheet that it blows air into, to adjust
       | temperature. For women suffering* through menopause, being able
       | to adjust around hot/cold flushes is sanity-preserving!
       | 
       | * Some women don't suffer much during perimenopause or menopause,
       | but it's a process that seriously fucks with one's hormones. A
       | word of advice to any partner of a woman going through
       | perimenopause: believe them when they tell you what they're going
       | through! So many partners don't realize just how much this can
       | mess up someone, they deserve every sympathy possible.
        
         | zemvpferreira wrote:
         | My friend Sara had a rare form of breast cancer at 34.
         | Thankfully she survived, but to improve her odds of staying
         | alive she's been essentially put into permanent menopause for
         | the next decade. Constant hot flashes.
         | 
         | Is the Bedjet really that good? Would your wife recommend it
         | without reservations? Are there any other product that have
         | made a difference for her?
         | 
         | Apologies if that's intrusive but improving Sara's sleep would
         | be life-changing for her.
        
           | bloopernova wrote:
           | Yes, my wife would recommend it without reservations.
           | 
           | There's also a cold water circulator, useful for icing a
           | painful limb etc. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09VRJ153X
           | 
           | Not intrusive at all, I hope your friend can find some
           | relief. I hope she can find strength and joy in life.
        
             | zemvpferreira wrote:
             | Thank you both very much for your kind words and advice,
             | ordering one now. No doubt it will make a dramatic
             | difference.
        
         | hn_acc1 wrote:
         | I may suggest this to my wife.. She's going through the hot
         | flash stage..
        
       | mitjam wrote:
       | Can recommend hot water bottles and a hairdryer for occasional on
       | demand bed warming.
        
       | electroly wrote:
       | I'm a two-time Eight Sleep customer and the CEO could post my
       | sleep history specifically with my full name and I'd still use
       | it. It's really comfortable. I think most of the detractors were
       | never remotely in the market for such a product. Everything
       | negative said about the product and the company is true, and they
       | should do better, but it's not enough to scare me away thanks to
       | how good the base product is.
        
         | mimischi wrote:
         | But is it more comfortable, then say, an old school analog
         | expensive mattress? I can't shake the feeling these companies
         | are selling snake oil (that is not to say that old school
         | analog mattresses aren't overpriced either)
        
           | electroly wrote:
           | You may be misunderstanding the product--it's a topper that
           | goes on top of your existing mattress. It doesn't replace the
           | mattress. I do indeed have it on top of an old school analog
           | expensive mattress. It cools/warms to the desired temperature
           | without impacting the comfort from the mattress. I don't
           | think there's much room for snake oil here: it pumps cooled
           | or heated water through the mattress topper. There's no
           | mystery.
        
             | shermantanktop wrote:
             | So it's a fancy mattress topper with a water pump for $2k.
        
             | LoganDark wrote:
             | How does it feel? I have a nice foam mattress and I'd hate
             | to buy one of these and have it feel like I'm sleeping on a
             | bunch of tubes and plastic rather than foam.
        
               | electroly wrote:
               | I can't feel the tubes at all. It does have some
               | electronics stuff on the sides that you can feel through
               | the topper, but nothing on the top where you sleep. It
               | maybe feels slightly firmer than the mattress feels
               | without it.
        
           | matwood wrote:
           | > But is it more comfortable, then say, an old school analog
           | expensive mattress?
           | 
           | Mattresses wear out, and people end up keeping them too long.
           | Somewhere like walmart.com sells great mattresses for
           | inexpensive prices. They are not related at all to what they
           | sell in stores. Because they are inexpensive, as soon as they
           | start to wear out, buy a new one.
        
         | yuvalr1 wrote:
         | If there was a similar product that does not upload any of your
         | extremely personal data, like whether you're now in your bed,
         | to some server on the internet, would you prefer it?
        
           | electroly wrote:
           | Sure, there are lots of ways it can be improved. I'd like it
           | to be cheaper too. I'd be happy to switch to an alternative
           | that is just as good but without the Internet nonsense, but
           | SleepMe isn't it. I've got my eyes open for viable
           | competitors for the next time I need to outfit a mattress or
           | when this one dies. For now, Eight Sleep is the best one I've
           | found.
        
         | roldie wrote:
         | I also have an eight sleep mattress topper. I was unaware of
         | the privacy issues here, but I feel the same as parent that I
         | won't give it up. Having the ability to always have a cool bed
         | has improved my sleep substantially. And the heating is great
         | when you're sick.
         | 
         | Now if a competitor crops up that has better privacy and a
         | better CEO, I'll swap in a heartbeat.
         | 
         | Note: I don't pay for the subscription, just the mattress
         | topper
        
       | yuvalr1 wrote:
       | Are there any consumer products offered that provide similar
       | functions (heating, controlling with an app etc.), but which
       | never try to connect to a remote server, other than looking for
       | the control app in the local LAN?
        
       | TheGRS wrote:
       | > In the end, I got enough of the cyber ick, I decided to seek a
       | simpler, less internet-connected solution to my temperature-
       | controlled bed needs.
       | 
       | Great line. And my eyes bugged out a little at this part as I
       | also realized what the implications were:
       | 
       | > - They can know when you sleep
       | 
       | > - They can detect when there are 2 people sleeping in the bed
       | instead of 1
       | 
       | > - They can know when it's night, and no people are in the bed
       | 
       | I have a more pragmatic question. Do any consumer publications do
       | security reviews for products? I'm thinking like consumer reports
       | and how they should probably publish if a product is a security
       | nightmare or not. At the end of the day you still need people
       | publish this stuff out and for social media to spread to
       | consumers to beware, but maybe a magazine type of publication
       | could take on part of that responsibility.
        
         | bovinegambler wrote:
         | Mozilla does something like that, privacy reviews of consumer
         | products: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/
        
         | knallfrosch wrote:
         | The people who care about security don't buy cloud-connected
         | bed heaters - or run their own software on their IoT devices.
         | You'll have exactly zero ad revenue because there is no overlap
         | between prospective buyers and people who care about security.
        
       | keysersoze33 wrote:
       | I bought an Eight Sleep Pod 3, as I'm light sleeper who wakes up
       | often at 3 or 4am, and struggles to get the final hours of sleep.
       | 
       | I have to say it made my sleep significantly worse - I was
       | shocked at how bad the temperature setting was - shifting 1
       | degree warmer or colder was often too much. I also noticed quite
       | a bit of manipulation of reviews & comments on Reddit / subtle
       | sponsorship on YouTube. (=> fake comments, upvoting/downvoting,
       | and unofficial sponsorship).
       | 
       | Maybe it really does improve some people's sleep, but just the
       | noise itself from the Pod meant I needed earplugs to not be
       | disturbed by it. My suggestion is to avoid buying at all costs...
        
       | the_plus_one wrote:
       | - They can know when you sleep         - They can detect when
       | there are 2 people sleeping in the bed instead of 1         -
       | They can know when it's night, and no people are in the bed
       | 
       | I'm probably naive, but I'm failing to see how any of this is
       | exclusive to having remote SSH access to the bed. Who's to say
       | this isn't already happening with other binaries in the firmware?
       | Maybe they're already phoning home?                   [...]that
       | bypasses all forms of formal code review process.
       | 
       | How does the author know if anything else in the firmware goes
       | under any kind of code review process?
       | 
       | It's not a bad article, but it does seem to make a lot of
       | assumptions, and you already agreed to let arbitrary code run on
       | your network when you added an IoT device to it.
        
         | lilyball wrote:
         | It is in fact already sending this data to their servers,
         | because it doubles as a sleep tracker and everything goes
         | through their servers. I really wish there was an option to do
         | local-only connectivity, but very few internet-enabled products
         | these days actually care about supporting a local-only mode,
         | and I suspect the number of products that do would be even
         | smaller if HomeKit didn't mandate it (sadly, temperature-
         | controlled beds are not a HomeKit product category).
        
         | zemvpferreira wrote:
         | I think what he's trying to emphasise is the idea that anyone
         | who's part of the engineering team could spy on you, without
         | anyone else knowing. It's bad enough that the company has this
         | data, sure, but there's at least an assumption that it will be
         | secured and penalties can be enforced if not. Some random
         | engineering being able to look into your life intimately by
         | themselves is a completely different level of violation.
        
       | zamalek wrote:
       | I'm not sure about the latest models, but my early-revision
       | BedJet has no smart features at all: it was all bluetooth. It
       | solves much the same problem as the product here: warm/cool the
       | bed, not the house.
        
       | chinathrow wrote:
       | That CEO tweet to Elon is peak cringe.
        
       | kylecazar wrote:
       | Bed as a service? Hell no. What an awful idea.
        
       | leftcenterright wrote:
       | > exceeding $300 million dollars in annual revenue
       | 
       | I would be interested in knowing who the buyers for this stuff
       | are ..
        
       | DarmokJalad1701 wrote:
       | I have one of these bed covers. I bought it before the
       | subscription crap started and I am very satisfied with the
       | product. The dual-zone cooling/heating is super good and has been
       | a big improvement to my quality of life/sleep. Especially
       | considering that my wife has different ideas than me about
       | temperature and what constitutes hot/cold. Yes, it would be nice
       | if I had local control but I am willing to ignore that as long as
       | I don't have to pay more.
       | 
       | But I wouldn't recommend anyone buy it now because of the
       | subscription.
       | 
       | It is good to know that there is an option to continue using it
       | if the company decided to no longer grandfather in people who
       | bought before the subscription crap started.
        
       | jmuguy wrote:
       | In case anyone is wondering why someone would pay so much to
       | control their bed temp - I have a similar product the
       | "Chillipad". Essentially I'm a furnace when I sleep and wake up
       | covered in sweet. This thing keeping my bed cool was the biggest
       | single thing I've done to improve sleep quality. Its not quite as
       | stupid as Eight Sleep in terms of initial cost and there's no
       | ongoing subscription but it was still expensive. I've also had to
       | open it up and replace a faulty check valve, and it occasionally
       | floods so I have it sitting in a tray. But damn... it works.
       | 
       | However now I want to try this aquarium chiller...
        
       | userbinator wrote:
       | If I'm reading this correctly, the product is just a temperature-
       | controlled mattress?
       | 
       |  _Well, each bed contains a full Linux-based computer. If my
       | estimations above are correct, all of Eight Sleep engineering can
       | take full control of that computer any time they want._
       | 
       | I think that was already a given once you agree to silent
       | automatic updates.
        
       | lilyball wrote:
       | Nothing here is particularly surprising. The worries about
       | engineers ssh'ing into the machine to see if anyone is sleeping
       | seems rather overblown though. The product itself doubles as a
       | sleep tracker and all data goes through their servers (as is
       | sadly the norm for smart home appliances these days) so they have
       | that data anyway. I have to take it on faith that they anonymize
       | and aggregate the data before doing any analysis on it, but the
       | very nature of the product means they have the data.
        
       | r1b wrote:
       | re: the kinesis key - curious, what is the right way to configure
       | log delivery for remotely deployed appliances?
        
         | r1b wrote:
         | in this situation, is it just like, you should front kinesis
         | with a service that can apply appropriate quotas / limits?
        
       | pshirshov wrote:
       | > (the bed...) won't function if the internet goes down
       | 
       | Who in the sane mind buys that.
        
       | rmason wrote:
       | I looked really hard at buying an 8 Sleep. I have techie friends
       | who swear by them. But one of the big reasons I didn't go forward
       | I don't see mentioned here and that is noise. I need a dark and
       | quiet room to sleep.
       | 
       | Someone told me they returned their 8 sleep because of the
       | constant fan noise of the computer running the thing. He told me
       | it was like having a server in your bedroom.
       | 
       | I am also not keen at all needing to have my phone in my bedroom
       | either. At the end of his life my father had some health
       | challenges and it wasn't uncommon for a nurse to call me in the
       | middle of the night. It was all the other calls, people tweeting
       | or slacking at me that made it really challenging to get any
       | sleep.
       | 
       | Still looking for something where I can collect sleep data if any
       | entrepreneurs can solve these problems.
        
         | I_Write_It wrote:
         | If your goal is just collect sleep data, I personally use my
         | Withings Scanwatch with a leather bracelet,
         | 
         | But if you're not willing to keep a watch while you're sleeping
         | they have "Sleep analyzer" that you put under your bed to
         | collect Sleeping data, but I never tried it !
         | 
         | The link : https://www.withings.com/eu/en/sleep-analyzer
        
         | pedalpete wrote:
         | I have a friend who felt the cover was really uncomfortable as
         | well. He had a really expensive mattress, but said he could
         | feel the cooling tubes in the cover.
         | 
         | I'll do you one better on "collecting sleep data". I've been in
         | the neurotech/sleeptech space for the last 5 years developing
         | https://affectablesleep.com
         | 
         | After getting an Oura ring years ago, and it telling me "you
         | didn't get enough sleep[deep, REM]" I was left thinking "so
         | what?? don't tell me I didn't do it, help me to do it!"
         | 
         | From what I've seen in the market, possibly with the exception
         | of 8Sleep or CPAP (for those who need it), is that everyone is
         | focused on counting minutes, and adding a few minutes to sleep.
         | Particularly "fall asleep faster" where they promote "fall
         | asleep x% faster" where x% in minutes is like 7 or 8 minutes.
         | 
         | What is really valuable in sleep, and particularly deep sleep,
         | is not really the time, it's the restorative brain functions,
         | and at the moment, we are focused on one metric slow-wave delta
         | power. It's not how many minutes you sleep, it's how much sleep
         | is in each minute.
         | 
         | Of course, there is sleep data along with that, but if your
         | sleep is optimized in the time you get, do you really care
         | about the daily data?
        
       | xyst wrote:
       | We give these companies hard earned fucking cash and they want
       | _more_. Rapacious neoliberal capitalists will be the end of
       | capitalism itself.
        
       | sigmonsays wrote:
       | This is so cringe, i am getting motivated to only use dumb
       | devices.
       | 
       | I no longer can trust that someone is looking at my TV data, Oven
       | data, thermostat data, etc and tweeting about it.
        
       | max_ wrote:
       | A night mare I have is that alot of these products like 8 Sleep
       | are actually scams.
       | 
       | Not scams in the sense of swindling money, but that they are
       | appendages of a private or government intelligence network.
       | 
       | If you genuinely care about your customers, can't you simply feel
       | guilty of doxing such sensitive data about them?
       | 
       | Some evil entities what to know when you sleep, wake up or if
       | there is someone else in the bed.
       | 
       | I am not against technology, this can be done responsibly via
       | offline support, self hosting options, E2E Encryption,
       | Homomorphic computing, differential privacy etc.
       | 
       | But I guess implementing those would interfere with the scam i.e
       | the main objective, which is spying on you.
        
       | kapka6700 wrote:
       | How did the author find the backdoor URL in the first place?
        
       | jimt1234 wrote:
       | > For someone who suffers from insomnia this seemed worth a shot.
       | 
       | I can relate, having suffered the same for most of my life. One
       | thing that really helped me was a simple white noise machine,
       | typically used to help babies sleep. Good: I sleep great with it.
       | Also, it's not connected to the internet and doesn't require an
       | app. Bad: I basically can't sleep without it. I have to travel
       | with it (camping!). I even purchased a backup in case the primary
       | fails, which has happened.
       | 
       | The other major sleep improvement was putting effort into
       | accepting that life is pretty great; all of my worries that kept
       | me awake at night were overblown. This took actual work, but it
       | paid off.
       | 
       | Anyway, just thought I'd pass that along, hoping it might help
       | someone else that struggles with sleep.
       | 
       | https://www.amazon.com/Yogasleep-Portable-Soothing-Rechargea...
        
         | adiabatty wrote:
         | If you'd rather not buy another gizmo for a function your phone
         | has likely gobbled up already...
         | 
         | iOS, iPadOS, and macOS have a pretty great built-in background-
         | noise generator these days. While lots of actual beaches can go
         | dead silent and then have a loud wave crash in, the waves that
         | 
         | It's available in Settings -> Accessibility -> Audio & Visual
         | -> Background Sounds. You'll have to download the sounds each
         | once, but after that they stay on your device.
         | 
         | Digging this deeply in Settings isn't pleasant if you just want
         | some white noise, so you may want to add a control to Control
         | Center like "Background Sounds" (way down in the Hearing
         | Accessibility section) to turn the ocean noise on and off.
         | 
         | I turn this on my iPad when going to bed if I want to take
         | extra steps to ensure that I don't wake up in the middle of the
         | night.
        
           | knodi123 wrote:
           | :facepalm:
           | 
           | I can't believe I had to download an app for that because the
           | feature is buried in SETTINGS (!!!!). What an obtuse choice.
           | Thanks for the tip though, I hate that my white noise app has
           | a rotating ad banner.
        
       | throwaway81523 wrote:
       | Yuggh. There is also a bed chilling thing from sleep.me that is
       | around $600. I haven't looked into it enough to tell whether it
       | is internet connected. But I've been aware of it because my mom
       | is very fussy about her sleeping temperature and it might be
       | something I should look into when it gets warmer.
        
       | owenversteeg wrote:
       | Anyone here tried those aquarium chillers? Sounds like a great
       | alternative, I would love to read more about using them in
       | practice.
        
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