I’ve gotta rewatch that Guy Pearce Time Machine movie now
I remember buying a Meater thermometer. I thought it was so cool to be able to monitor your cooking temperature from my phone.
But then I learned two things:
- your phone needs to be within Bluetooth range of the thermometer
- your phone must send the data to their cloud, only then for you to go to their app to read the data
There is no way for you to read the data locally.
I sold it and replaced it with a fully local thermometer that works without Bluetooth. Sure it can’t show it on my phone but damn if I am going to let a company chain me to their data center just so I can read a fucking thermometer.
There really needs to be a directory of “not so smart” devices. Like one that’s still readable via bluetooth, but not requiring an account for data harvesting.
There’s so fucking much potential in modern tech that is being squandered by every fucking company trying to be their own walled garden data brokers. And the results of all that data collection are abysmal! When’s the last time most of us have seen an ad that legitimately informed us of something we didn’t know existed but ended up wanting?
The productivity and quality of life lost because everything doesn’t just have an open/publicly documented interoperable API is immeasurable.
Dude this is like my core ethos. It irritates the shit out of me. Like you said, just endless squandered potential for fucking what? So dumb. Not to mention all the energy waste throwing around all that data and endlessly recording and storing it.
When’s the last time most of us have seen an ad that legitimately informed us of something we didn’t know existed but ended up wanting?
The point of advertising isn’t always about informing you of something new but to remind you of the brand.
There isn’t a soul on this planet that doesn’t know Coca Cola but they still advertise.
Let me know when you’ve created this community.
EDIT: I made [email protected] long ago and never really used it for anything. Seems like a good use of it to me.
isn’t this just Louis Rossmann’s extended community? (not claiming that he is the all father of it, just a notable name)
Let me know too
Targeted advertising isn’t the main market for mass data collection. The main market is political. Cambridge analytica used subliminal messaging to help the Antichrist get elected in 2016. They were caught, but other companies are still using the technology today. They’re just hiding it better and using it smarter. That, along with the decline of late stage capitalism, is why the devil’s servants are gaining influence all over the world.
Check out “works with home assistant”
If you have to be in Bluetooth range, why the fuck does it need to talk to a cloud service?
To snitch on you and spy on you.
That’s what I said!!!
The device was less than useless without Internet access.
Tbh I probably should have done more research before buying it.
It probably only has a Bluetooth radio and no WiFi for cost and power savings (Nordic chips are extremely power efficient), so in order to talk to it, you have to do it with Bluetooth, but then they make the protocol completely proprietary so you can only use their app, and then make you have your internet on and their server reachable to enable looking at the data as a sort of DRM/make sure that they can harvest your data.
That is my guess though. If it’s true, the thermometer is probably hackable unless they went all out on Bluetooth encrypted pairing.
data
If I made a thermometer that I could view wirelessly, I would only make an offline option. I am not going to try to design an app and maintain a server that will forever eat my money for a thermometer.
That’s shortsighted. First, you make the thermometer that depends on your app and server that eats money. Then, when you have enough users that the server costs are significant, you hold all the thermometer’s for ransom with a new subscription service that more than covers the cost of the server, introduce ads into the app, and sell user data under new terms that users are forced to agree to in order to continue using their thermometers. If you can figure out a way to shoehorn an “AI” in there, do that too for an additional subscription and make sure very sure that the people not paying more for the AI know that they could pay more to have AI.
I really want one that integrates with Home Assistant. The biggest issue I have is knowing when my grill is running cold. The thermometer I have now only tracks current temperature and not throughout the cook.
I bought into Meatstick and their Wi-Fi bridge lets me monitor from anywhere in the house. It also doubles as a local digital display so I don’t have to pull out my phone if I’m in front of it. Meater doesn’t have something similar?
Last I looked (2ish years ago?) they were working on a base-station where it sits between the grill and your phone, which has a longer range. But the base technology is still bluetooth.
I frequently miss calls I’m expecting because of the shit anti-spam. Carriers have been allowed to just ignore the problem of spam calls since they started because we don’t have a functioning regulatory apparatus.
Actually, a lot of the difficulty comes from regulations put in place because carriers were shit.
In one of the first cases involving Net Neutrality, the Madison River Telephone Company (now CenturyLink or whatever they’ve changed their name to this month) started blocking Caller ID from VOIP sevices, and eventually blocked Vonage outright.
The FCC came down hard on them, and in the aftermath one of the things they did was essentially prohibit carriers from blocking CallerID spoofing, because there’s a lot of legitimate uses for it.
For instance, when I can load up the VOIP client on my cell phone to make a work call, I need the CID to show my office number. Or if someone works at a call center, their PC dials out with a phone number that’s the switchboard number for the center.
I called Verizon. They blamed me. They said it happens to everyone. They offered me a 4$ per month service so I can block numbers that never repeat anyway.
If you have an IP based phone connection, you can do that in your router.
Wanna know what’s even more fun? When your city’s transportation system leaks allllll your info, that you can’t not give to them because you need the Bus Pass to get around in the city, and all you get is a “We’re sowwwyyy 🥺” email.
Wtf you need anonymous cash refillable bus passes
We shouldn’t have to establish and maintain a perpetual personal relationship with the original manufacturer of the equipment and services we use.
I never give companies my phone number, and every organisation I engage with gets their own bespoke email address so I can kill it when their data breach occurs.
We’re at the point whete calling me is useless. My phone is on silent, vibrate if you’re lucky. Email me or text me. I’ll get back to you. If you need to get a hold of me, you’re already marked urgent in my phone. If not, good luck.
I totally get that. My phone has been on silent for the last 7 years. Do not disturb for all but direct family members.
I hate when I have to answer unknown calls like when im expecting a call from a doctor’s office or something. Usually my phone is set to ring only when a saved contact is calling me.
I usually put the phone near the speakers with some war videos from Insurgency: Sandstorm and go with my regular day.
We used to put the on ‘hold’ and put them in a drawer. Just, “hey, theres someone at the door, can you wait a minute?” And then come back an hour later and see how long the cordless said the call had last.
Had one last 1.5h once.
These days, I just whistle a loud sustained C# into the phone that seems to pick up particularly well, and usually getts them to hang up cursing pretty quickly
I used my phone number to create an oracle account and a couple days later i started getting spam calls
That’s just oracle sales
Oracle is like the mob. You’re in for life.
wakes up
Looks at phone
“Do not disturb is on until your turn it off.”
sighs in relief
checks once again before sleeping
"List of Items Which Fall Through the Letter Box After I’m Dead
A letter inviting me to apply for a gold credit card at 17 % APR;
A bill from the Electricity company for £46.22;
A voucher entitling me to enjoy any king size pizza for £4.99 (garlic bread not included);
A letter sent to the wrong person, she no longer lives here;
An advertisement from a bank, promising the lowest rate mortgage available;
Some dust;
A postcard from a long forgotten girlfriend;
A demand for council tax from Islington Borough Council;
An offer to invest in Jupiter’s high income fund ISA;
A reminder from Central Islington Library concerning overdue books;
More dust, leaves too;
A First Direct bank statement, showing a credit balance of 342.39;
A birthday card, (unopened)."
at&t leaked all of my info even my ssn last year. the world fucking blows in 2025
Why do I need to login to my toothbrush
To verify ypur age. Obviously.
Ohhh you mean that toothbrush.
A dozen every day? I’d change my number after a dozen total.
Oh… You have no idea how some of us live.
9am to 8pm every day. Calls minutes apart and they even sometimes overlap.
I don’t know over what time period, but I’ve had my main number for well over 15 years. I still don’t get spam phone calls. I’ve had my business number for probably 6 years and it also doesn’t get spam.
However, I’ve got a throw away number that I cycle out every few years for a few bucks and I get endless spam calls on it. Apparently I’m getting numbers that people have given up because they got too much spam. Now I’m worried if I ever need to change my main number I’ll start getting crazy amounts of spam calls. Because for the throw away number I just check it once a week or if I need to get a code. I don’t have the calls forwarded to my phone so I literally do not care about the spam.
Having to update everyone on my new number would be just as annoying and wouldn’t even eliminate the spam problem.
Whenever I read posts like this, I wonder his I’m barely affected by robocalls. There’s like one a month, usually from outside the country.
Is that a Europe thing? And if so, are we just a bad “market” or is there some form of legality (or enforcement) involved?
In the U.S., robocalls and unsolicited calls still prevail (to some degree) because of a outdated telephone caller ID system. It’s replacement, STIR-SHAKEN, has yet to be done, much less widely accepted (all the phone brands and networks). Look how long it took us just to get RCS texting.
In the US it depends on how good the call blocking is on your service.
Welcome to the
futurepresentHave a look around
Why the fuck would you buy that in the first place???
And not return it and continue through the registration process
