this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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One thing I find very strange about the actually existing information age is that most "tech" doesn't even solve a problem, or improve upon an existing system. It's all just selling solutions to problems you don't have or problems the seller created in order to sell you the solution. Most "tech" companies haven't really made any improvements to anything they own in a long time. It think the it's odd/frustrating that improvement to existing solutions is far less "valuable" than new "features".
It's also interesting to me that "tech" companies aren't even really technology companies anymore. "Innovation" is just a buzzword rather than actual goal/objective. They want to just make new "things" rather than actually improving any current things
The modern age is weird and I don't like it.
That's the problem with humans having limited needs while the market needs unlimited growth. The only answer after a certain point is inventing demand.
for example computer chips are now cheap enough to put inside household appliances it just turns out that almost no one needs or wants that
we could use this to create technology to assist the disabled and elderly caring for themselves but that's not a big enough market so stupid bullshit it is
I would have bought so much IoT stuff if they were designed to use open standards and be part of an isolated home network. They could have had a sizable if niche prosumer market, but these companies wanna go public or get acquired, so that’s not enough.
Like home security cameras are fine if part of a isolated network, but instead we get people broadcasting the inside of their homes to these tech companies that watch the footage and hand it over to the cops proactively.
It's really frustrating that we have the know-how and resources to make technologies for making all sorts of people's lives safer/easier/better but because it's not "profitable" we don't. It's really maddening to me that we have all the assets and knowledge but not the will due to "THE MARKET©®™" deems it to be unprofitable.
yeah it's pretty deeply tragic like the people dying in Africa of diseases that there are cures and vaccines for but copyright law and the fact they aren't a big enough market to justify the cost of setting up a factory to make the medicine they need means they just die
And specifically, inventing demand by removing alternatives. Like with IoT devices. They invent demand by removing alternative designs, raise the price because it's premium, then use those devices to spy on your and sell data to create a sort of rent based model where you pay with your privacy.
Alternatively they just refuse to even sell you the IoT device and force you to rent it from them.
IoT stuff is so frustrating, because the useful aspects are overwhelmed by the need to make it profitable. I DIY'd an environment tracking setup totally local on my network to keep track of things like temp/humidity because I've got some sensitive acoustic instruments and I need to know when they need to go in their case/get a wet sponge/break out the dehumidifier. Now I have a historical graph of temp/humidity/air quality cycles in my apartment.
I bought a "IoT" power strip because I wanted individually addressable outlets for things like lamps and monitors and centralize the interface but fuckin TPlink took away the python API access and requires an account and so it sits in its box until I can possibly reverse engineer it enough to either write my own firmware or just hotwire the relays for my own purposes.
Could you get around that API limitation by routing control through OpenHAB or Home Assistant?
The only way to control it currently is via an app you need an account for so it removes any ability to be an offline device. Its within my skillset to dump the flash and try to patch it, it should be running some embedded linux firmware going by the mediatek chip in the FCC declarations.
I've just had other stuff going on and didn't feel like dealing with it after the initial disapointment. There is the possibility of regaining the python api but that still requires making a tp-link account and connecting the device to the internet period, so I'm not a fan.
I'm sad that there aren't more "generic" devices out there that just use standard free protocols
For real, so many proprietary applications that will almost certainly just lose support within the decade, rendering the device useless if it can only be used with that particular app.
Exactly, and the apps usually suck. I'm planning on just buying a bunch of ESP32 chips and some relays and building my own out of regular powerstrips. I already have a hacky digital switch I spliced into my 3d printer power chord, can't be too hard to slap one in line with a commercial power strip.
I HATE SMART TVS
I HATE SMART TVS
Great point man! I didn't even think of it to that sort of scale/perspective.
For what it's worth, it's not at all an original observation on my part, you can find it in Marx and co and in later writers like Guy Debord.
One glaring example of this as an ongoing process is involuntary software updates that make the software worse by making it more intrusive, obnoxious, and often jamming more ads into it.
Fuckin’ exactly dude!
Just kind of reinventing the wheel (but worse). A series of systems that have begun to turn ingrown
When Twitter came out, there were blogs. Everyone could write articles on their blog, ans RSS allowed everyone to follow anyone.
Then a new company said : "We will make blogs, but limited to 127 characters"
That was so stupid. I bet with a friend that it will never be a thing. I lost.