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I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

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Re: I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

#271

Post by acdha »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #249
Jean-Philipe wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you on all your points, except: > This is exactly the mechanism that gets people in trouble going to China for manufacturing. I keep hearing about the "cheap Chinese tech", even though nowadays a lot of high-quality gadgets are really Chinese. Even Apple's products are mostly from China. And it's not even for the cheap prices, it's because the entire production chain is there[1] The mistake is not going…

He wasn't making a point about China, he was making a point about cutting corners.

Exactly — and so you can make the point better simply by saying “cutting corners” directly rather than confusing the issue by using a nationality to imply it.

Re: I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

#272

Post by biot »

zyxley wrote: post #215
ChuckMcM wrote: post #206

So sad. I find the mechanics here really challenging to overcome. The hotel management no doubt wants "really cool tech" for their hotel to show they are up to date etc. And they send out an RFQ which someone bids on, really cheaply. Knowing that by only doing the things the hotel asks for, they can throw something together quickly and cheaply for a big payday. This is exactly the mechanism that gets people in troubl…

> I learned that before that clause had been part of the standard contract, there had been a manufacturer who decided unilaterally that half of the noise suppression capacitors in the schematic were "unneeded." I don't understand how putting that in the contract is supposed to help if the manufacturer being used is pulling stupid "you didn't say the product actually had to work" semantics games that would get them sm…

Why would you take an untested schematic to a manufacturer and ask them to build a product based off of it? If you are asking the manufacturer to both devise the schematic and build the resulting product, then it behooves you to ask for a prototype built from their schematic in order to evaluate the production's performance.

Re: I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

#274

Post by tobltobs »

mordocai wrote: post #186
ams6110 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the capability of the devices on both side ... Your're not wrong, but the other point is they are swatting a fly with a sledgehammer. What wrong with a simple light switch for gods sake. Why would a hotel spend hundreds of dollars to do what a $2 device can do more reliably and securely?

I think you are talking thousands not hundreds. They had to pay people to set it up, pay for tablets for every room, and pay for the control devices too.

Maybe the architects/builder forget to lay the cable for the switches and wireless lights can then be a cheaper option.

Re: I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

#275

Post by aidenn0 »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #247
aidenn0 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Most thermostats I've seen are a bimetallic strip with either a magnet or a mercury switch for hysteresis.

Can you even buy those anymore? The GP is right: most new thermostats don't take power from the 24VAC line. That surprised me when my heat wouldn't come on one morning because the battery was too weak to pull in the relay for more than a few seconds. That's what I get for ignoring the "low battery" warning! All my previous electronic thermostats only used the battery as a backup. In any case, are you really saying th…

I guess when I think of a "dumb" thermostat I think non-electronic. None of the 5 places I've lived in as an adult has had an electronic thermostat.

Re: I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

#276

Post by ChuckMcM »

acdha wrote: post #271
CyberDildonics wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He wasn't making a point about China, he was making a point about cutting corners.

Exactly — and so you can make the point better simply by saying “cutting corners” directly rather than confusing the issue by using a nationality to imply it.

Fair enough, however with this audience I would expect they recognize that the manufacturing contracts of China, which by their number rather than their nationality, are expressly tailored this way. It is by virtue of the Chinese success as capturing the manufacturing contracts from all other nations in the world that has helped them develop expertise and skill.

Re: I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

#277

Post by mark-r »

radarsat1 wrote: post #6

Maybe it's worse: If these are really off the shelf tablets, presumably the camera can be turned on remotely. Though I'm sure the hotel would have put a piece of black tape over it, right?

The silver lining of going with the lowest bidder, the tablets are unlikely to have cameras.

Re: I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

#278

Post by graeme »

Jean-Philipe wrote: post #230
ChuckMcM wrote: post #206

So sad. I find the mechanics here really challenging to overcome. The hotel management no doubt wants "really cool tech" for their hotel to show they are up to date etc. And they send out an RFQ which someone bids on, really cheaply. Knowing that by only doing the things the hotel asks for, they can throw something together quickly and cheaply for a big payday. This is exactly the mechanism that gets people in troubl…

I agree with you on all your points, except: > This is exactly the mechanism that gets people in trouble going to China for manufacturing. I keep hearing about the "cheap Chinese tech", even though nowadays a lot of high-quality gadgets are really Chinese. Even Apple's products are mostly from China. And it's not even for the cheap prices, it's because the entire production chain is there[1] The mistake is not going…

I read the OP as making exactly your point. They were saying that the people they describe make the error you discuss, and get bad results on account of it.

Re: I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

#279

Post by mark-r »

na85 wrote: post #170
ajmurmann wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the competition wouldn't just skip the security, then beat you on the price because you are paying lots of money for security experts. Most customers don't care about/understand security and your company fails.

Hire Russian black hats to sabotage the competition?

The problem is that the entire industry would get a bad reputation, not just the competition. You might be shooting yourself in the foot.

Re: I stayed in a hotel with Android lightswitches and it was as bad as you'd think

#280

Post by tunap »

patcheudor wrote: post #57

"Jesus Molina talked about doing this kind of thing a couple of years ago, so it's not some kind of one-off - instead, hotels are happily deploying systems with no meaningful security, and the outcome of sending a constant stream of "Set room lights to full" and "Open curtain" commands at 3AM seems fairly predictable." Which takes us to this: "Any sufficiently advanced technology controlled by a miscreant is indistin…

Stephen King magic I can handle, it's a particular Stephen Koontz tale of a mad computer nerd turning his town into cyborgs that concerns me. Great read! I think... was almost 30 years ago now....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_(Koontz_novel)

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