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I can't think of a single compelling use-case for home automation systems. I'm trying to understand what other people see in it. I have to wonder if it's driven by the amount of interest a person has in "tinkering" with technology.
I did quite a bit of experimentation with home automation systems (HomeSeer, Home Assistant, Domoticz and so on) and decided that the best (at least for me) and the most control giving solution is NodeRED - https://github.com/node-red/node-red . You can create pretty complex flows with many already available nodes but if you want something custom - it's trivial either to add JS functions or to create your own node fr…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reconsider. I'd say these are two safe options: 1) Go with a cloud service using products exclusively made by a single major company, like Google or Amazon. This is simpler to setup and maintain but more expensive. 2) Go with an open source solution, like Home Assistant. Cheaper option with more control but requires a lot of time to learn, setup and maintain. Both options should be considered safe at this point. Edit…
There's no safety going with products from a major company. They pivot all the time, not least Google. The only benefit is that one might get a refund when they do something egregious. And in this case, Google just gave all their customers using the Nest API the finger. How is it safe to trust them going forward?
What would you expect to happen. This was written the moment G bought it. Of course they are going to merge the platform into Google-Home. This was inevitable
Merging can be done without killing the existing API. I don't care if they stick "Google Home Assistant Plus+" in front of it as long as the API allows for interfacing with the hardware I purchased. Instead, Google decided to go the full-Google kill-everything route.
Makes me happy I migrated away from them years ago.
We are all used to SaaS randomly getting obsoleted, but when you buy a physical device you kind of expect to own it forever. But no, cloud and IoT means even your physical stuff are SaaS products. Just stop buying the trash.
While great advances come from availability of technology at a reduced up-front price, at what cost to the basic principles and advantages of ownership, privacy, cost depreciation, long term use of assets, etc. has our new world come?
This is a good reminder that “all magic, comes with a price”!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reconsider. I'd say these are two safe options: 1) Go with a cloud service using products exclusively made by a single major company, like Google or Amazon. This is simpler to setup and maintain but more expensive. 2) Go with an open source solution, like Home Assistant. Cheaper option with more control but requires a lot of time to learn, setup and maintain. Both options should be considered safe at this point. Edit…
What are you talking about. This whole situation is a one great counterexample to your 1). Making any company a single point of failure is a bad idea. You are basically giving up your freedom of choice for maybe some convenience, but don't confuse it with guarantee of sustained service.
This is why I would never invest too much into Smart Home. While my phone may be expected to last for a few years only, I don't want my house deprecated because of a takeover/bankruptcy of a company.
Or end up like people investing in “smart homes” in the 90s. Remember when built in intercom systems in the home were considered advanced? http://mentalfloss.com/article/510559/what-smart-home-techno...
Dunno. Maybe. But for me to be interested in something it still has to be something that is going to pay back my fiddling in probably ten years, where I can expect to have to replace it, and I'm still not impressed by any of the the demos I've seen. I'm just not that inconvenienced by having to turn on lights.
I can't think of a single compelling use-case for home automation systems. I'm trying to understand what other people see in it. I have to wonder if it's driven by the amount of interest a person has in "tinkering" with technology.
I can't think of a single compelling use-case for home automation systems that communicate with someone else's servers.
But, having lights and temp auto controlled would be nice. But getting a system up and running that only runs on MY server is a little more tinkery than I have time for what with all the LeetCode I have to do to switch jobs.
This is why I would never invest too much into Smart Home. While my phone may be expected to last for a few years only, I don't want my house deprecated because of a takeover/bankruptcy of a company.
Or end up like people investing in “smart homes” in the 90s. Remember when built in intercom systems in the home were considered advanced? http://mentalfloss.com/article/510559/what-smart-home-techno...
- digital currencies
- smartwatches
- smart homes (Bill gates had his house 'smart homed' to the wazoo with tens of NT servers taking care of everything, like switching lights on and off)
- food delivery startups Webvan, Kozmo,
- livestreaming (JenniCam)