Live data from Hacker News

I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

twitter.com

141–150 of 253 posts

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the chances that it's also sending the temperature over the Internet to be logged by some server in the cloud, so they can gather usage metrics and other analytics? This is literally "telemetry" in the original engineering sense, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if it did. On a lighter note, Weber does sound like a good name for a web browser.

I get that privacy is important, but I'm struggling to understand why I'm supposed to care about a company logging data on the temperature of the beef I'm cooking. If they want to badly enough to secretly add telemetry code and not tell me? Great, have fun. Enjoy. I'll not lose any sleep over it. In other words - the backlash over excessive data storage and retention is very much good thing, but let's be careful to t…

An example: I decided to build a simple temperature monitor to see what I could do about energy use. Simply put, it's the easiest way to tell when the heating system is kicking in and for how long when you're dealing with decades old technology. What I discovered was interesting. In addition to telling me the expected, it showed things like: when I went to bed at night, when I got up in the morning, and even when I got up in the middle of the night and for how long. The times weren't exact, but it provided pretty good estimates for an indirect measurement using a very crude instrument.

Now imagine what could be inferred from your meat grilling data.

I am not saying that that people go around doing nefarious things with your meat grilling data. In fact, there is a very good chance that it is not even being collected. Yet we live in a world that is hungry for data of virtually any type and in any form, which makes both data collection and nefariousness a possibility when that data is being handled by an Internet connected device. Personally, I find that possibility creepy - even if no harm is being done.

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#142
post #60

For those curious about the technical details here, here's a dump of the iGrill Android manifest (it's not XML because Android APKs contain a binary manifest): https://pastebin.com/fwbJ9TjD It looks like this is the culprit: E: activity (line=48) A: android:theme(0x01010000)=@0x7f110149 A: android:name(0x01010003)="com.weber.igrill.pages.splash.SplashActivity" (Raw: "com.weber.igrill.pages.splash.SplashActivity") A:…

Rainbird's app similarly registers intent filters for PDF, HTTP, and a few other things.

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#143

What a crock of shit that grills are now IoT devices. The less of my life that’s accessible on the Internet, the better.

I saw from another thread that this is actually for the temperature of a meat thermometer, that you can constantly monitor and without having to open the grill (which is undesirable). So actually not a crock of shit, and pretty useful if you're grilling/smoking over long periods of time before/during a big party or something. Not all grilling is quick searing. Sometimes new features aren't just gimmicks, you know?

[deleted]

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#144
post #8

Android is such a drag sometimes. Between mystery quirks like this, where I'm sure someone who has been making Android apps for 6 years will be able to explain it, and things like the absolute inability to override the order of items in the sharing panel[1], such that Android will routinely topline sharing to a contact you got one text message from three years ago. "F.U., that's why" is the simplest conclusion I can…

Oh, it's not just me.

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#145
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion, Windows search is the absolute most infuriating example of this, compounded by how slow it is. Let's name it so we can shame it

Just yesterday I tried to type "Network and sharing center". Apparently it does not exist in the index which is quite annoying, I have to click through the control panel (after accidentally ending up on a web search). Windows 10 is an odd beast with multiple generations of UIs all nestled away.

Trying to get to the network devies page is equally infuriating- it's under network adapters and options in Control Panel, and may or may not actually be accessible from the new Settings app- I don't remember.

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#146
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the absolute inability to override the order of items in the sharing panel As an extra F.U., it also changes the list of contacts after a second. So I try to tap on my wife, only to have it substituted with the plumber who came once half a year ago... and this of course gets logged by the AI, ensuring the plumber continues to hold pride of place in my contacts.

This is quite literally my least favorite UI feature that Android has ever released. It's slow. It encourages mis-taps. I have intentionally tapped it literally ever despite using the share dialog thousands of times, since it almost never shows me the desired contacts, and even then I've tapped the wrong contact half the time. It's incomprehensibly awful , wantonly violates even the most basic user-interaction guidel…

iPhone has the same issue in something simple as recent contacts / phone dialer screen. I end up clicking the last dialed number that gets replaced on top of last-but-one by the time my finger moves to tap what appears as last-number, which was really the last-but-one, but the history wasn’t updated then.

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#147

What a crock of shit that grills are now IoT devices. The less of my life that’s accessible on the Internet, the better.

It's actually not the grill - just a bluetooth thermometer that you can attach to the grill. I have one and it's very useful. I find it much more practical than other "smart" devices like thermostats, light bulbs, refrigerators, or even TVs.

https://www.weber.com/US/en/igrill/weber-25969.html

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#148
post #8

Android is such a drag sometimes. Between mystery quirks like this, where I'm sure someone who has been making Android apps for 6 years will be able to explain it, and things like the absolute inability to override the order of items in the sharing panel[1], such that Android will routinely topline sharing to a contact you got one text message from three years ago. "F.U., that's why" is the simplest conclusion I can…

> the absolute inability to override the order of items in the sharing panel As an extra F.U., it also changes the list of contacts after a second. So I try to tap on my wife, only to have it substituted with the plumber who came once half a year ago... and this of course gets logged by the AI, ensuring the plumber continues to hold pride of place in my contacts.

Not only does it enable mistaps, the speed each time is inconsistent. The order each time is inconsistent. I never know what app or person will be high up on the list

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#149
post #140
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an agreed upon name for this, where a website or app loads elements piecemeal so we click the wrong thing by mistake? I know it exists as an intentional dark pattern (so we just think that's what happened). But it also seems so common now across computing and it pisses me off every time.

"reflow" or "layout jank" are ones I've seen a fair number of times (not sure if "jank" was intended as "stuttering" or "unreliable", but both work if you go for the feeling)

I've heard "jank" in speedrunning used to mean "badly-implemented interaction logic that makes the timing for a reflex action non-deterministic / non-learnable", which fits perfectly here.

Re: I think my BBQ just offered to be my default browser?

#150

What a crock of shit that grills are now IoT devices. The less of my life that’s accessible on the Internet, the better.

It's actually not the grill - just a bluetooth thermometer that you can attach to the grill. I have one and it's very useful. I find it much more practical than other "smart" devices like thermostats, light bulbs, refrigerators, or even TVs. https://www.weber.com/US/en/igrill/weber-25969.html

For me part of grilling is being outside and probably not far form the grill. I try to manage temp and time so that I only need to use a thermometer as a double-check right at the end of cooking. I would never even think to use a remote read thermometer, let alone an IoT one.
Post reply on HN