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Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

home-assistant.io

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Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some government agency could be doing the escrow, at no charge to the company.

There is still a process cost to participate in any escrow process, both on an initial and on-going basis. (That's before the blindingly obvious observation that even something provided by the government at no cost at point of use has a cost which is ultimately borne by the people.)

Professional escrow is not cheap. The first year, when you have to demonstrate a complete build and 'bring up' process with them the price seems pretty good as it's a lot of work. Funnily they don't seem to offer a multi year deal.

The second year there is much less work but they double the cost. You go along with that as it takes a lot of work on your part to engage a new escrow firm from scratch.

The next year they double it again. It's still demanded by your large corporate customers and you try to pass on the costs but they don't want to pay it.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and now I sometimes get delivery drivers getting pissed off at me (for some reason) that the code doesn't work after they ring my doorbell Since Amazon clearly has no idea what they are doing, I would put up a note next to the keypad saying “Amazon drivers: just drop the package, there is no code”

As if amazon drivers read the notes. I once left a giant note saying in capital letters "DO NOT RING DOORBELL, SLEEPING BABY AT HOME" and of course the absolute knobhead from Amazon had to ring the doorbell. Literally never shouted at anyone in my life before this.

A few times I've left a very big note that says "PLEASE KNOCK LOUDLY" while sitting in my livingroom facing the door just to never see the UPS or FedEx delivery person approach but get a text message about "no one responding" so they reschedule the pickup (and I can't pick it up at the hub a few miles down the road because it's closed...). One time I chased a driver who literally just threw a note on my door (no sign like other time) and very clearly did not knock. I mean I watched them... They just walked up, box in hand, put the note on the door, and walked away. Rushing. USPS also often won't deliver small packages that fit in my mailbox because "a car was in the way" (definitely not true) despite delivering larger packages to my apartment's office the same day/time...

I'm not sure what hell these jobs are that turns drivers into such shitty people, but I feel pretty confident that it is the system turning them into shitty delivery drivers rather than exclusively shitty people applying for delivery jobs.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#503
post #500
post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon expects me to weaken my physical security posture to help them defend against an activity I don't engage in and is in no way my responsibility? AND Chamberlain expects me to weaken my digital security posture so they can run some opaque crap on my network¹ that I have very little observability into and even less control over so they can make money? Money is one hell of a drug because they are high. How about a…

> How about amazon builds (at their expense) an amazon controlled box, slap a mcu on, do authentication over nfc, rfid, etc etc. Offer it to customers free of charge, hell throw in a sweetener to get them to adopt. I mean, they already do exactly this — this is what Amazon Lockers are. It's just only seemingly worth it to Amazon to deploy them to commercial customers, e.g. at post offices, in front of Whole Foods loc…

And yet somehow here in Poland we have like 5+ companies (InPost, Allegro, several delivery services and even Orlen - the gas station operator - of all things!) one-upping each other in placing parcel lockers on every flat piece of land that's too small for developers to build an apartment block on. I have 10+ of such lockers within 5 minutes walk of my apartment. Now how is that possible?

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#504
post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon expects me to weaken my physical security posture to help them defend against an activity I don't engage in and is in no way my responsibility? AND Chamberlain expects me to weaken my digital security posture so they can run some opaque crap on my network¹ that I have very little observability into and even less control over so they can make money? Money is one hell of a drug because they are high. How about a…

I also find a bit of irony given how much fraud there is on Amazon's own website. There's got to be far cheaper solutions that result in far higher revenues. Of course Chamberlain doesn't have access to this revenue stream, but I'm sure there are other things that they can do like charging for an API key or better yet, charging Amazon for an enterprise token (which users can disable!). Since it seems they're willing…

> But [online retail] seems to be a generally sucky space and I don't understand why.

Because the margins are incredibly low (thanks, Walmart and Amazon?), which means you need capital-heavy hyperefficient warehousing/distribution to even compete, which means you need scale, which means there's little competition to make things better.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#505
post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as already pointed out, most people have an unlocked door from the garage to the house Not sure where you live, but every house I've lived in (USA, a few different states) during my entire life has had an exterior-quality door with exterior-quality lock, including deadbolt, between the house and garage. In the one house I lived in that had a security system, that garage-to-interior door was also wired into the syst…

> Not sure where you live, but every house I've lived in (USA, a few different states) during my entire life has had an exterior-quality door with exterior-quality lock, including deadbolt, between the house and garage. Likewise, but even if it's actually locked, no lock is impenetrable, and a closed garage provides a thief with the privacy to pick it at leisure or even break down the door. Burglary deterrence advice…

> Also, I keep stuff (bikes) in the garage that I don't want stolen.

Most people keep cars in their garage. Which last I checked were usually more expensive than bikes.

Joke aside, people keep a lot of valuable stuff in garages. Hell, tool chests can easily be worth thousands of dollars and are easy to pawn.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am suspicious of the idea that fraud could somehow be reduced by allowing gig workers access to the interior of my home. Somehow this seems an awful lot like a multibillion dollar company offloading work on me.

> Somehow this seems an awful lot like a multibillion dollar company offloading work on me. That's most of the tech industry in a nutshell. From the office suite through all the "self-service" web/mobile interfaces, self-service checkouts in stores, to stuff like this - it's all making you do the work that was previously done by full-time professionals. It's a net loss of efficiency, and it only looks otherwise becau…

>It's a net loss of efficiency

Add to it the time lost because software tends to be less reliable than its counterpart because multiple software interfaces tend to increase complexity. There are some things that software is wonderful for improving. But I don’t need a IoT stick of deodorant.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am suspicious of the idea that fraud could somehow be reduced by allowing gig workers access to the interior of my home. Somehow this seems an awful lot like a multibillion dollar company offloading work on me.

> Somehow this seems an awful lot like a multibillion dollar company offloading work on me. That's most of the tech industry in a nutshell. From the office suite through all the "self-service" web/mobile interfaces, self-service checkouts in stores, to stuff like this - it's all making you do the work that was previously done by full-time professionals. It's a net loss of efficiency, and it only looks otherwise becau…

I'd argue the bigger counterweight dragging down expected performance gains is lost agility.

The more parties in a system, the more ossified it becomes. (Hello, healthcare)

Inevitably, the world changes... and now because there are so many intermediary layers the system as a whole is unable to adapt.

Then you're left with a system that can't be changed, that very efficiently does something different than what you need it to do.

Or, in a nutshell, most enterprise software older than 5 years.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am suspicious of the idea that fraud could somehow be reduced by allowing gig workers access to the interior of my home. Somehow this seems an awful lot like a multibillion dollar company offloading work on me.

> Somehow this seems an awful lot like a multibillion dollar company offloading work on me. That's most of the tech industry in a nutshell. From the office suite through all the "self-service" web/mobile interfaces, self-service checkouts in stores, to stuff like this - it's all making you do the work that was previously done by full-time professionals. It's a net loss of efficiency, and it only looks otherwise becau…

Have gains not been accounting tricks since the 90s?

I would say that almost all of it is, eg, disassembling our manufacturing and shipping it over seas - which ultimately eroded the middle class and jeopardized national security. But neither of those is on the balance sheets of the relevant company.

Anti-social short-term metricized business is the ultimate form of Taylorism — and in three generations, we can see that it’s an abysmal failure.

Sprinkling math on top doesn’t make reckless greed a good idea.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#509
post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave amazon my code for a Christmas present that absolutely could not have been stolen from my porch (as many other recently had). As a working man, I couldn't sit at home to wait for it. I was a little nervous, but I have cameras at least. I then removed all reference to this code from my account. Then, one driver entered while I was going about my day in there and saw me waiting with a hockey stick, as I was wond…

> and now I sometimes get delivery drivers getting pissed off at me (for some reason) that the code doesn't work after they ring my doorbell Since Amazon clearly has no idea what they are doing, I would put up a note next to the keypad saying “Amazon drivers: just drop the package, there is no code”

I've got this large delivery box on my porch. Right next to the door. You see it when coming up the steps. About 1/3 of the time packages are left on the porch next to the box that has inch-high letters spelling "Deliveries". The page on Amazon for "delivery instructions" changes frequently, but there's no way to put on there anything about "delivery box". At least they now come to the correct door of the house - there's a place for that.

Amazon's problem is that they outsource the delivery and there is such a terrible turn-over problem with delivery drivers (and delivery contracting companies) that nothing works at their scale.

Re: Home Assistant blocked from integrating with Garage Door opener API

#510
post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How about amazon builds (at their expense) an amazon controlled box, slap a mcu on, do authentication over nfc, rfid, etc etc. Offer it to customers free of charge, hell throw in a sweetener to get them to adopt. I mean, they already do exactly this — this is what Amazon Lockers are. It's just only seemingly worth it to Amazon to deploy them to commercial customers, e.g. at post offices, in front of Whole Foods loc…

And yet somehow here in Poland we have like 5+ companies (InPost, Allegro, several delivery services and even Orlen - the gas station operator - of all things!) one-upping each other in placing parcel lockers on every flat piece of land that's too small for developers to build an apartment block on. I have 10+ of such lockers within 5 minutes walk of my apartment. Now how is that possible ?

You're talking about the commercial parcel lockers — the ones that fit a whole neighbourhood's deliveries, that are therefore essentially big sturdy metal storage racks underneath — too big and heavy to just pick up and walk away with.

Every country has these to some degree; I imagine they're most popular in places that 1. have colder climates, but 2. where people don't tend to drive (like Poland?) The US has some, but the suburban long-distance-commute car culture + generally not-too-bad climate, means that people in the US generally expect to pick up packages from further away, and so implementation of these in the US has lagged behind other countries.

However, my comment, and the one it was replying to, are talking about something else — a hypothetical concept of small lockers that serve single homes, given to the homeowner, to be located near the home's mailbox/mailslot. (Basically, logistics-provider-provided versions of these things that you can technically buy online — but where I've never seen anyone with one: https://www.amazon.ca/WeHere-Package-Delivery-Anti-Theft-Pas...).

And the thing about these is... they really aren't a good idea. They're not too big and heavy to just steal. Anyone who can walk up to your porch with a moving dolly can walk away with it.

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