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It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell

blog.vghaisas.com

181–190 of 282 posts

Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell

#181
post #166
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You completely missed the part that the chime needs to be user-configurable, ie. play a custom MP3 file. You don't provide that.

I didn't miss it. I have acknowledged the requirements and have challenged them. What I am stating is that "it was in the requirements" is not a "get out of jail card" when someone says it's over-engineered. All I'm saying is that it's a very comfortable position to abstract away personal responsibility and say "I'm not over-engineering, that's what X wants", but that's exactly how we get the over-engineered Linux-pl…

Don't overthink it. If you judge the engineering then you look at how the implementation reflects the requirements, not whether the requirements are good.

Over-engineered simply means there is much more in that implementation than the baseline needed to tick off the requirements.

Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell

#182

I am constantly amazed that people rely on anyone else's compute infrastructure for things like doorbells, cameras, locks, switches, or sensors (network infrastructure is, at the moment, a seemingly acceptable integration for isolated communication.) There is inevitable over-pricing and capture by these companies; it's in their nature. Add to this the security and downtime risks, and the equation really doesn't look…

> "I am constantly amazed that people rely on anyone else's compute..."

We live in a bubble. Reading stuff here means you understand things about computing barely 0.1% of the world population understands the possible consequences. Of that 0.1%, plenty do understand the consequences and still choose the convenience.

For these companies, they just need to convince everyone else, for whom they have no possible conception, understanding, or even words to imagine the Orwellian Rube-Goldberg-like machine that is modern day SaaS.

It isn't so much "get what you deserve", so much as society writ large is getting what it deserves for unregulated advertising slop and re-sale of consumer data.

Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell

#183

The interesting thing here is that Samsung thinks they are going to get people to pay for API access to their smart devices, when "app access" is free. We are now past the point where LLMs can automate the apps. You don't even need to write the code, the LLM will do it for you. As a recent owner of a Samsung fridge, I'm really curious to know what the plan is here. The probability of me paying a monthly for my refrig…

Go to a party with a diverse group of friends and ask people what an API is.

Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell

#185
post #29

>an over engineered It’s not, that’s called a duct tape solution, which is the opposite of engineering, that’s poor design and bad practice, there are so many failure points and moving parts that it’s eminent it will fail. The engineering design should be reliable, simple, and efficient. Instead of that cluster chaos you made, you could have had a relay wired inside the bell that simultaneously trigger a normal and s…

in the age of LLM's this is all too common. "look at what i can do with the assistance of an LLM" shows an rube goldberg construction sure it works. but geez support and security is a nightmare.

A lot of these people are making healthy 6 figure salaries and have been told how smart they are their entire lives.

Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell

#186

I’ve recently been looking into what older gen IoT devices I can buy used for cheap and are also hackable (some existing progress has been done before me is my bar). My first adventure was with an Amazon Echo Dot 2, I picked up two off Facebook marketplace for $5 each and managed to vibe code my way into a working implementation of LibreEcho (which does not currently support the echo dot). I’ve got that wired into my…

What’s your home local ai setup?

Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell

#188
post #49

I am super sensitive to over engineering. For my doorbell I wanted something that lets me play a custom bell sound. You would be surprised that 99% of the solutions out there are complete over engineered stacks that depend on wifi devices, Internet access, connecting to various cloud services... So I built my own: a basic wireless button sends a radio 433 MHz signal, and my receiver is plugged inside the house and tr…

> For my doorbell I wanted something that lets me play a custom bell sound But... why?

GP is clearly a maximiser rather than satisficer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisficing

Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell

#189

I fail to see the relation between a video doorbell and stopping a burglar. Burglars wear masks. Also, a doorbell ringing on the outside of the door is not only silly but in case of an apartment complex highly annoying for your neighbors. And make sure your neighbors like being monitored through your five services. Personally I have a button outside my front door. It is connected with a copper wire to the other side…

> Burglars wear masks.

Around here, they wear hoodies and keep their hood up to obscure their face.

Re: It takes 5 cloud services to hear my doorbell

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People always say this, but is there any evidence it is true? Home burglars aren't exactly the cream of the criminal crop.

I recently exchanged with a police agent in Belgium who specializes in the topic. Their heuristics is opportunity of action, namely how easy it is to get in and out without being caught on the spot. They said they do not really care about being recognized, only being noticed and stopped in action. Consequently the advice is to strengthen physical security first, i.e. have a big door with proper locks and close your w…

I remember reading somewhere that the one thing burglars are terrified of is finding someone home. They will spend a lot of effort to avoid that.
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