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Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

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Re: Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

#111

Post by red_rech »

goku12 wrote: post #71
oliwarner wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But these are [often] thousand dollar appliances. "Capacitive buttons are cheaper" shouldn't be a factor. It's hard to understand why companies can't build things to last, use real buttons, provide parts for servicing at cost, add local APIs for anything "smart", forgo any secondary income streams (eg screens showing ads), and still make a profit .

> It's hard to understand why companies can't build things to last, use real buttons, provide parts for servicing at cost, add local APIs for anything "smart", forgo any secondary income streams (eg screens showing ads), and still make a profit . It isn't that hard to understand. They can. They just choose not to, because success isn't defined by profits anymore. It's now defined by profit growth . The only ethical w…

> To summarize all the above in two words - 'insatiable greed'. But what worries me is how far they'll take it.

Neo feudalism. They’ve laid it out quite explicitly several times in the last few years

Re: Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

#114

Post by frollogaston »

fluoridation wrote: post #95
ssl-3 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have personally installed equipment that included non-optional, always-on cellular data connectivity that allowed it to be configured and monitored from The Clown. And Amazon rather famously included cellular connectivity with their early Kindle e-ink book-reading devices -- back in '07. It's been done before. It can be done again.

Eh. If someone wants to waste money keeping up a data connection with my washing machine, I don't have much of an issue with it, as long as it doesn't have any microphones.

It would probably have a mic if they're going to do that

Re: Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

#115

Post by BrandoElFollito »

palmotea wrote: post #98

> Introduced in the early 2010s, the smart washing machine promised convenience and efficiency by allowing users to control and monitor their washing machine remotely. The connection to a Wi-Fi network allows the user to operate functions from a smartphone, download additional wash programs, and receive alerts when a load is complete. Unless the thing will load and unload itself, all those "features" are stupid. We r…

One feature I would like to have in a washing machine is a controlled start and an end signal so that I can automate a valve switching the water on and off.

For the rest I agree, the real deal will be a load/unload functionality :)

Re: Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

#116

Post by BrandoElFollito »

Ballas wrote: post #55
kennywinker wrote: post #32

I am playing with home automation, and one of the reasons i’m only using zigbee devices is that they have no outside network access. I have two wifi thermostats that I bought before, and one of these days I’m going to have to set up a firewall of some kind to block them from outside access.

The wifi devices are cheaper IME, so I created a IOT VLAN that does not have internet access, nor access to my normal network unless it was initiated from the trusted side.

The problem with WiFi IoT is they are power-hungry. A smart plug is obviously not a problem, but a standalone switch - yes

Re: Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

#117

Post by array_key_first »

oliwarner wrote: post #60
ssl-3 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with kerchunk-a-wheels and real pushbuttons (and the not-smarts they imply) is that they're expensive. They're more expensive (and more failure-prone) than the rotary encoders, mush-buttons, and brain-boxes that replaced them. But one cool part about things like motorized kerchunk-a-wheels is that, upon failure, a motivated person on Gilligan's Island can often mend them back into service with a screwdriv…

But these are [often] thousand dollar appliances. "Capacitive buttons are cheaper" shouldn't be a factor. It's hard to understand why companies can't build things to last, use real buttons, provide parts for servicing at cost, add local APIs for anything "smart", forgo any secondary income streams (eg screens showing ads), and still make a profit .

Because the goal isn't to turn a profit, it's to turn the most profit.

Your user experience does not matter a bit to them. If you don't buy again, they don't care. That's invisible cost.

Everyone is doing data analytics and metric-driven product development. Opportunity cannot be measured, so it's as if it doesn't exist.

Yes, in the long run, this is self destructive.

Re: Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

#118

Post by snapplebobapple »

IAmBroom wrote: post #100
snapplebobapple wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As has been said already those can fail nuclear disaster style so I have no interest in having those back. Give me an ethernet port and a wifi interface (ideally supporting at least wifi 6 but ideally wifi 7 so it's not polluting the airwaves causing interference. It should also be able to be disabled if I want to use ethernet only) that has a locked down web interface exposed on one port with some standardized inter…

Your primary concern is "Will my washer work after a nuclear strike?" ?

That is a turn a phrase. It means catastrophically. Like fill your whole house with water catastrophically

Re: Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

#119

Post by scrubs »

ssl-3 wrote: post #50
nofunsir wrote: post #35

I just want normal buttons and dials back. Not time-based capacitance buttons that take 5.02 seconds to activate, not 5.0 seconds; nor free-spinning encoder wheels that mandate you give it a jiggle before the washer does anything, even if it's already on the setting you want. I want kachunk-a-chunk back first. Then we can decide if it needs smarts.

The problem with kerchunk-a-wheels and real pushbuttons (and the not-smarts they imply) is that they're expensive. They're more expensive (and more failure-prone) than the rotary encoders, mush-buttons, and brain-boxes that replaced them. But one cool part about things like motorized kerchunk-a-wheels is that, upon failure, a motivated person on Gilligan's Island can often mend them back into service with a screwdriv…

Gilligan's Island reference and analogy for competence ... well done! hilarious & original. I'm borrowing that.

Re: Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day (2024)

#120

Post by southernplaces7 »

goku12 wrote: post #71
oliwarner wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But these are [often] thousand dollar appliances. "Capacitive buttons are cheaper" shouldn't be a factor. It's hard to understand why companies can't build things to last, use real buttons, provide parts for servicing at cost, add local APIs for anything "smart", forgo any secondary income streams (eg screens showing ads), and still make a profit .

> It's hard to understand why companies can't build things to last, use real buttons, provide parts for servicing at cost, add local APIs for anything "smart", forgo any secondary income streams (eg screens showing ads), and still make a profit . It isn't that hard to understand. They can. They just choose not to, because success isn't defined by profits anymore. It's now defined by profit growth . The only ethical w…

An even bigger underlying problem is that people keep buying into and buying all this garbage, instead of rejecting it en masse through purchases of older, second-hand products or new products among the brands (admittedly less and less out there) that don't do these kinds of things.

Neither choice is exceptionally hard, but a vast percentage of the consumer market just keeps subjecting itself to being treated like this even when alternatives exist.

I've managed to live more than 20 years as an adult in his own home without ever buying a brain-fuckingly hostile consumer product for my home. It's truly not hard to do, or even expensive.

Companies may not care about individual consumers who don't buy again, but only as long as there aren't enough of them to harm your bottom line. Once that changes, they do start giving a shit, because you can't simply forever extract rent from a shrinking pool of people who still tolerate your shit and still grow, no matter how much you squeeze.

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