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Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

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Re: Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

#121

Post by lonelappde »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #107
m12k wrote: post #16

What's HN's thoughts on IoT? To me it looks like yet another buzzword from the "wouldn't it be neat?" crowd (the same people who previously gave us a lot of hype about Semantic Web and P2P social networks) but as before none of the applications are actually worth the hassle, this prevents critical mass from ever being reached, and in reality it's mostly just a way for appliance companies who are already overcharging…

> who are already overcharging me for non-repairable planned-obsolescence-ridden products, to overcharge me a bit more... NAS devices and networked home speakers are incredibly competitive categories in the IoT space, and as anyone who has actually owned e.g. a Sonos knows, you listen to a lot more music and they've supported the same 12 year old hardware throughout its lifespan.

Why are Sonos speakers instead of simply receivers that your speakers plug in to?

Re: Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

#122

Post by kgiori »

Jonnax wrote: post #13

My wish is to have the equivalent of Google home hub running locally. Really my only use cases are: * glancing at the screen to see the weather * Asking it to turn on or off or change colour of Hue lights * Timers for cooking I've since unplugged my google box because I felt the sacrifice of privacy with an always listening box wasn't worth it. At the end of the day the functionality I use isn't that complex and even…

It is indeed. Mozilla's WebThings Gateway does everything locally, by default. You and your home are the center of its universe. The add-on system not only enables lots of smart home device interop, but also lets you bring in other web content from the Internet that you might want to tie into your smart home. I pull from USGS for earthquakes >5.0 and within 400km of my lat/lon. I also use my lat/lon for time/date rules, local tide charts, and local weather. A rule tells my (always on mute) Google Home speaker to announce "An earthquake >5.0..." when such an event comes in. I also love the (local) voice add-on. It uses Snips wakeword and speech-to-text and a customized-by-Mozilla intent parser and interface to the web thing API so that when you create a new thing or change a name, the local language model is updated immediately. Works on RPi3 very well. No Internet required. The Snips part of the install is currently a hack though, and broke in 0.9. If you installed using 0.7 or 0.8 it will still work. But otherwise you'll have to wait for the 0.9 installer fix.

For tech people, this is easy to use. Still some UX/UI updates needed for mainstream consumer readiness. Remaining big problem is that smart home devices don't tell you whether or not they are web of things ready (direct or via an addon). Need to check the wiki or ask online.

Re: Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

#123

Post by garmaine »

godelski wrote: post #120
tialaramex wrote: post #29

This the closest we have so far to an answer to the point raised in the IETF 105 Technical Plenary a few days ago. Encrypting everything means that IoT devices represent an unknown threat - your "smart" TV connects to Sourceforge and downloads... something every week. What for? Your "smart" thermostat calls the IP of the vendor, maybe to get firmware updates, but it also calls the Disney corporation - what for? You c…

I'm no security expert, and maybe one can explain this to me, but why can't we just inspect the data before it is encrypted? Like isn't it gathered in some way, encrypted, then sent? And on the receiving end it has to decrypt, so we look at that (naively what files change). Unless this is all stored as encrypted I don't see why you can't do this. I mean this should prevent mitm attacks but also let those controlling…

It is encrypted on the device. How are you going to get access to it?

Re: Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

#124

Post by godelski »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #60
m12k wrote: post #16

What's HN's thoughts on IoT? To me it looks like yet another buzzword from the "wouldn't it be neat?" crowd (the same people who previously gave us a lot of hype about Semantic Web and P2P social networks) but as before none of the applications are actually worth the hassle, this prevents critical mass from ever being reached, and in reality it's mostly just a way for appliance companies who are already overcharging…

It's a great idea, but companies are building products that no one wants. Here's a few ideas of products / services / suites of items I would actually buy for my home: - Machine to completely do my dishes. End to end. It puts them from the sink to the dishwasher. Runs the dishwasher. Takes them out of the dishwasher and puts them in the cabinet. I do not care if this takes 5 hours - it can run overnight. I just don't…

> I saw a post about some dude who used facial recognition software on his cat's door flap to see if the cat was bringing in a dead rodent: it barred the cat from entering unless he dropped the rodent.

Do you happen to have a link to this? It sounds hilarious and informative. Also a great way to train cats.

Re: Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

#126

Post by godelski »

ska wrote: post #102
SamuelAdams wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a great idea, but companies are building products that no one wants. Here's a few ideas of products / services / suites of items I would actually buy for my home: - Machine to completely do my dishes. End to end. It puts them from the sink to the dishwasher. Runs the dishwasher. Takes them out of the dishwasher and puts them in the cabinet. I do not care if this takes 5 hours - it can run overnight. I just don't…

I don’t see what is “IoT” about any of these examples, except the remote-dog-letter-outer perhaps; can you elaborate?

I'd assume the recycle one needs to continually update and check a database somewhere. A centralized database of recyclable goods would be pretty nice. In case you can't read the type of plastic you could have backups like barcodes, and further back a camera reading the item. (That at least gives some incremental approaches to solving the issue and making it more robust)

Re: Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

#127

Post by rebolek »

sandGorgon wrote: post #125

Any reason Mozilla is not picking up and supporting one of the DD-WRT/OpenWRT projects ? They are hugely popular, have a huge userbase and are well supported by a lot of hardware (most TP-Link, Linksys, etc).

TurrisOS is based on OpenWRT with some additional stuff like auto-updates.

Re: Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

#128

Post by gcbw2 »

degenerate wrote: post #82
tialaramex wrote: post #29

This the closest we have so far to an answer to the point raised in the IETF 105 Technical Plenary a few days ago. Encrypting everything means that IoT devices represent an unknown threat - your "smart" TV connects to Sourceforge and downloads... something every week. What for? Your "smart" thermostat calls the IP of the vendor, maybe to get firmware updates, but it also calls the Disney corporation - what for? You c…

I was fascinated by your X-ray example. Here's a link for others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope

here's one more relevant today https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray

Re: Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

#129

Post by [deleted] »

garmaine wrote: post #123
godelski wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no security expert, and maybe one can explain this to me, but why can't we just inspect the data before it is encrypted? Like isn't it gathered in some way, encrypted, then sent? And on the receiving end it has to decrypt, so we look at that (naively what files change). Unless this is all stored as encrypted I don't see why you can't do this. I mean this should prevent mitm attacks but also let those controlling…

It is encrypted on the device. How are you going to get access to it?

[deleted]

Re: Mozilla debuts implementation of WebThings Gateway open-source router firmware

#130

Post by godelski »

garmaine wrote: post #123
godelski wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no security expert, and maybe one can explain this to me, but why can't we just inspect the data before it is encrypted? Like isn't it gathered in some way, encrypted, then sent? And on the receiving end it has to decrypt, so we look at that (naively what files change). Unless this is all stored as encrypted I don't see why you can't do this. I mean this should prevent mitm attacks but also let those controlling…

It is encrypted on the device. How are you going to get access to it?

My confusion is that I think there has to be a command that is encryptThisDataToBeSent(data). Can't you just look at data? Before it is encrypted? Or is data encrypted at all times? But if that's true, then the difference of sending encrypted data is kinda moot.
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