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Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

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Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#171

Post by technothrasher »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #13

Be glad it doesn't (yet) shame your eco-ignorance on Facebook, doesn't tell your insurance company you occasionally buy bacon and doesn't call the police for you infringing their intellectual property by refusing to buy new genuine filters often enough. "Smart" home devices which are not open-source and not under your full control are a horror. I would break it open and remove the WiFi antenna if I had no choice of b…

I'm just near the end of a kitchen remodel, with all new appliances. They are all "Wifi Enabled" and push like crazy to make sure you know it. I briefly looked at it and there doesn't appear to be any way to use the Wifi features without signing up at some remote website and allowing all your interactions with your appliances to flow through their servers. Yeah, no thanks. The FAQ on one site actually says not to worry about privacy, since they use the latest greatest encryption when they send your data to their partners!

I'm all set, I don't really need to control or monitor my kitchen appliances through wifi. But it did make me suspect that in another few years the newest appliances will simply not function at all if you don't log in, and pay the monthly subscription fee.

Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#172

Post by bserge »

ggsp wrote: post #164
caymanjim wrote: post #140

I have a semi-related anecdote about surprises from devices. I use a CPAP. After a year, I went back to the doctor for a followup, and was asked to bring the SD card so they could review the data it collects. The device records the times and duration of use, various settings, and some metrics on breathing (apnea events, etc). I knew it recorded this stuff on an SD card. I brought the card to the appointment, but the…

> no one is monitoring diet, exercise, drug use, cigarette consumption, or other risky behaviors, and threatening to withhold treatment for non-compliance ... yet.

But try to withhold payment if you get no treatment - deary me, no no no, that sends you to jail (really, in some places).

Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#173

Post by codingdave »

bvm wrote: post #9

I am somewhat impressed that he's managing to open the fridge 44 times a day. Is he using it as a filing cabinet?

We have 5 people in my family. We cook different meals for ourselves vs. children due to different dietary requirements. So the kids have learned to cook their own things, too, and do so for 2 out of 3 meals each day. If you assume even just 2 openings of the fridge to get ingredients for each meal and put them back, that is 24 openings at a bare minimum. Adding in some snacking and needing more than 2 openings for ingredients when cooking, that isn't hard to envision 40+ openings.

But aside from the arithmetic, I'd think the number of times matters less than how spread out they are. If it opens and closes often during mealtimes, but stays shut the rest of the day, does the number of times it was opened really make a huge difference?

Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#174

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

Toutouxc wrote: post #165
croon wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are people who would benefit from this reminder. They, however, tend to not drive Renaults, but Audis and BMWs. I've had this game with my wife while driving somewhere for the last 10 years. I see someone doing a dangerous pass, driving (way) too fast, cutting someone off too quickly, tailgating, etc, etc, etc, and before I can tell the brand/model, I tell my wife "It's one of those again" (and I would also i…

My GF does a similar thing, but it's spotting woman drivers from behind. My belief is that it's usually the girl and women's boyfriends and husbands who are to blame, because they don't let them drive very often or even ridicule them from the passenger seat when they do, but the end result is quite pronounced where I live (Czech Republic).

Dunno. Here in Poland women are less reckless (more reckful? Angličtina je opravdu divná). I haven't spotted a marked difference.

It's more about drivers who think they know it all. What I fear most on the road is a self-proclaimed veteran driver. I've learned to drive at 37 years old, maybe it's got something to do with it.

Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#175

Post by satellite2 »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #134

I recently bought a 32" 4K monitor. Two different models were at at that point inexpensive enough to tempt me. A smart one, and different brand, dumb one for $50 more. I bought the latter. I'm happy. The market decides, right? What is actually happening here? 1. Most people actually like this overdone gimmickry? 2. Most people think they will like it, buy it and then get sick of it? Thus people like me, who seek out…

I would like to buy a smart scale because I think the data it provides would be really useful to me.

So in my case the smart gimmick really is the feature I want.

Unfortunately I price my weight data very differently than they do, so unless they pay me multiple tens of thousands of dollars I would not agree for it to send the data it collect.

Unfortunately there is no such smart scale.

So I would add to your list a 5) paying with actual money for smart appliances that don't snitch

Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#176

Post by bserge »

xaedes wrote: post #67

In Battlestar Galactica humanity's last defense was this big "dumb" battlestar spaceship with sparsly connected systems. Sometimes it feels like the internet (of things) is the breeding ground of the Cylons in our world.

But the Cylons are human... oh wait

Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#177

Post by kadoban »

FpUser wrote: post #132

I was sort of shocked when I went to buy some gizmo for my car on Amazon and it told me that this particular one will not fit my particular car make and model. Other than whatever is required by law I never told any company about what car if any I own.

Someone on your account likely chose it from the options for a previous item, it remembers those choices.

Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#178

Post by Spooky23 »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #134

I recently bought a 32" 4K monitor. Two different models were at at that point inexpensive enough to tempt me. A smart one, and different brand, dumb one for $50 more. I bought the latter. I'm happy. The market decides, right? What is actually happening here? 1. Most people actually like this overdone gimmickry? 2. Most people think they will like it, buy it and then get sick of it? Thus people like me, who seek out…

People line up at 4AM to get a garbage TV from Walmart on Black Friday. It’s a commodity and people only care about price.

It’s a crowded marketplace, and the only way to eke out margin is better quality and/or features. For TVs, people in general give no shits about panel quality/color/etc, and volume shipment of better stuff is costly. But people love features, and bolting on software enhances margins at no or low cost.

Cooking gear is the same.

Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#179

Post by JasonFruit »

leetcrew wrote: post #167
MarkusWandel wrote: post #134

I recently bought a 32" 4K monitor. Two different models were at at that point inexpensive enough to tempt me. A smart one, and different brand, dumb one for $50 more. I bought the latter. I'm happy. The market decides, right? What is actually happening here? 1. Most people actually like this overdone gimmickry? 2. Most people think they will like it, buy it and then get sick of it? Thus people like me, who seek out…

what exactly is a "smart" monitor? I'm familiar with smart TVs, but I can't see how any of those features could be useful in a screen that I plug directly into a computer.

The advantage is that the monitor provides the sort of usage data the company can sell to others. To be clear, it's not an advantage to you.

Re: Our fridge just emailed us to say we opened its door too many times

#180

Post by caymanjim »

codesections wrote: post #144
MarkusWandel wrote: post #134

I recently bought a 32" 4K monitor. Two different models were at at that point inexpensive enough to tempt me. A smart one, and different brand, dumb one for $50 more. I bought the latter. I'm happy. The market decides, right? What is actually happening here? 1. Most people actually like this overdone gimmickry? 2. Most people think they will like it, buy it and then get sick of it? Thus people like me, who seek out…

> 3. Most people would prefer not to have it, but due to a free market failure, the ungimmicked product just isn't available any more? No, I'd go with (4) people would prefer not to have it, but companies know that they can monitize the data they collect[0] and thus are willing to offer a discount that's large enough to get people (who may or may not know about the data collection) to buy the smart™ version. [0]: htt…

This, and also people simply don't know. Your average consumer buying a TV has no idea what metrics the device is capturing and sharing, or that by connecting it to the Internet, they're not just receiving information, they're sending it. Even cynical/paranoid tech-savvy people are caught off guard when real-time personalized ads start showing up in the on-screen menus of their Internet-connected devices, and would be annoyed to know that their usage patterns are monitored even when they aren't explicitly using an Internet service like Netflix.
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