Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 477 posts

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#321

Post by db48x »

brokenmachine wrote: post #317
db48x wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The damages would probably only qualify for small–claims court. These cases don’t take much time to present or judge, and the evidence you need is quite straight forward. Consulting with a lawyer on the matter, if you wanted that extra assurance, wouldn’t cost much.

I was exaggerating a bit for effect. I consider my time for a day off work, travel to court, preparation, irritation, etc more than the value of the TV, and they probably wouldn't pay me damages for those things. The point is that I shouldn't have to do that as an individual for every purchase. We need a blanket rule that they can't remotely modify purchased items in a way that cannot be rolled-back by the consumer t…

I agree with you there, but you won’t get it if you don’t force them to refund you. Things will just continue as they are.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#322

Post by weq »

Sebb767 wrote: post #294
tharkun__ wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly why I personally try to stay away from as many of these things/devices as I can reasonably do. TV: just don't buy an actual TV. Buy a monitor and hook it up to a Linux box with something like Kodi. You can hook up your cable box if you have that or stream from Netflix and such. Sure, even Netflix makes it hard as you can't get 5.1 surround but I'll take that and 2.0 -> 5.1 upmix over buying a Smart TV…

> TV: just don't buy an actual TV. Buy a monitor and hook it up to a Linux box with something like Kodi. You can hook up your cable box if you have that or stream from Netflix and such. Sure, even Netflix makes it hard as you can't get 5.1 surround but I'll take that and 2.0 -> 5.1 upmix over buying a Smart TV any day! I've looked into this, but this option is really not great, either: - Large Monitors are unavailabl…

No post body was provided.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#323

Post by tharkun__ »

Sebb767 wrote: post #294
tharkun__ wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly why I personally try to stay away from as many of these things/devices as I can reasonably do. TV: just don't buy an actual TV. Buy a monitor and hook it up to a Linux box with something like Kodi. You can hook up your cable box if you have that or stream from Netflix and such. Sure, even Netflix makes it hard as you can't get 5.1 surround but I'll take that and 2.0 -> 5.1 upmix over buying a Smart TV…

> TV: just don't buy an actual TV. Buy a monitor and hook it up to a Linux box with something like Kodi. You can hook up your cable box if you have that or stream from Netflix and such. Sure, even Netflix makes it hard as you can't get 5.1 surround but I'll take that and 2.0 -> 5.1 upmix over buying a Smart TV any day! I've looked into this, but this option is really not great, either: - Large Monitors are unavailabl…

I looked into it too ;)

    - Large Monitors are unavailable or (if you use business monitors) a lot more expensive and usually don't have latest panel tech.
Agree, monitors in regular TV sizes are way more expensive than the largest 'cheap' monitors. But I'd rather make a decision between paying $300 CAD for a 32" monitor that is 'large enough' but not huge or a ~43" monitor that is way larger, has 4k etc. and costs ~$1200 CAD etc. or a $500 50" 4k "generic Smart TV" in "dumb mode" than to use it as an actual Smart TV.

    - You'll loose surround sound and also 4K on most platforms
There you go, no expensive 4k monitor needed if you can't get it anyway. Surround sound I'll give you but see your sibling if you are so inclined to go the potentially unlawful but ethically probably totally OK route.

    - The integration is usually worse (you'll have to start more devices, if you're lucky CEC decides to work)
To be fair it's been a while that I've had cable and had to deal with that and that was in low-def times (so I had a cable card in the mythtv server). I don't fancy setups w/ IR switching cable channels and such but to be honest, I think it's worth it to at least try if you have to keep actual cable for some reason. Nowadays other viable options than having cable do exist if you ask me.

    - Good luck with HDR
I probably just don't know what I am missing and as long as it stays that way it's like staying on 720p and a monitor most people would think is way too small but actually totally adequate than to complain that my huge 4k one looks bad with that source material ;)

    offline smart TV are good contenders, too
Totally agree, if you're looking for a cheap huge "monitor" that can definitely be a good option as long as you stay away from the actual "features" and are fine with the other limitations.

Personally I'm on a 32" regular HD IPS panel monitor. Given the size of the living room and how far away the sofa is, this is totally adequate (I upgraded from my >>>10 year old 4:3 "I don't even remember the size of it" monitor when it finally broke!). Surround sound depends on the source. If it's Netflix the upmix is "good enough" for most of what the kids wanna watch and then there's other material too where proper AC3 is available. Most of the times I can't really have the bass turned up anyway so as not to wake the kids :P

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#324

Post by goblinux »

prettyStandard wrote: post #100
cwal37 wrote: post #67

This is related to why I bought a concept2 erg recently. Hurt my achilles and needed to switch to a low impact exercise, which I prefer to be able to do at home rather than going somewhere else (so swimming is out). Looked at Peloton, but it's about twice as much as an erg up front, has running costs each month, and what seemed to be many more points of failure (which includes the electronics). The Concept2[0] is a t…

I own a concept 2. I have 4.6 million meters on it. I watch programming videos in Spanish while I workout(To learn Spanish). This is my "Smart Workout Machine". https://imgur.com/a/HDE0939

Can you share some YouTube channel recommendations para practicar español

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#325

Post by Semaphor »

gorjusborg wrote: post #17

This type of 'update' is one reason I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices. If part of the product I've paid for is software, and the company can update it without customer consent at any time, then I can't rely on the product's features. Period. I experienced this myself on the PS4 version of Terraria. I bought a hard-copy of the game. I mastered the controls, and loved them. Terraria was updated one day…

> This type of 'update' is one reason I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices.

That is why I call those devices 'dumb' devices (reminds me of a SciFi book where the AI helpers are called "artifically stupids"). Smart devices are local, no auto-updates, working with no issue in the event of an outage.

I have many smart devices, all that would stop working in the event of an internet outage, would be the voice interface.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#326

Post by TMWNN »

axiosgunnar wrote: post #281
jasonlotito wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Sorry but how is that even comparable? My comment is actually encouraging „hacking“ in the sense of finding unusual solutions other than the officially approved way.

Look up the HN thread on Dropbox when it debuted. You'll understand why jason compared your comment to what people said in that thread

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#327

Post by vishvananda »

treesknees wrote: post #38

The method to get into "God Mode" is the same, except now it prompts you for a code. Someone has figured out how to calculate it and actually created a website to generate codes for you. http://getresponsecode.com Apparently the algorithm is very simple according to Reddit https://old.reddit.com/r/nordictrack/comments/ozkp8v/privile... >long responseCode = new Random((long) Integer.parseInt(iFitCode)).nextInt(999999)…

Thank you for this. I was hoping someone had figured it out but I hadn't found this yet.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#328

Post by vishvananda »

jabroni_salad wrote: post #26

Jeeze, I will stick with my modular solution: an ipad on a music stand. This is compatible not only with any commodity treadmill, but also bike trainers, ellipticals, and making vroomvroom noises on the motorcycle when it's too icy to actually ride. I could also swap out the ipad for a laptop, non-ipad tablet, or a collection of cute succulents should I desire it. snark aside, I'm a bicycle guy and I really like that…

In this particular case, some of the runs from iFit instructors are actually quite good, and it cool that it adjusts the speed and incline to match the instruction. Probably not worth the extra $$$$ but it is pretty cool. But now I also want to be able to watch regular videos. I usually walk outdoors for an hour a day to get my 10,000 steps in, and the Chicago winter makes that tough, so I'm thinking an hour of walking on the treadmill while i catch up on my favorite shows might be a good substitute.

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#329

Post by mastazi »

givinguflac wrote: post #275
mastazi wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I tend to stay away from so-called 'smart' devices I tried several alternatives in terms of smart TV (Apple TV, Google/Android TV, Fire TV), and I could not find any platform that let me use all of the apps that I needed without resorting to casting from my phone. And in some cases there was a long process to follow in order to get the device to do what I needed[1], which involved activating developer mode, sideloa…

Genuinely curious, did you feel anything was missing from Apple TV besides a web browser? I feel it’s perfect for our uses but I always like to know if I’m missing something. Personally I don’t like web browsing on TV but AirPlay fills that gap when it’s needed.

I have to say that Apple TV sucked less than the alternatives but it's also the most inflexible in the sense that it's harder to "jailbreak", so for example if Apple decides that the home page will now be filled with ads rather than icons, I won't be able to do anything about it whereas in Google TV and Fire TV you can sideload an unofficial launcher if you want. Compare this with my current solution where I can just change OS or desktop environment if I feel like it.

Another aspect is the fact that smart TV apps are sometimes not as good as their desktop counterparts. For example the YouTube app on most smart TV platforms does not support viewing show notes or comments. So every time the person in the video says "link in the notes below"... you are missing out on that link. Another example: I like watching martial arts, both the UFC web app and the FloGrappling web app have additional features that are not found in their smart-tv-app counterparts.

Another big one for me, is the fact that in a desktop environment I have better multitasking and I can use browser tabs. For example if I find a Youtube channel I'm interested in, and I see a couple videos that I would like to watch, I just open them in a new tab. On a smart TV you would have to add them to watch later, then go to your library and find them, it's just not as immediate.

Another point is gaming, I am recycling old computer parts that I removed from my gaming PC when doing upgrades, these are relatively old parts but still pretty good, so you can run triple-A desktop games with pretty decent quality, whereas the type of games available for download on smart TVs are mostly just ports of mobile games. I also installed RetroPie which is quite fun!

Then there is hardware upgradeability. Recently I was thinking to add a faster CPU, and then the CPU that is now in the HTPC will go into my NAS since the one I have in the NAS is quite slow. You can't do any of that with a smart TV dongle, all the parts are soldered to the main board :-)

One more thing I like is that it's easier to watch content using alternative clients, for example I watch YouTube videos using the FreeTube app, on Smart TV platforms you might be able to find some alternative clients but the choice is more limited.

EDIT - rephrased some parts as they were not clear

Re: Locked out of 'God Mode', runners are hacking their treadmills

#330

Post by HWR_14 »

brokenmachine wrote: post #283
R0b0t1 wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It already is illegal to do so. Just claim damages against the TV manufacturer, likely the whole price of the TV or a comparable replacement.

I'm saying there should be a law where the govt punishes the company. If the law needs me as an individual consumer to procure my own team of lawyers to go up against a multinational every time I buy a new TV, then that law might as well not exist.

This is why punitive damages exist. Because you can sometimes get a lawyer to work on your case with no cash. So they can collect a large percentage of those punitive damages.
Post reply on HN