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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

#401

Post by BugWatch »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #55
cirrrrrrus wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can't have lidars and map your home (while I can see no reason why this has to require Internet access and can't be implemented an autonomous way). This is a great comment. I would love smart appliances (e.g. Lidar-equipped robot vacuum cleaner) that are 100% offline. If anyone has a list of smart yet offline appliances, I’d love to shop there.

> I’d love to shop there. If I had enough time and money I would start a company specializing in just this: home and office hardware (from kitchen appliances to smartphones and players) designed with care and focus on offline-friendliness, autonomousness, durability, ease of repair, configurability, hackability, upgradability and privacy without compromise in features and the UX. I believe the potential market, altho…

I have the same dream. But making it barely sustainable (let alone profitable) would be neigh impossible. Maybe more of an open source community organization that would salvage, use and reuse components from the existing partially broken appliances of "proper" manufacturers in new enclosures and form factors designed from the get-go mainly (exclusively?) for easy servicing/upgrade by the average user, and open/flexible enough for advanced/maker types.

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

#402

Post by genewitch »

tzs wrote: post #380
genewitch wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's in an ISM band, I can't remember the rules, I think encryption is allowed (like, WPA) but for thermometers and stuff why bother? 99% of 433mhz (and 800/900 mhz) stuff is unidirectional (sensor to sensee), so where's the harm in some 100mW transmitter?

The only thing I've seen that appears to be encrypted is something rtl_433 identifies as a "Microchip-HCS200", which seems likely to be a device using this chip [1] for remote keyless entry systems. The encryption appears to be for authentication not secrecy. The button status is in an unencrypted portion of the message. Of course there may be plenty of sensors out there that fully encrypt in which case rtl_433 would…

If you have an rtl anyhow and you want to see what is there that rtl_433 is missing is to use rtl_power on the command line, you can monitor specific chunks of bandwidth for as long as you want, and it saves as a CSV. btw if you try this and get a bunch of errors in the CSV (or NaN) your gain(s) are set incorrectly, and i'd try turning them down to start.

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

#403

Post by genewitch »

greenshackle2 wrote: post #352
genewitch wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't all the lithium batteries of the sort you're talking about labelled as 3v? A lithium cell would need a buck circuit to do 1.5v

I'm talking about AA, which are always 1.2-1.5V as far as I know. Like these: https://www.amazon.com/Energizer®-Ultimate®-Cylindrical-Lith... > A lithium cell would need a buck circuit to do 1.5v Maybe? I have no idea how they are built.

yes, those have a buck converter built in to drop the voltage from 4.2v (fully charged) to 1.5V - and ideally they should be able to provide 1.5v from full to flat.

In a similar vein, those USB power banks use 18650 batteries (generally, some use LiPo or LiFePo packs instead) - but USB needs 5v (and ideally 5.xx where xx is determined by the cable resistance so the actual output at the terminating end is 5vdc, so the power bank may actually put 5.33V into the USB A side and get 5vdc out the load side, due to current draw.) so instead of a buck converter, a single cell or parallel cell bank will use a boost converter, to bump 3.6-4.2vdc to 5.x volts.

You may have known this but someone else might not have. A common circuit for boost conversion is called a Joule Thief.

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

#404

Post by zzo38computer »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #397
zzo38computer wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It turns out that the CPAP contains a cellular modem, and it phones home and reports in real-time. I had no idea this thing was recording any data at all. It wasn't verbally disclosed to me by either the doctor or the equipment technicians. I imagine there's something buried in the fine print of the (long lost) documentation, possibly even in the fine print of some form I signed, but I was caught off guard and none…

> medical devices should ideally not require a computer, I can accept that you may have no knowledge of the ridiculous complexity of modern medical devices, but if you're a software developer I would expect that you realize there are computers in everything The device isn't "surveilling" you. It's reporting therapy-relevant, and probably device performance, information that is actually important both to the clinic an…

> I can accept that you may have no knowledge of the ridiculous complexity of modern medical devices

That is correct, I don't know. However, they are made more complicated and then might fail (e.g. if the power runs out).

> if you're a software developer I would expect that you realize there are computers in everything

Many things do these days, but I think that computers should not be needed in everything, even some that do.

> The "low-tech" alternative would be you going into the physician's office once a week for a checkup. I'm pretty sure most people would prefer that it upload the data.

Yes, although it shouldn't be required, in case a few people do prefer an alternative (that isn't the only one, although it is a possibility).

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

#405

Post by thrownaway810 »

xyzzy21 wrote: post #287

NEVER buy an internet-connectable appliance!! Certainly never connect any internet-connectable appliance to the actual internet!! Certainly never provide any personal information to any internet-connectable appliance that is on the actual internet!! You are an idiot if you violate any of these. Just grow a spine and don't do stupid things that are obviously dangerous or invasive.

Can you find me a OLED 4K HDR TV that’s sold in Australia at a consumer level that has no internet connectability?

I’ve been searching for months, I’m yet to find out. The market has varied enough that I can’t see a way to avoid it and still have a TV that supports modern imagery enhancements and standards.

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

#406

Post by BugWatch »

freedomben wrote: post #247
corobo wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's more that people outside of HN don't really care about their privacy if it's not visibly being violated. From there it's cheapest and biggest wins

I talk to a lot of them about privacy, and nearly all of them do care. They just have no idea what's happening, and after I tell them, they have no idea how to stop it and give up. Happens every time.

I have a friend who "just doesn't care that much about it"... to the amount that it is straining my ability to continue the friendship (unbeknownst to him). (He's not a techy person, and is in(to?) Apple's walled-off gardens.)

And, because of people like him, anti-privacy micro steps are continuously made, and Overton windows slowly but continually shifts... until one moment when he/they start to care, but then it's too late. And then they're usually greatly surprised and astonished that "that's allowed?!".

Yeah, it is, buddy, it is. Because you "just didn't care that much". Now you have to live with consequences that the rest of who "did care" have lived (and fought) with since the [metaphorical] beginning.

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

#407

Post by saurik »

option_greek wrote: post #90
saurik wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you just tap anywhere without pressing the play button all of that UI goes away and you get back to the pure video, just paused...

It comes back after a few seconds. For this to work, you have to constantly be moving your mouse around. Prime on the other hand lets you pause, read and even know about the person in frame and trivia about the movie or tv series being played. They don't have much content but they are way better than Netflix in Ux.

Ah, I essentially live in Netflix, so I was pretty sure you are wrong, but I'm seeing the issue: "mouse"... you are on a computer? No clue how that works ;P. I use their app (on AppleTV and iOS).

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

#408

Post by dugite-code »

908B64B197 wrote: post #338
dugite-code wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few of the Xaiomi's and Viomi's are rootable. I have a Gen1 Xaiomi and it's brilliant. I got ssh access to the ubuntu install and installed https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo and run it 100% local via my home-assistant install. dgiese is a proficient vacuum security researcher and has most of that stuff available here: https://github.com/dgiese/dustcloud

> Xaiomi's and Viomi's Not sure I'd connect a device from these vendors to my home network.

One of the first steps when rooting is usually to block outgoing and incoming in iptables (it's a fairly standard ubuntu install after all) so you don't lose root at any point, so the risk is minimal. Not to mention I have a dedicated non internet routable IOT network specifically for this reason.

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

#409

Post by antoinealb »

genewitch wrote: post #343
antoinealb wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is simply that cooling a gas will reduce its pressure if you maintain constant volume (Ideal gas law). So when you open the door you warmup the air inside, and when it cools down once to door is locked, the pressure is lower, locking the door. Then small leaks will equalize the pressure.

My side by side actually runs some pump that is not the compressor when you close the door. It runs for about 5 seconds, after which the doors are quite difficult to open. Air does not change temperature that fast without being forced to, so the idea that within 10 seconds it's harder to open because of a natural vacuum seems suspect. Maybe 5 minutes after?

I tried doing some math on this, since you got me thinking!

Let's assume the "lock force" is 100N, and the surface of the fridge's door is 1 square meter. This means the pressure differential between inside and outside would be 100 Pa. One atmosphere is roughly 10^5 Pa, so you would need a pressure differential of 10^5 / 100 = 0.1% between inside and outside. Since PV=NRT, we deduce that DeltaP/P = DeltaT/T. Or, in other words, 0.1% pressure means 0.1% temperature. We live at around 300K, so that's 0.3K difference. A fridge is what, 0.5 m^3 ? And air is about 1.3 kg/m^3, specific heat of air is about 1kJ/kg, so we would be looking at removing 1.3 kg/m^3 * 0.5m^3 * 1 kJ/kg = 650 J in 10 seconds, or 65W. A fridge can apparently consume about 200W peak (from a quick Google search), so it seems feasible with an OK-tier efficiency.

In addition, if you add a pump, you could also just add a mechanical lock, couldn't you ?

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

#410

Post by shreyshnaccount »

andylynch wrote: post #109
shreyshnaccount wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and oh my God don't get me started about glass ketchup bottles like they just don't work?! it's insanity trying to get ketchup out it's ludacris and oh my god

Some folks actually invented a ketchup-phobic bottle coating. Their company is Liquiglide. It also works for many other things- Colgate uses it in some products but Heinz appears to have settled for upside-down bottles.

invest.
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