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Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

tomshardware.com

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Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#71

Post by StarGrit »

Jeremy1026 wrote: post #56
StarGrit wrote: post #55

Whenever I read about robovac. I wonder gow good are these robot vacs really? Maybe it is just me, but surely would be less effort to hire a cleaner and they can do more than just vacuuming.

Sure, but a cleaner coming twice is the same cost of a robot vacuum that will work for a couple of years, typically. They do an okay enough job, but they need to run daily, sometimes twice a day, to really keep up considering it's limitations.

It really depends on how big your properties is. A cleaner here could be done in less than an hour and there is no cleaner charging £150 an hour.

Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#72

Post by StarGrit »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #59
StarGrit wrote: post #55

Whenever I read about robovac. I wonder gow good are these robot vacs really? Maybe it is just me, but surely would be less effort to hire a cleaner and they can do more than just vacuuming.

People obviously find them useful. But I will reiterate a sibling comments recommendation, get one that can run Valetudo : https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo

I am not interested in getting one at all.

Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#73

Post by StarGrit »

bastawhiz wrote: post #57
StarGrit wrote: post #55

Whenever I read about robovac. I wonder gow good are these robot vacs really? Maybe it is just me, but surely would be less effort to hire a cleaner and they can do more than just vacuuming.

When I bought my Roomba in 2013, it cost as much total as I pay my cleaning ladies to come once every two weeks. If your floors get dirty easily, it's not really going to get them spotless, but it'll get them far cleaner than they'd otherwise be.

But the cleaners do more than the floors. Vacuuming takes me about 20 minutes once a week. I don't really see the point when I live in a 2 bed apartment.

Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#74

Post by throwuxiytayq »

blueboo wrote: post #64
ethin wrote: post #62

IMO a company should lose all control over technology once you've purchased it. Doesn't matter if it's "smart" or not. If the company wants to do something like telemetry, they can buy a license from you for that data. See how they like it when the tables are flipped.

Can't you trivially reframe the initial purchase as being subsidized by that license? Your $200 smart knife sharpener would be $300 if it weren't recording audio 24/7 (for VAD, surely!) I don't like it either but here we are

We’ve lived with companies that didn’t need to take pics of my dick while I’m shitting to subsidize their operation for as long as companies were a thing. Anyone saying this dick pic status quo is inevitable and necessary is too VC-brained to be allowed to run a company.

Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#75

Post by godelski »

blueboo wrote: post #64
ethin wrote: post #62

IMO a company should lose all control over technology once you've purchased it. Doesn't matter if it's "smart" or not. If the company wants to do something like telemetry, they can buy a license from you for that data. See how they like it when the tables are flipped.

Can't you trivially reframe the initial purchase as being subsidized by that license? Your $200 smart knife sharpener would be $300 if it weren't recording audio 24/7 (for VAD, surely!) I don't like it either but here we are

I think you frame it that way you need to offer the other version.

I do wonder how many people would buy non-spy versions of devices given the option. More specifically, what that differential in price would be too. At worst it would be interesting to have a price explicitly stating what our data is worth. Many people actually internalize that it's not that valuable, but doing this would make it explicit.

Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#76

Post by HiPhish »

1shooner wrote: post #34
HiPhish wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on where he lives this might be illegal. Yes, we live in a cyberpunk dystopia where the manufacturer can break what you bought and then send you to jail for repairing it. You can read more about it here: https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A... This shit is absolutely dystopian. The law must not just be reversed, manufacturers need to be taken to court for shoddy software. Insecure da…

There's an exemption from Section 1201 for "Computer programs that control devices designed primarily for use by consumers for diagnosis, maintenance, or repair of the device or system".

Are you allowed to share how you repaired the software? Because if not then what I said stands, he cannot sell these little Raspberry Pis or publish information on how people can build them themselves. That's one of the problems Louis Rossmann has been talking about in regards to the FULU bounty program.

https://bounties.fulu.org/

Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#77

Post by morsch »

bragr wrote: post #69
0xffff2 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's basically how Kindle pricing works ($X with ads, or $X+$Y without ads) and it's infinitely better having the choice. If Amazon ever gets rid of the without ad version they will lose me as a customer overnight. Likewise, there are a whole lot of products that don't have an "unsubsidized" version that I simply refuse to purchase (or have purchased and returned after confirming that they will not work when…

>If Amazon ever gets rid of the without ad version they will lose me as a customer overnight. Didn't they already remove the option for a completely ad free prime video experience or am I hallucinating that? They have such a ridiculous hold on the e reader market I feel like it is just matter of the next down quarter.

They seem to own 75% of the market, and I think you can get pretty much every book on every device, right? Of course your existing library is locked-in; ideally, that'd be illegal.

Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#78

Post by consp »

Sanzig wrote: post #7
homeonthemtn wrote: post #2

[flagged]

The owner did not hack the vacuum, he blocked the IP address on his network for the telemetry server. Same thing tons of people do with Pi-Hole DNS blocking, for example. There's no sane world where it is defensible to remotely brick a device because it can't communicate with a telemetry server.

Not just devices. Same for apps. If you block the live monitoring features of some crash accumulators apps will not function. (Looking at you dexcom)

Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#79

Post by raphman »

SoftTalker wrote: post #61
StarGrit wrote: post #55

Whenever I read about robovac. I wonder gow good are these robot vacs really? Maybe it is just me, but surely would be less effort to hire a cleaner and they can do more than just vacuuming.

I think it’s one of the most idiotic devices anyone could own. Buy a normal vacuum cleaner for half the price, spend 10 minutes a week vacuuming your apartment, and you won’t come home and find that your cleaning robot spent the afternoon choking on a shoelace.

> "most idiotic devices anyone could own"

Ever been to Chesterton's Fence?

Hypothetically, some people who own such an idiotic device might have pets that bring in lots of dirt from the fields, lose lots of hair, and get a little bit agitated by the normal vacuum cleaner but more or less ignore the robot vacuum.

Re: Vacuum bricked after user blocks data collection – user mods it to run anyway

#80

Post by Mashimo »

StarGrit wrote: post #73
bastawhiz wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I bought my Roomba in 2013, it cost as much total as I pay my cleaning ladies to come once every two weeks. If your floors get dirty easily, it's not really going to get them spotless, but it'll get them far cleaner than they'd otherwise be.

But the cleaners do more than the floors. Vacuuming takes me about 20 minutes once a week. I don't really see the point when I live in a 2 bed apartment.

> I don't really see the point.

You save the 20 minutes once a week.

That's it. That is the whole point. A slight convenience. I use one in a 1 bedroom apartment.

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