Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Jopax]

My eye surgery is at best delayed another year or so and at worst completely off the table. Was really looking forward to not needing glasses anymore as the current ones turned out to be especially uncomfortable.

Worse still, if what the doctor said was the case than the most likely cause for it is that I spend way too much time looking at shit up close (since I'm farsighted that most likely puts strain on the corrective muscles which in tun makes them stronger over time). And pretty much 90% of the stuff I do, be it for enjoyment or work needs looking at shit up close :V

[Loud Whispers]

Ah, classic scholar's eyes

[ChairmanPoo]

[McTraveller]

Why do companies not make the products I want to buy?

Especially for some Christmas gifts... specifically, my wife wants something and no version exists that doesn't require cloud connections or potentially some root modifications and linux/Android interfaces and we have none of that.

Where are all the companies willing to make Tons Of Money from the geeks who don't want everything cloud-connected!?

[nenjin]

As part of a tech company that made the move to cloud-hosted services from client-hosted services...

You have so many benefits as the vendor from maintaining cloud access. People can't as easily modify your software because it's run from the cloud. You can easily control access for non-payment and what have you by doing it through the cloud. You don't generally have to worry about the physical environment your app is running on (if their version of whatever is outdated, that's a them problem. Versus having to troubleshoot and support every possible iteration of physical environments customers might have.) You can centrally administrate and troubleshoot everything that's running off the cloud versus a local installation.

I'm not going to say cloud-hosted is a win for everyone. You're releasing control over your own product and putting yourself at the mercy of the vendor. For the vendor though it's a very beneficial arrangement. I used to have 50+ customers each with their own windows server environment spanning 20 years of Windows versions. Supporting them was a logistical clusterfuck. Dealing with their data required a physical connection to their environment to do anything.

Now that we're largely cloud hosted I have access to all their data at my finger tips and don't have to maintain server connections or call people or do remote networking....

Not to mention all the other benefits for the vendor like capturing email addresses and all that valuable user data.

I'm sure to the end user it's like "I don't want to sign up for another fucking account/relinquish control over my apps" but that's half the story.

[McTraveller]

Oh I know why companies do this.  That's why it makes me sad.

Spoiler: A related soapbox (click to show/hide)

if you didn't have always-connected behavior, you wouldn't need security updates in the first place.  Especially for things that don't really need it, like in my situation, an appliance.  I mean if the goal is to allow scheduling, being internet connected adds so much accidental complexity compared to a simple clock and timer circuit.

And seriously, what updates would even make sense to an appliance?  Sure you can contrive things you might add there to justify needing software updates... but there are way simpler ways, given that most people use about 10% of the settings on a modern washing machine.

Appliances should be buy it and forget; there's no reason at all for them to need software updates post-release.  Or I should say, the main reason you'd have a bug that needs patching post-release is because you abused software in the first place.

[nenjin]

I mean, you're preaching to the choir.

I don't need my fridge to tell me it's time to get more milk. I don't need my fridge telling some server somewhere what I buy so I can have more ads shoved at me.

Smart appliances are a convenience at the price of complexity AND security. "Oh I want to turn my lights on from my phone when I'm not home." Well, congratulations, you can but now you have all this additional complexity and risk to account for because you're transmitting information over the internet that directly ties to your personal identity and/or your wifi network. That's why the updates exist, because every day bad actors are finding ways to intercept those connections, steal user account data and get into your system simply so they can sell your name, phone#, email and home address on the Dark Web to hackers so they can in turn phish you for your CC/bank account information/get you to buy gift cards.

It's tempting to lay the blame on the vendor for over-complicating things. But the simple fact of the matter is: if you're communicating on the internet then there are dozens if not hundreds of vulnerabilities that are discovered every year and need to be patched.

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I see our Captain's got the new lasik

[King Zultan]

I have yet to see a reason to need a smart appliance, why would I need a fridge that has all that computer stuff in it when a cheaper one that doesn't have that stuff works just as well.

Also what movie is that GIF from?

[scriver]

I think it's from Event Horizon, if my memory serves me

[McTraveller]

Yes Event Horizon. It’s a good sci-fi suspense/horror movie.

[Loud Whispers]

Yes Event Horizon. It’s a good sci-fi suspense/horror movie.

I've given up hope that they'll ever find the deleted footage though. Maybe it's in a top secret government archive somewhere

[nenjin]

I've seen a little of it. Maybe it's best if it remains cast into the Warp.

[dragdeler]

note to myself:

its 4:48
yesterday was formation
today is saturday
remember this before you go gaslighting yourself again
"actually it wasnt that bad"
yeah my, only want to die 2 days out of 7 instead of the other way around
its impossible to maintain mental hygiene in this empathy quicksand
serves you right for picking an "essential" job, looser
one step at a time
It's getting late but I'm allowed to celebrate small victories

[King Zultan]

Yes Event Horizon. It’s a good sci-fi suspense/horror movie.

I've given up hope that they'll ever find the deleted footage though. Maybe it's in a top secret government archive somewhere

Haven't seen that move in quite awhile, also wasn't aware that there was cut footage that was lost.