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Basically, anything that comes with a per-requirement to connect to a specific company provided server I just out right don’t buy them. (ie. some thing needs you to connect to a server in order to use “at home”) So I pretty much don’t have “smart” anything at home, if I need anything “smart” in the future, I believe there is tons of community project for all sorts raspberry pi controlled boards, switches, etc.
People have this idea that I’m either too paranoid or I might do things “better”, but it’s so arcane and confusing that they never could manage.
Of course the truth is that it might be a bit arcane to initially set up, but actually using it isn’t any more complicated than the commercial ones, except that you actually control what it does.
Then again, I don’t see why anyone would want lots of these things anyway - even if it was all selfhosted, do you really need a videocamera doorbell or app controlled lights? Some of these things just scream to me actually slower and more troublesome than just doing it the old fashioned way. Then again, I still like desktops with wired keyboards and mice, and I still prefer them to voice control or touch screens.
We had a Google speaker thing. Got rid of it because it was crap. All we could reliably use it for was asking it to play a radio station or play Spotify, but frankly it even got that wrong enough that grabbing my phone and connecting to the Bluetooth speaker was easier.
Even privacy invading problems aside they’re just a little bit rubbish.
I have found that their killer app is natural language alarm-setting. something like, “google, set a timer for 30 minutes”, and having that timer appear on your phone is handy in the kitchen.
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Basically, anything that comes with a per-requirement to connect to a specific company provided server I just out right don’t buy them. (ie. some thing needs you to connect to a server in order to use “at home”) So I pretty much don’t have “smart” anything at home, if I need anything “smart” in the future, I believe there is tons of community project for all sorts raspberry pi controlled boards, switches, etc.
People have this idea that I’m either too paranoid or I might do things “better”, but it’s so arcane and confusing that they never could manage.
Of course the truth is that it might be a bit arcane to initially set up, but actually using it isn’t any more complicated than the commercial ones, except that you actually control what it does.
Then again, I don’t see why anyone would want lots of these things anyway - even if it was all selfhosted, do you really need a videocamera doorbell or app controlled lights? Some of these things just scream to me actually slower and more troublesome than just doing it the old fashioned way. Then again, I still like desktops with wired keyboards and mice, and I still prefer them to voice control or touch screens.
We had a Google speaker thing. Got rid of it because it was crap. All we could reliably use it for was asking it to play a radio station or play Spotify, but frankly it even got that wrong enough that grabbing my phone and connecting to the Bluetooth speaker was easier.
Even privacy invading problems aside they’re just a little bit rubbish.
They’re awful if you have a weird accent like I do. Suppose there’s worse problems to have, at least I’ll never have any use for a smart speaker.
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I have found that their killer app is natural language alarm-setting. something like, “google, set a timer for 30 minutes”, and having that timer appear on your phone is handy in the kitchen.