spaghettiwestern
@spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on US Government Urges Total Ban of Our Most Popular Wi-Fi Router 5 days ago:
OpenWRT is a permanent solution for older TP-Link routers. Their newer routers are locked down and not supported by OpenWRT.
- Comment on Google pulls the plug on first and second gen Nest Thermostats 1 week ago:
Thanks for that write-up. I’ll continue to ignore the electric company’s marketing errors and remain blissfully disconnected.
- Comment on Google pulls the plug on first and second gen Nest Thermostats 1 week ago:
Samsung did something similar with one of their tablets when they remotely removed an app that provided an IR remote function - a primary reason for my purchase. Samsung’s support not so politely told me, “Too fucking bad.” when I objected.
Even though a replacement 3rd party app was less than $5 I haven’t purchased another Samsung consumer product or service in almost a decade.
- Comment on Google pulls the plug on first and second gen Nest Thermostats 1 week ago:
If you live in the U.S., you can also help by letting your representatives know about this. Here’s an ActionNetwork page that Fulu set up so that you can easily do so: actionnetwork.org/…/right-to-repair-reform-sectio…
Do you still have a representative government where you live? I have a Republican House rep and trying to get him to do anything consumer friendly is just masochism.
- Comment on Google pulls the plug on first and second gen Nest Thermostats 1 week ago:
That “Smart Energy” discount has shown up in mailings for the last few years and I’ve considered signing up despite my general dislike of allowing any company any more control of my life than they already have.
Why do you say they’re a trap? Did they change your thermostat settings far more than they claim or pull other BS you didn’t expect?
- Comment on Google pulls the plug on first and second gen Nest Thermostats 1 week ago:
Honeywell’s Z-wave thermostats don’t require Internet connectivity to function and control remotely. They do require something like Home Assistant for that remote control.
- Comment on Google pulls the plug on first and second gen Nest Thermostats 1 week ago:
With Google’s track record of jumping into a market and after they have millions of users shutting it down, I’m surprised they didn’t do this years ago.
How long before Honeywell does the same? The company spun off their residential services division (including thermostats) about 7 years ago and at first things were fine, but in the last couple of years the service has become increasingly unreliable. Their servers have gone down quite a few times and settings changes are sometimes delayed even when the servers are up.
Their Z-Wave thermostat is a nice upgrade without concerns about someone sitting in a corporate America e-suite deciding to pull the plug.
- Comment on Google pulls the plug on first and second gen Nest Thermostats 1 week ago:
As do smart thermostats that don’t rely on the continued goodwill of corporate America to function.
- Submitted 1 week ago to technology@lemmy.world | 137 comments
- Comment on Google flags Immich sites as dangerous 2 weeks ago:
Google Safe Browsing looks to be have been built without consideration for open-source or self-hosted software.
IMO this has nothing to do with user safety. The harder they make it to move away from their products by making using alternatives difficult, the more money they make. Even if this only adds a fraction of a fraction of a percent to their profit it’s something they will do. The old implied social contract of businesses providing value to the community as a whole in addition to making a profit is long gone.
- Comment on Windows 10 support has ended, but here's how to get an extra year for free 3 weeks ago:
The vast majority of people have already activated Windows with an email address. I have several friends who have done so and for them this cost nothing.
- Comment on Windows 10 support has ended, but here's how to get an extra year for free 3 weeks ago:
Not something I’m willing to do, but it’s not a problem for most users who entered their email address long ago.
- Comment on Windows 10 support has ended, but here's how to get an extra year for free 3 weeks ago:
How do you figure?
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to technology@lemmy.world | 56 comments
- Comment on People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads 3 weeks ago:
It’s not just companies. Amazon started pushing ads to subscribers who pay for ad-free Prime video content. Some idiot on here on Lemmy steadfastly insisted it wasn’t an ad at all, but a “promotion.”
Companies are actually getting their customers to make infuriating, ridiculous corporate statements for them.
- Comment on People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads 3 weeks ago:
I think you severely underestimate how computer illiterate most people are. Many people I know struggle to use their Iphones.
- Comment on Logitech will brick its $100 Pop smart home buttons on October 15 - Ars Technica 4 weeks ago:
Yes. I had them blocked via my firewall because of the constant traffic they generated and blocking Internet access causes constant bulb resets. The resets are known to TP-Link and according to a couple of sources they created a private firmware release that fixed it. TP-Link failed to publically release that firmware, and last time I checked deny it ever existed. I replaced the bulbs with 3rd Reality Zigbee bulbs that work perfectly.
- Comment on Logitech will brick its $100 Pop smart home buttons on October 15 - Ars Technica 4 weeks ago:
I didn’t get that far. When they demanded I log in I just removed it. Jellyfin is working OK without having to figure out how to bypass defaults.
- Comment on Logitech will brick its $100 Pop smart home buttons on October 15 - Ars Technica 4 weeks ago:
When I was in the market for bulbs Hue was just starting that BS. They lost that sale and I’ve been in the process of removing network access for everything possible and severely restricting it when not. My old Honeywell wifi thermostat is gone, smart appliances are disconnected from wifi, and TVs are blocked by my firewall when they aren’t actually being used. Next up, Graphene OS.
Sometimes I’d like to move to a tropical island with no news or Internet at all.
- Comment on I am attempting to get into self hosting after a shockingly frightening experience. I am very lost though. 4 weeks ago:
I had something similar happen with Google a few years ago. Even though I had my password and access to my email they decided I was trying to hack my own account and locked me out. Like you I immediately started to look for other solutions.
Syncthing file sharing is really easy to install and use. There are no ports to configure on your router and everything is encrypted in transit. I have my phone’s DCIM directory set up to sync to my home server and PC so new photos are backed up and available everywhere in a few seconds. I installed Syncthing intending to move to another solution eventually, but it works so well (aside from one or two files that occasionally don’t sync) that I’ve just stuck with it.
For passwords Keepass & KeepassXC work really well on just about every platform. I share the password file to every platform using Syncthing and in years of doing this I’ve never had a problem that I didn’t cause myself and those were minor.
You can get both of these up and running with very little effort and quickly limit your reliance on Google, then move to other solutions if you find they’d work better for you.
- Comment on Anyone had any luck running Fusion 360 on Linux? 4 weeks ago:
You can install a W11 VirtualBox VM on an old, unsupported processor without any special configuration. I have it running under Linux on a 10 year old AMD processor and it works fine.
- Comment on U.S. solar will pass wind in 2025 and leave coal in the dust soon after 5 weeks ago:
The ones they’ve installed near us are Siemens and the only reason we even know they exist is we went by often during installation. The cabinets are now hidden behind a high wall. I’m guessing they’re going in all over the place. Strange that I’ve never seen them mentioned in the news anywhere.
- Comment on U.S. solar will pass wind in 2025 and leave coal in the dust soon after 5 weeks ago:
SoCal has a huge amount of wind and solar right now. Utility sized battery installations are going in to deal with the electricity production gaps.
- Comment on U.S. solar will pass wind in 2025 and leave coal in the dust soon after 5 weeks ago:
Gotta love that headline.
- Submitted 5 weeks ago to technology@lemmy.world | 115 comments
- Comment on Google's shocking developer decree struggles to justify the urgent threat to F-Droid 5 weeks ago:
It is, but why does that matter?
- Comment on Google's shocking developer decree struggles to justify the urgent threat to F-Droid 5 weeks ago:
Damn, I was hoping my Oneplus 6T was worth a couple grand. Nope. Someone has one on Swappa unlocked and in mint condition for $180. A Oneplus 6 is listed on Ebay for $130.
- Submitted 1 month ago to technology@lemmy.world | 7 comments
- Comment on Trump ties autism risk to Tylenol as scientists urge caution 1 month ago:
Another distraction, release the Epstein files.
- Comment on Samsung Embeds Israeli Surveillance App on Phones Across MENA 1 month ago:
They thought you meant carrier-unlocked.
Nope. I clearly told them I was going to install Graphene OS and I would not be changing carriers.
They didn’t know the real answer so they just made something up.
