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Did you keep a straight face while you suggested that people actually upgrade firmware?
by nly 11y ago
Did you keep a straight face while you suggested that people actually upgrade firmware?
- elorant 11y agoKeep in-mind that we're talking about always connected devices. Firmware updates could be done remotely without the end user needed to do anything, except perhaps give his approval.
- vonmoltke 11y agoWhich introduces a whole new set of security challenges to prevent attackers from getting write access to the devices.
- anon4 11y agoAfter you've fixed all bugs and plugged all security holes, you push a final update that disables all updates. Easy.
- colejohnson66 11y agoYou can do what Apple does and require the firmware to be signed
- corobo 11y agoGreat my fridge just rebooted for a firmware update and bricked itself now the peas are rapidly defrosting and I am in a panic. Edit: Shoutout to Internet of Shit https://twitter.com/internetofshit https://twitter.com/internetofshit
- theseatoms 11y agoAdd a physical switch for firmware updates, on an opt-in basis. How does Tesla implement updates?
- scrollaway 11y agoSo we're back to a couple of comments above: suggesting that people actually upgrade firmware. An opt-in switch is merely convenience for the incredibly thin % that bothers with this kind of thing. And that % will actually be informed enough to not opt in. Come to think of it, that % will likely be informed enough not to buy this kind of device in the first place.
- corobo 11y agoOpt-in just means nobody gets updates again. I realise this is more a techy audience but think of these things from the mainstream perspective. Especially when the tabloids and social network copypastes get the word out that hackers can turn your oven on or something if you enable updates
- masklinn 11y ago> How does Tesla implement updates? Tesla has a pretty vested interest in shit keeping working considering it's a pretty luxurious and high-profile product. The cut-price manufacturer of your $20 lightbulb or $300 fridge? Not so much.
- pgeorgi 11y agoThe cheapest Chromebooks ship at $149 and have a pretty much unbrickable automated update flow that includes the firmware for the CPU and embedded controller(s). It's not a matter of luxury, it's a matter of having people work on it who care. Disclosure: I work with them. Much <3 :)
- rdancer 11y agoExcept when you're abroad on roaming cellular charges, and your three laptops decided that since your iPhone's personal hotspot is WiFi, it's time to download today's ChromeOS image version, because the one you had downloaded the night before was not good enough anymore. Source: Chromebooks are awesome, and even with excesses like this, they're still the cheapest to operate by far.
- jon-wood 11y agoIf you connected fridge can brick itself in such a way that it stops refrigerating things then it wasn't worth buying in the first place, especially for things like this where you could end up accidentally poisoning someone the failsafe in case of software failure should be switching to an old school circuit that just keeps things at a fixed temperature.
- corobo 11y ago> wasn't worth buying in the first place Hence my shoutout to IoS! :)
- elorant 11y agoSure, I'll tag along. Problem is in a few years you may not have a choice because all fridges will be Internet-enabled by default. It's already happening with TVs where 70% of new sets are smart TVs. And you know, personally I don't mind because if it bothers me too much I'd just make sure that the damn thing never gets online access but I doubt the average consumer could go in such lengths. So instead of moaning and bitching about it perhaps we, as a community, ought to think about ways to solve security issues. Otherwise the industry will just go ahead and build them no matter what.
- Klathmon 11y agoThere are way to build things so that this isn't a problem. Modularize. It's easy to build it in a way so that the worst that the software can do is cause it to turn into a "dumb" fridge. My problem with this whole hatred of iot is that it's not productive. it's a bunch of people commenting how the trend is dumb and how everything was so much better in the past. Nobody ever gives suggestions on how to improve it, or how to fix some of these issues, or even what they would like to see. It's always just "Who wants a wifi light switch anyway?" or "Oh great now my door lock can freeze".
- robotmlg 11y ago> It's easy to build it in a way so that the worst that the software can do is cause it to turn into a "dumb" fridge. If it's so easy, why don't more companies do it? Why didn't Nest build their thermostats so that when the battery runs out, it reverts to a "dumb" thermostat instead of turning off your heat? http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/15/bug-nest-thermostat-turns-heating-off-for-some http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/15/bug-nest-t...
- Klathmon 11y agoHonestly, i'm not sure. It's clearly more work to do it that way, as you'd need multiple "layers" of firmware/code which all need to communicate and run on their own, but i personally see that as insurance against the exact situation you are describing. Nest is far from what i'd consider a good IOT company. They are the epitome of vendor lock in, proprietary and buggy code, and shitty support.
- robotmlg 11y agoWhat would you consider a good IOT company?
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- robterrell 11y agoI wrote this rant, along the same lines, in 2001: http://www.vgg.com/et/et_030701_TVCrash.html http://www.vgg.com/et/et_030701_TVCrash.html Fifteen years ago. Wow, I love the way I gave Jini a shout-out.
- throweway 11y agoDaquiri liquified ftw!!
- njharman 11y agoFirst, calm down. Defrosting peas is not in absolute or relative terms a big deal. Nothing in remote/automatic updates requires being brickable. Don't buy such a crappy fridge. Or, call a serviceman to fixe it, just like you would today with dumb fridge.
- jrochkind1 11y agoHeck, a third-party could probably update their firmware for them!
- syrrim 11y agoSo we're now talking about insecure devices that can recieve firmware updates remotely?
- laggyluke 11y agoIf it's a true IoT, people might not really have a choice ;)
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]