5 ms·
Cats, dogs starve as web-connected chow chute PetNet plays dead
- StavrosK 10y agoWho would design a feeder that only worked if the server was online? Wow.
- forgotpwtomain 10y agoSomeone that has never heard of cron? I mean presumably they might have had some web-ui functionality to change feed-settings - but why that wouldn't just update a cron-tab is beyond me.
- csydas 10y agoCause that's probably outside the scope of the request tht was given. This is absoultely speculation, but my guess would be that the way this product came to life is as follows: 1. Company saw a niche for IoT products with pet owners willing to splurge on their pets (an aside, pets owners are very happy to spend...) 2. Requested IoT software for already existing auto-feeders to be written up as fast as possible 3. IoT part written and works, product is rushed out without designing an offline mode (either not interested or to be patched later) [1] It was an imagined race to be first with the product and get the pet feeder IoT device on the market first and build up a brand name. The end result is this silliness. Basically, I don't think they envisioned an issue where the servers would go down - if the customer's own net went down, obviously they're to blame for Sharik and Musya not being fed. I sure this sounds overly cynnical, but as was mentioned by someone else, this is just the first of many such things to come with shoddy IoT devices. The practical consideration of "well, what if the servers go down?" just doesn't seem to be on people's minds with IoT. [1] From their twitter, I was right - they didn't bother with an offline sync in the firmware, and had to build it out: https://twitter.com/petnetiosupport/status/758380813759033344 https://twitter.com/petnetiosupport/status/75838081375903334...
- Nursie 10y agoExactly what I was thinking - remote server activation of every single feed was just a fuck-up waiting to happen.
- personjerry 10y agoNot sure if you're legitimately asking, but if it were client-side, that would remove the need for the server, and thus the recurring payment. A greedy, unnecessary, and not well thought out design (i.e. see what happened in this situation), but one that earns good money in this luxury product field.
- imtringued 10y agoI don't think they charge a monthly rate, only an up front payment.
- FussyZeus 10y agoSomeone who lives in San Francisco, where Internet access is apparently bulletproof. I wonder if security systems work the same way. Robbers want to take in a smart home so they just cut the coaxial line and the whole thing goes 404, unlocks all the doors, turns off monitoring and can't alert emergency services. Hopefully they have the decency to feed the dog.
- Unklejoe 10y agoI think some have a cellular connection. They also have backup battery power in case the power gets turned off. Not impossible to circumvent, but probably beyond the scope of the average burglar.
- FussyZeus 10y agoI was being facetious. :) Imagining the world where if the Internet goes out all the smart home stuff just turns off.
- martin_a 10y agoAMAZING! Everything should be in the cloud, just to make sure it can fail when your internet connection is down or some server has hiccups or whatever. Those are strange times.
- gerbilly 10y agoYeah, instead they could have built a digital timer into the device like in the 80s. Even though this would be more reliable, you couldn't control it from your phone, which seems to be a selling feature for all of these badly designed IOT devices. Somebody should design a timer module that can be controlled via bluetooth and (optionally) via Wifi. Then you could program the timer from your iPad or whatever, but if connectivity is lost, the local controller would retain the settings and continue to work until connectivity is re-established.
- dasboth 10y agoExactly, it's nice to be able to change the frequency of the timer remotely via the web, but the device should cache the latest settings offline. This is definitely an instance of malice/greed rather than an oversight...
- brianwawok 10y agoHow often do you need to change your cat feeding frequency? Once per 10 years?
- martin_a 10y agoIf you think this way, you wouldn´t need something but a digital timer at all.
- dasboth 10y agoWell and that's the other thing, exactly. The offline caching is more important for other appliances that need to happen on a timer and you might alter the frequency more often (e.g. a thermostat or something).
- ourmandave 10y agoObvious Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat metaphor is obvious.
- pi-rat 10y agoI'm afraid we're going to have a couple of really bad years with products like this pumped out every week. Hardware that's turned to bricks when the company goes bankrupt, has server issues, or simply abandons the product in favour of focus on the next big thing(tm). This pet-feeder is simply a motor on a timer. You have to make some hilariously bad design choices to make it 100% dependent on the internet for scheduling.
- flyinghamster 10y agoLooks like they applied the CueCat model to actual cats. A pet feeder that needs Internet access? Come on. This is something that's a job for a dumb timer, or, at most, a simple microcontroller.
- napworth 10y agoI understand the benefit of creating a pet feeder with Internet connectivity. It allows you to provide a web portal to your customers so they can update their feeder timings or view food reserve quantities while they're in the office or on holiday. But making it so the pet feeder needs to be connected to dispense food?? That's insane. The internet connectivity should be to upload new timings. But if a connection can't be made, the old timings should continue to be used. Write failsafes into your models!
- 50CNT 10y ago
- bambax 10y agoHad to double check if this was not from The Onion. Don't know about dogs, but don't cats feed themselves? Mine certainly does, when we leave for holidays (or even sometimes during the year) we just leave a lot of food and it just eats what it needs everyday.
- namtrac 10y agoNot all cats eat just what they need, one of our cats eat twice the amount of what he needs if he finds food available. That's why this kind of automated feeders makes sense.
- pi-rat 10y agoNeutered / castrated cats are often prone to overeating, it's better to feed them at intervals (2-3 times per day).
- JustSomeNobody 10y agoCan't say I blame them. If someone were to chop me, food would be my goto.
- stevenwiles 10y agoMost underrated comment on HN. Can't believe how long I laughed at this.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- MustardTiger 10y agoMost cats who eat that way are massively overweight.
- bambax 10y agoNot this one! We've done this for 10 years now and no problem whatsoever.
- rawTruthHurts 10y agoCan't wait to see this happening to a web-connected human baby feeder.
- pavel_lishin 10y agoInternet-connected insulin pump.
- pyvpx 10y agothe Powers That Be who regulate and approve such medical devices would surely have one or two things to say about a device whose functionality is dependent on connectivity to the internet.
- Brakenshire 10y agoThank god for strong regulation of medical devices.
- f_allwein 10y agoRather than each individual company cobbling together systems like this with massive security/ privacy/ ... issues, it might be better to establish an Internet of Things operating system, no? That way, some common standards could be established and one company/ organisation would be in charge of patching things.
- ginko 10y agoARM is trying to do just that with their m:bed platform.
- pjc50 10y ago> one company/ organisation would be in charge of patching things That company would also be the one that gets all the surveillance data and would be the one that gets to make all of the money. This is part of the problem of IOT: lock-in is critical to the business model.
- f_allwein 10y agoSo let's say Amazon comes up with an IoT operating system. Then the question is: do you want a cat feeder/ home security system/ teleporter that is made by Amazon, according to their standards of quality and reliability, or one made by a random company you've never heard of? Then it comes down to privacy and who gets to use what data. I.e. Amazon would have a motivation to use your data sparingly (otherwise nobody would use the system). Or it could even be a freemium model, where you pay in exchange for not giving access to your data. Many questions to sort out.
- pjc50 10y agoAmazon are one of the few companies that could make this work, as an extension of AWS, and people suspect the 'Dash' button is an initial foray into the space. However all their Kindle Fire incompatible Android systems haven't exactly been a roaring success.
- userbinator 10y agoI can understand having the option to control/monitor something over the network being useful, but making it deliberately dependent on Internet access is IMHO horrible design that could only be good for vendor lock-in, forced obolescence, or other anti-user measures.
- jkot 10y agoFor that price I would expect build-in battery as a backup for main power supply. This thing does not even work without internet.
- JustSomeNobody 10y agoWhy does this have to be web enabled!? If it has enough power to connect to the web, it should have enough power to "serve" up it's own web form so that you can adjust the schedule. Why does _everything_ have to go back to someone _else's_ computer!? Edit: Well at least we know who NOT to hire, they conveniently supplied photos! http://www.petnet.io/about http://www.petnet.io/about
- RankingMember 10y agoAccording to their Twitter, they're working on a firmware update to eliminate the reliance on network connectivity for scheduled feedings. https://twitter.com/petnetiosupport/status/758380813759033344 https://twitter.com/petnetiosupport/status/75838081375903334... It's still pretty ridiculous that this kind of logic made it into a product that is relied upon for feeding.