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> ...and it's simple to disconnect and reconnect yourself with 2 or 3 wires. This "sort of" works for now, depending on where you live, what season, whether or

by nbadg 10y ago

> ...and it's simple to disconnect and reconnect yourself with 2 or 3 wires. This "sort of" works for now, depending on where you live, what season, whether or not you keep junked tech, etc. But it strikes me, not only as dismissive and condescending, but also particularly short-sighted. I can imagine, 20 or 30 years ago, someone saying something similar about a car: "a bug in your ECU is keeping your car from starting? That's your problem for having bought a car running off of a computer!" Fast-forward to today. It simply isn't possible to buy a car without an ECU. The thing is, the changes that brought ECUs to cars are exactly the kinds of changes that are bringing computers into thermostats. In a surprisingly short amount of time, we're going to be living in a world where it simply isn't possible for most people to find a thermostat without a computer. When people feel their agency and autonomy is being compromised with new technology, a common sentiment to echo in the tech world is "if you don't like it, don't use it". But the plain fact of the matter is that in many cases, IoT being an emergent but prototypical example, non-participation simply isn't an option.

dsfyu404ed 10y ago
Consumers don't choose a thermostat the same way they choose a vehicle. If you design a thermostat with bad code that becomes non functional your brand isn't irrevocably tarnished for decades. GM still doesn't sell many passenger cars with diesel engines and the consensus on its cylinder deactivation tech is that it's better than 4-6-8 but hard on rings.
balabaster 10y ago
This is called planning for disaster. Do you know how many companies come to a grinding halt when their electronic credit card processing system has problems because they all threw out their carbon slips and imprinters? I'm always pleasantly surprised when I go into a store whose electronic systems are down and they keep on ticking because they planned for this... and how long ago was the last time you saw this? I'd forgotten carbon slips even existed until I saw them used in a store a couple of months ago. So call it dismissive, call it what you want. I call it having a backup plan. Also: > I can imagine, 20 or 30 years ago, someone saying something similar about a car: "a bug in your ECU is keeping your car from starting? That's your problem for having bought a car running off of a computer!" Forget 20-30 years ago, farmers are having this exact problem with John Deere right now, and they're concluding exactly this - it's their problem for having brought a tractor that relies on a computer, so they're buying up antique pre-ECU tractors so they're not beholden to these major corporations that "give them a license to use a tractor" for as long as the software works... and they have zero right to fix it if it breaks. So next time you consider throwing out an old technology, just because there's something newer and better, perhaps consider putting it in a box for a time when it might be put to good use - a time such as this, and don't forget to put the installation instructions with it, because guaranteed you can never find them when you need them :P

by nbadg 10y ago

dsfyu404ed 10y ago

Consumers don't choose a thermostat the same way they choose a vehicle. If you design a thermostat with bad code that becomes non functional your brand isn't irrevocably tarnished for decades. GM still doesn't sell many passenger cars with diesel engines and the consensus on its cylinder deactivation tech is that it's better than 4-6-8 but hard on rings.

balabaster 10y ago

This is called planning for disaster. Do you know how many companies come to a grinding halt when their electronic credit card processing system has problems because they all threw out their carbon slips and imprinters? I'm always pleasantly surprised when I go into a store whose electronic systems are down and they keep on ticking because they planned for this... and how long ago was the last time you saw this? I'd forgotten carbon slips even existed until I saw them used in a store a couple of months ago. So call it dismissive, call it what you want. I call it having a backup plan. Also: > I can imagine, 20 or 30 years ago, someone saying something similar about a car: "a bug in your ECU is keeping your car from starting? That's your problem for having bought a car running off of a computer!" Forget 20-30 years ago, farmers are having this exact problem with John Deere right now, and they're concluding exactly this - it's their problem for having brought a tractor that relies on a computer, so they're buying up antique pre-ECU tractors so they're not beholden to these major corporations that "give them a license to use a tractor" for as long as the software works... and they have zero right to fix it if it breaks. So next time you consider throwing out an old technology, just because there's something newer and better, perhaps consider putting it in a box for a time when it might be put to good use - a time such as this, and don't forget to put the installation instructions with it, because guaranteed you can never find them when you need them :P