4 ms·

Smart devices need dumb backups. It's perhaps fortunate for Nest customers that Nest knows that.

by Navarr 8y ago

soylentcola 8y ago
So far, the "smart" (read: network connected/controllable) devices I've owned have all had fallback options. I used to have a Nest at my old place but I left it when we sold (didn't feel like replacing it and couldn't find the old thermostat). If it somehow lost connectivity, it still functioned as a thermostat, albeit one with more potential for a software crash or firmware brick. Neither ever happened in the few years I had it. With Hue bulbs, if you can't control them due to not having your phone handy or LAN issues, you can always just flip the lightswitch off and back on to get them back at "normal" brightness and color. Again, it's not something that I run into often but if someone else is visiting and doesn't care if the lights are dimmed blue or whatever for movie watching, they can still use the lights as normal lights. Got a window AC in a small room that I can control via LAN but again, it still has a regular remote and buttons on the front if that fails or I want to disable it. The only things I typically run across in the consumer space that don't work this way are IP security cameras that depend on remote servers in order to work. The ones that won't just send an h.264 or MJPG stream over the LAN are forever off my list for this reason (as well as a dislike of recurring bills). But I at least understand why many people don't want to set up a NAS or spare computer running software to receive the feeds over their LAN so I get why they exist. I just don't particularly like them. I'll stick to IP cams on a separate local network that I can access remotely via VPN into my home network. If nothing else, I don't have to depend on anyone else's service and I don't need to expose some backdoor-ridden device to the WAN.

4 ms·

Smart devices need dumb backups. It's perhaps fortunate for Nest customers that Nest knows that.

by Navarr 8y ago

Smart devices need dumb backups. It's perhaps fortunate for Nest customers that Nest knows that.

soylentcola 8y ago
So far, the "smart" (read: network connected/controllable) devices I've owned have all had fallback options. I used to have a Nest at my old place but I left it when we sold (didn't feel like replacing it and couldn't find the old thermostat). If it somehow lost connectivity, it still functioned as a thermostat, albeit one with more potential for a software crash or firmware brick. Neither ever happened in the few years I had it. With Hue bulbs, if you can't control them due to not having your phone handy or LAN issues, you can always just flip the lightswitch off and back on to get them back at "normal" brightness and color. Again, it's not something that I run into often but if someone else is visiting and doesn't care if the lights are dimmed blue or whatever for movie watching, they can still use the lights as normal lights. Got a window AC in a small room that I can control via LAN but again, it still has a regular remote and buttons on the front if that fails or I want to disable it. The only things I typically run across in the consumer space that don't work this way are IP security cameras that depend on remote servers in order to work. The ones that won't just send an h.264 or MJPG stream over the LAN are forever off my list for this reason (as well as a dislike of recurring bills). But I at least understand why many people don't want to set up a NAS or spare computer running software to receive the feeds over their LAN so I get why they exist. I just don't particularly like them. I'll stick to IP cams on a separate local network that I can access remotely via VPN into my home network. If nothing else, I don't have to depend on anyone else's service and I don't need to expose some backdoor-ridden device to the WAN.