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Who says it involves "phoning home"? You can use offline apps, and turn off your internet if you want. I happen to like browser based MIDI apps, but then agai

Who says it involves "phoning home"? You can use offline apps, and turn off your internet if you want. I happen to like browser based MIDI apps, but then again, I write them, so if it is "phoning home" (which it usually isn't unless I want it to) it is often to localhost. :) Your comment could be applied to typewriters. Do you prefer the days when, if you wanted to write a book or article or something, you used a typewriter that was completely standalone? I kinda like having my "typewriter-style keyboard" connected to a computer... it opens up a ridiculous number of possibilities that you can't do with a standalone machine without a big display and a fast processor and a big hard drive. And maybe internet.... you can't exactly have Hacker News with a standalone typewriter, but you can with a keyboard that connects to a computer. Same with a "piano-style keyboard."

gary_0 5y ago
I'm more referring to the trend in "smart" consumer electronics to violate privacy. For instance: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21657930 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21657930 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20206536 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20206536 https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/downside-connected-tech-are-smart-devices-your-home-spying-you-ncna1101906 https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/downside-connected-... And it's not practical for your average consumer (or musician) to try to block it, or even detect it. Also, there are less and less options to buy "dumb" devices and appliances that won't spend their operating lives trying to exfiltrate data about you back to their manufacturers and their corporate partners.
ClumsyPilot 5y ago
"Who says it involves "phoning home"? You can use offline apps, and turn off your internet if you want." Those are getting fewer and farther between, the new trend is that you have to accept a 40-page license agreement to rent a bike, you get a Fancy pet feeder that doesn't feed your cat when their servers are offline, your Samsung TV adds ads that you cannot turn off, etc. You own and control nothing despite paying thousands of dollars for it.
- dragandj 5y ago
  I’m sure that there still are some offerings that don’t do that. Vote with your wallet.
  - ClumsyPilot 5y ago
    I am not aware of any smart TVs you can actually control, and that are not user hostile. I think "Vote with your wallet" is just an excuse to sit around and do nothing. It did not stop companies spying on you, selling your data, electronics becoming unrepairable, schematics disappearing, etc. Vote with your actual vote, we are meant to be a democracy first, capitalism second.
    - dragandj 5y ago
      You can buy a dumb TV instead, or watch something else (Web, DVDs etc.). You can read books, play a musical instrument, or go out. There are lots of forms of entertainment today, many of them don’t track or spy on you.

gary_0 5y ago

I'm more referring to the trend in "smart" consumer electronics to violate privacy. For instance: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21657930 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21657930 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20206536 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20206536 https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/downside-connected-tech-are-smart-devices-your-home-spying-you-ncna1101906 https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/downside-connected-... And it's not practical for your average consumer (or musician) to try to block it, or even detect it. Also, there are less and less options to buy "dumb" devices and appliances that won't spend their operating lives trying to exfiltrate data about you back to their manufacturers and their corporate partners.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago

"Who says it involves "phoning home"? You can use offline apps, and turn off your internet if you want." Those are getting fewer and farther between, the new trend is that you have to accept a 40-page license agreement to rent a bike, you get a Fancy pet feeder that doesn't feed your cat when their servers are offline, your Samsung TV adds ads that you cannot turn off, etc. You own and control nothing despite paying thousands of dollars for it.

dragandj 5y ago
I’m sure that there still are some offerings that don’t do that. Vote with your wallet.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  I am not aware of any smart TVs you can actually control, and that are not user hostile. I think "Vote with your wallet" is just an excuse to sit around and do nothing. It did not stop companies spying on you, selling your data, electronics becoming unrepairable, schematics disappearing, etc. Vote with your actual vote, we are meant to be a democracy first, capitalism second.
  - dragandj 5y ago
    You can buy a dumb TV instead, or watch something else (Web, DVDs etc.). You can read books, play a musical instrument, or go out. There are lots of forms of entertainment today, many of them don’t track or spy on you.