3 ms·

Sounds like there's a market for intermediary tech support

colinmorelli 3y ago
Perhaps in general, but if the problem here is "I don't want a corporation to have access to when my garage door is open or closed" I can't fathom how "Give another corporation access to my entire network to troubleshoot my VPN and LAN configuration of my devices" is the solution?
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  The solution is to "give my tech whiz kid/neighbor/friend, or a local IT shop two blocks over, the responsibility of managing my home network". This is where ideas like non-shit IoT, Right to Repair, Free (Libre) Software, and even "how to not fuck up foreign aid 101", all converge. The point isn't to make everyone their tech support. The point is to allow local communities to be more self-sufficient, able to manage technology on their own - as opposed to outsourcing everything to some faceless companies that have no attachment to any given community. Note that this doesn't preclude business - on the contrary, local businesses are the fundamental part of any community larger than couple dozen people; the ideas converge not on everyone doing stuff pro bono, but on small, local businesses* doing things for their communities, accumulating and retaining know-how. I wish more people from aforementioned movements realized their ultimate goal (at least in form that's possible in the real world) is the same, and joined forces.
kube-system 3y ago
If your mass-market commercial product needs this by design, you will fail. To successfully sell a product to the general public, it must work out of the box.
- jollyllama 3y ago
  True, but there's contractors for pretty much everything else that can be installed on your home. Why not home automation contractors?
  - kube-system 3y ago
    They exist, but they're expensive. And the products they sell are not really consumer devices, they are B2B products marketed at contractors. They're really two different markets, the bulk of the home automation market doesn't want to spend $10K+ for a contractor to check the same feature boxes that something on the shelf at Home Depot can do for a 3-digit price tag. Labor is really expensive, so home automation contractors operate almost exclusively on the high-end of the market.

Perhaps in general, but if the problem here is "I don't want a corporation to have access to when my garage door is open or closed" I can't fathom how "Give another corporation access to my entire network to troubleshoot my VPN and LAN configuration of my devices" is the solution?

TeMPOraL 3y ago
The solution is to "give my tech whiz kid/neighbor/friend, or a local IT shop two blocks over, the responsibility of managing my home network". This is where ideas like non-shit IoT, Right to Repair, Free (Libre) Software, and even "how to not fuck up foreign aid 101", all converge. The point isn't to make everyone their tech support. The point is to allow local communities to be more self-sufficient, able to manage technology on their own - as opposed to outsourcing everything to some faceless companies that have no attachment to any given community. Note that this doesn't preclude business - on the contrary, local businesses are the fundamental part of any community larger than couple dozen people; the ideas converge not on everyone doing stuff pro bono, but on small, local businesses* doing things for their communities, accumulating and retaining know-how. I wish more people from aforementioned movements realized their ultimate goal (at least in form that's possible in the real world) is the same, and joined forces.

kube-system 3y ago

If your mass-market commercial product needs this by design, you will fail. To successfully sell a product to the general public, it must work out of the box.

jollyllama 3y ago
True, but there's contractors for pretty much everything else that can be installed on your home. Why not home automation contractors?
- kube-system 3y ago
  They exist, but they're expensive. And the products they sell are not really consumer devices, they are B2B products marketed at contractors. They're really two different markets, the bulk of the home automation market doesn't want to spend $10K+ for a contractor to check the same feature boxes that something on the shelf at Home Depot can do for a 3-digit price tag. Labor is really expensive, so home automation contractors operate almost exclusively on the high-end of the market.