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This is awesome but I still find it funny that he said he wants a healthy relationship with technology then goes and fits his entire house out with technology.
by AuthAuth 7mo ago
This is awesome but I still find it funny that he said he wants a healthy relationship with technology then goes and fits his entire house out with technology. It doesnt seem like any of this would really be useful as you'd have to enter all the useful data manually(calendar).
For example the washing machine. You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes since you've done it 1000s of times and it beeps. All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously.
- JoshTriplett 7mo ago> For example the washing machine. You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes since you've done it 1000s of times and it beeps. It beeps, on the other end of the house (or on another floor), where it's inaudible. (And, thankfully, where the loud sounds of it operating are also inaudible.) > All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously. And when you remove the need to track that in your head, your head gets freed up for other things. To be explicit, I don't like "smart appliances" that connect to a cloud server. I do like the idea of devices that can connect locally to something like Home Assistant.
- letsgethigh 7mo ago"hey Siri, set timer for washing machine"
- bdangubic 7mo agobut then apple knows about your cycles
- bluGill 7mo agoAnd the timer goes off when you are in the shower - by the time you are done you forgot about the alarm. (I have more than once stopped an alarm I intended to just snooze)
- spiralcoaster 7mo agoYour comment reminds me of those infomercials where they try really hard to make something as simple as cooking spaghetti look like an unimaginable nightmare that no one could possibly accomplish
- allthetime 7mo agoThis one time... I went downstairs to check on the laundry. I thought it was done... But... It wasn't. I had to come back 10 minutes later.
- poolnoodle 7mo agoUgh, that's the worst. Sometimes I just stand there for 5 minutes waiting for it to finish.
- aacid 7mo agoYou have to imagine other people might think differently than you do... I forget, it happens, nothing I can do with it. Having notification on my phone (place I'll look sooner or later) that laundry is done was great lifehack for me. No longer I forget and leave it there for whole night or even days...
- AuthAuth 7mo agoEven with no beeps you put washing on > you go get it when its done. It doesnt matter if it sits in the washing machine an extra 10m or an hour.
- nmcfarl 7mo agoYou know, sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes it does. And also I’ve been known to forget it overnight and wake up to moldy clothes. I have a friend who will say things like “I have to go at 3” and get up at 3 on the dot without even looking at her watch/phone. I’m not that guy and I need buzzers, timers, and ambient displays all working together anything done at a time.
- DavidPiper 7mo agoOT but if your washing gets mouldy after being left in the washing machine overnight, you need to clean your washing machine (and/or use more detergent).
- DANmode 7mo agoMore detergent is the last thing needed if you smell mold in a washing machine.
- DANmode 7mo agoCould have something to do with high levels of ambient mold spores and mycotoxins in your air, if your clothes smell mildewy or moldy after less than 12 hours.
- AdamN 7mo agoA bit OT but you may want a side loader. It's obviously not ideal to leave it overnight but the few times that's happened to me there isn't any mold. I'm guessing you have a top loader, it may not have been cleaned in a long time, and that it's in a basement that's prone to mold also.
- bigstrat2003 7mo agoFor me it's not the washing machine, it's the dryer. The time remaining reported by the dryer when you start the cycle has almost no relation to how long it will actually take. Sometimes I go down to the basement after an hour (the dryer says 45m when you start it), and it still says 30m remaining. It's not the end of the world of course, but it is annoying, and it's the sort of annoyance technology can solve pretty easily.
- CarlJW 7mo agoI'll just add this tip for those who struggle with this sort of thing. I leave the empty basket in front of the machine, which for me happens to be somewhere where I'll pass by frequently until I need to take it out. That keeps it 'in sight, in mind'. Heck you could even put it in the kitchen to remind you. I don't like the extra complexity that often comes with digital solutions, but I do like having a system. The simpler and less thought required, the better. I do this for a number of different things. Rather than put it on a list I put it somewhere where it's in the way.
- IanCal 7mo agoBut this then means I have to have something on the floor in the way, which I also have to remember to do, and it doesn’t tell me anything about how long is left. That requires more thought and clutter than just having the information when it’s relevant.
- danparsonson 7mo agoMy pro tip is one of my girlfriends scrunchies stolen and put on my wrist - annoys me intermittently and therefore repeatedly reminds me to check the laundry.
- imetatroll 7mo agoAgreed. This is a great way to handle common chores.
- knallfrosch 7mo agoIt's about attention. You can check the schedule without thinking about messages, likes, or the news.
- j45 7mo agoTechnology working for you is different than you working for technology.
- AuthAuth 7mo agoThis guy spent months working on this. He was working for technology.
- bluGill 7mo agoNot anymore - that was months ago when he did all that labor, it is no a sunk-cost. We can debate if it was worth the investment though.
- Barrin92 7mo agoLiterally every person I know who is obsessed with home automation has spend thousands of bucks and hundreds if not more hours on automating things that take a second or cost two bucks for a paper version that doesn't use electricity The article is about a 2000$ eink display that shows a calendar and the weather. Your phone does that for free and you don't need to walk to the hallway every time. This is basically anti-technology. It takes more time, money and effort than just buying something from the dollar store that does the same thing
- jclulow 7mo agoYeah, it really sucks when people have hobbies!
- vntok 7mo agoHobbies are perfectly fine. Here, his hobby is to work for technology, certainly not that technology should work for him.
- bluGill 7mo agoThere is that - I won't object to hobbies, though I often do ask 'what is wrong with the common dumb switch. Which is why I have only 2 in my house - there are two lights where the standard switch isn't good enough.
- jkestner 7mo agoFor you, maybe, but outsourcing ambient awareness of my environment is what’s finally enabled me to take that leap to a 10x dev. Well, that, and cranial cooling fins.
- jon-wood 7mo ago> All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously. That’s certainly true for some people, and I envy them. Others of us can easily forget the washing machine was on and needs emptying for anything up to three or four days, running it each day before promptly forgetting to empty it before it needs doing again.
- prforated 7mo agoWhy not just use an alarm?
- IanCal 7mo agoIt depends if that works for you or not. For some if that alarm goes off while they're in the middle of something they'll either snooze it (now you're getting disturbed more times) or turn it off, perhaps both. This seems quite a bit more intrusive than what is essentially a little todo list that's updated without having to remember to do it. This also just adds a series of manual steps, along with having tech setup to deliberately get your attention at a time that may not work for you. I'm not sure why this is seen as a nicer solution than having it happen automatically for you. Peoples brains work in different ways, and they have different lives. Some days I can more calmly go around dealing with things, others I have a very large number of parallel things to do with more interruptions happening as well (two young kids will do that).
- deevus 7mo ago> All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously. I'm glad that works for you. My (and my wife's) ADHD brains put these directly into "the void".
- russdill 7mo agoDifferent cycles take different amounts of time. Personally, I have a notification when it starts and a notification when it ends. The "x minutes ago" on the when it started is really useful and generally enough to know when the cycle will end. Having that timer started automatically is pretty useful in itself.
- dewey 7mo agoDisclaimer: I use Home Assistant too and I'm guilty of all these things. Home Automation is just a hobby like "productivity" tools or going all in your coffee setup. You tell yourself you are saving energy, or freeing up your mind from remembering mundane tasks but in reality it's just like a model train set. It's fun to set up, play around and maintain it for some people. If you'd do the math of setting up hundreds of dollars worth of smart appliances, bulbs, hubs and thermostats to tweak your heaters slightly while you are not at home...it will probably take decades to break even, if at all.
- 542354234235 7mo agoYou are freeing your mind from mundane tasks you don't like, by filling your mind with automation tasks you do like. I find it is a good trade.
- boredtofears 7mo agoAre you telling me that my home assistant enabled humidity sensors in my garden that trigger the arduino hose valve could just be replaced by a watering can??
- AuthAuth 7mo agoI'm just salty squidward watching all the home assistant chads playing with their cool gadgets.
- IanCal 7mo agoA healthy relationship with technology isn't the same as not using technology. > It doesnt seem like any of this would really be useful as you'd have to enter all the useful data manually(calendar). You have to enter calendar data somewhere, right now I often have the same info or different subset split between my calendar, work ones, my wifes one and the one on the wall. Even the paper version requires having entered the data - more so than the tech based ones because an invitation sent by email now needs to be manually copied over. Or have I misunderstood? > You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes since you've done it 1000s of times and it beeps. All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously. This seems odd to me. First just a couple of things > You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes 1. It takes different amounts of time depending on the load and settings 2. Knowing how long it takes and when to take it out is something the person who put it on knows, but there are different people in this house who can all do either task 3. It's in a place where the beeping is often not heard But more interestingly is that we're comparing two different approaches. One is * A note written in a place that washing needs to be taken out if it's not been done. You describe this as an unhealthy relationship with technology. Your better solution is * Work out when a machine will finish its task, remember this * Wait for the machine to shout at you * If you don't hear it shouting then keep checking the time to see if it's finished its task * Make sure you track all of this in your head on top of anything else This is more healthy? Than a note on the wall that says "change the washing"? Imagine you started with the typical thing being that you have a note on the wall that says "washing is done" when it's done and the machine itself is silent. I come along and tell you I've got a much better, healthier way of interacting with it - wait for it to make an annoying noise!
- prforated 7mo agoYou can set an alarm on your phone when it starts like millions of people do instead of spending $2000 overengineering a solution to this "problem". The fact that people are complaining about the cognitive load and beeping sound when running a washing machine is utterly baffling to me. This goes beyond sheltered "first-world problems". There is something insidious about this about micro-optimising for non-issues, something dystopian.
- embedding-shape 7mo ago> For example the washing machine. You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes since you've done it 1000s of times and it beeps I'm not sure this is true anymore, first you usually do different programs depending on what you put into it, and modern washing machines also automatically adjust the washing time depending on how much you throw into it, at least our ~2 year old one does, I'm sure others do too. I basically never know how long time it will take, sometimes it takes 1.5 hours and sometimes 3 hours. Our washing machine is further away from where we can hear the melody, so having a notification appear on the phone when it's done is actually quite handy, at least for our situation.
- iso1631 7mo agoI can't imagine a world where the state of my washing machine is so important that I need to be interrupted to tell me it's done.
- embedding-shape 7mo agoI can't image being so busy that hanging the clothes for 10 minutes could be seen as not important. We all live different lives :) Besides, the notification is for notifying us, doesn't mean we need to do it within N minutes, it can wait until your Very Important Business Call is over or whatever. As long as it's done before it starts to get overly humid and starts to smell.
- iso1631 7mo agoA notification is an interrupt. I.e "stop reading your book and pay attention to me"
- embedding-shape 7mo agoEh, ok, that's not how I treat them, and if you want to remain sane, you might want to give it a try to treat them differently too, because that sounds highly annoying and borderline frustrating.
- xomiachuna 7mo agoIt's a pattern among tech folks to try to solve things with technology. It is hard to stop yourself from treating every minor inconvenience as nail for which you have a handy hammer, and I find myself overcomplicating things in my life as a result. The goals are noble but the methods bring a lot of the complexity simply repackaged (and potentially amplified).
- abustamam 7mo agoUsing technology doesn't necessarily mean an unhealthy relationship with technology. I think it differs for everyone. For me, I think a healthy relationship with technology is technology that is there when I need it, not there when I don't. Added benefit if the technology knows when it's needed (ie alarms and such). Crucially, a healthy relationship with technology for me is consuming less (reading less "news" and blogs and social media) and creating more (writing, projects, etc). So the concept of using technology to build something that is there when the family needs it and is in the background when not is a healthy relationship imo.
- david422 7mo ago> For example the washing machine. You dont need real time information because you know how long it takes since you've done it 1000s of times and it beeps. All these things are just managed in our heads subconsciously. Actually, this is one example of home automation that works very well. My washer will remind me that wash is ready to move to the dryer, and stops reminding me once the washer door opens. It means that a) I don't have to put it on my mental reminders, b) it works very well with anybody else in the family that does a wash and _they_ forget to move it to the dryer.