xkcd #3109: Dehumidifier

Title text:

It’s important for devices to have internet connectivity so the manufacturer can patch remote exploits.

Transcript:

[A store salesman, Hairy, is showing Cueball a dehumidifier, with a “SALE” label on it. Several other unidentified devices, possibly other dehumidifier models, are shown in the store as well.]

Salesman: This dehumidifier model features built-in WiFi for remote updates.
Cueball: Great! That will be really useful if they discover a new kind of water.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3109/

explainxkcd for #3109

        • kn33@lemmy.world
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          17 hours ago

          Yeah but I want to control it with the average humidity from sensors across my house

          • Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de
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            13 hours ago

            It’s almost like you can just set the dehumidifier to a certain humidity level and fan speed and then never touch the settings again. That’s what I did with my humidifier. It’s as dumb as a box of rocks, but it quits working during the summer when the humidity goes up and then turns back on the rest of the year with zero interaction besides adding more water

            • kn33@lemmy.world
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              12 hours ago

              You can, but it only measures the humidity at the (de)humidifier. I want it to account for the state of the whole house.

        • Badabinski@kbin.earth
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          17 hours ago

          I mean, yeah. I wouldn’t have found that project and gone to the effort of using it if a simple dehu was all I needed. I wanted something I could control with my local home assistant install, and you can’t just hard power cycle a dehumidifier, it kills them.

          • TachyonTele@piefed.social
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            16 hours ago

            Ok

            What is “hard power cycle” a dehumidifier? Have you never used a normal dehumidifier before or something?

        • tyler@programming.dev
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          19 hours ago

          They didn’t brick anything. They gave a button for you to get a discount if you did it yourself

        • bob_lemon@feddit.org
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          20 hours ago

          That’s why it’s important to make sure the device can also run purely locally (e.g. via HomeAssistant).

          (Not meant as a rebuke, just good advice for the future)

          • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
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            19 hours ago

            Exactly this. The device either needs to be open enough that it can easily integrate to HA without internet access.
            Or dumb enough that I can mod it with an ESP.

            Anything that has to go through the manufacturer’s servers goes in the bin, the risks of data theft/rent seeking are too damned high.

      • Zachariah@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        They didn’t brick it, but the Nest thermostats that customers bought before Google acquired the company will be offline only now. No opening of the firmware, so they’ll become useless at some point, and already have lost major functionality.