Step 0) Disconnect any phone or network cables and ensure RF jammers covering WiFi and cell frequencies are active before commencing home appliance repair.
Not just that, but I can't wait for the day I can only rent my appliances and have to have a monthly subscription to some GE "Smart Appliance Network" for them to even work.
I feel like people would just not buy these theoretical ridiculous appliances and just stay with older ones until the appliance manufacturers started making normal appliances again.
They might. Or more likely you'd see early adopters buying these, then gradually companies would shift more and more of their models to this approach. Suddenly, only the ugly, low-end crappy models work the "traditional way."
Then -BAM-, anyone who wants a decent looking model with decent functionality is stuck paying rent.
Companies have many consumer-hostile tools to force people to do things that is against their best interest. And mark my words they are salivating at the thought of all that recurring revenue.
There will be tons of such appliances from the mid 20th century and onwards available on craigslist, flea markets, probably even ebay amaon et al. for quite a while.
Joe Middle-class Consumer does not want to buy their appliances from Craigslist, flea markets, etc. The mass market audience for appliances want to buy new in a store, with a warranty, etc.
I fully expect to see a gradual boiling of the frog. First it will be free features and benefits tied to an online account, then it will be new features that are only part of a subscription plan, and once they have critical mass, killing the free tier or making it near worthless.
Sure there might be a market for used devices, but again, it will be the minority. The rest of the marketplace will be screwed.
Like they don't buy e-books, or smart TVs? Like they didn't buy that cloud-connected laser cutter that'll brick itself when its makers go out of business[0]? It's been proven time and again that people buy against their best interest; that's why this business model is becoming popular.
To be fair, smart TVs still work as TVs, even if the entire "smart" portion is broken. I'm entertaining buying a new TV soon, since mine is on the out after almost 10 years. I'd prefer to buy a non-smart TV, but honestly all the top models include it now, so it's pretty much unavoidable.
"To be fair, smart TVs still work as TVs, even if the entire "smart" portion is broken. I'm entertaining buying a new TV soon, since mine is on the out after almost 10 years. I'd prefer to buy a non-smart TV, but honestly all the top models include it now, so it's pretty much unavoidable."
You can opt out of using the smart features, but the presence of wifi and bluetooth stacks and cameras and microphones means that you are living with a long list of vulnerabilities and potential intrusive/abusive behavior.
The good news is, display manufacturers all make very, very high end models at relatively low prices without any smart features or gizmos at all: they are called signage displays.
Think of the screens at the airport with the tiny bezels ... you can buy those. They're awesome.
But aren't they way more expensive for given specs than regular consumer TVs? I looked one time and they were like twice the price for a given size/resolution.
I couldn't tell if that was because they are engineered to be on all the time, or if manufacturers just jack up the list price so they can maintain margin on discounted bulk pricing for 3,000 panels or whatever.
> ...the presence of wifi and bluetooth stacks and cameras and microphones means that you are living with a long list of vulnerabilities...
No, you just turn those off. I bought a TV recently and didn't have any option (for this particular model line) of getting a "non-smart" version. I simply turned off the TV's networking. The only cables attached to the TV are power and HDMI, so it's effectively a dumb TV with zero attack surface.
> You can opt out of using the smart features, but the presence of wifi and bluetooth stacks and cameras and microphones means that you are living with a long list of vulnerabilities and potential intrusive/abusive behavior.
2020's hottest new major: Archaeological Computer Security
You've just described how this scenario most likely will play out with othe appliances if producers decide to go the rental way. People may stay with their old ones... until they break, then it's time to buy a new one, but there's no non-"smart" appliance on the market anymore.
Exactly. To give a related example...look at Windows 10. I want to buy a new computer and will be in the market very soon. But I'm desperately clinging to my Windows 7 OS, and worried I won't be able to find something that ISN'T Windows 10.
In fact, I have newfound urgency around this because I'll bet very soon I won't be able to find any Windows 8 computers on the market.
> I want to buy a new computer and will be in the market very soon. But I'm desperately clinging to my Windows 7 OS, and worried I won't be able to find something that ISN'T Windows 10.
Its pretty easy to find computers that aren't Windows 10 (e.g., OS X machines are readily available, as are Chromebooks, and there are even sold-with-Linux computers); its harder to find ones that are Windows-but-not-10, but that's a different thing.
its harder to find ones that are Windows-but-not-10
But they're still readily available. I just checked a Dell Precision tower workstation and it comes by default with Win 7. The Dell Optiplex Mini Tower comes by default with Win 8.1, but Win 7 is an easily selected choice.
Still, I've been buying OS X machines exclusively for over a decade. There's not a lot that Windows offers me, except their nice Freecell game. But I'm not a FPS gamer, so that probably makes a big difference.
@Temporal - but there's no rent to use a 'smart' TV. You don't have to subscribe to Netflix or Amazon Prime just because those services are integrated with your TV.
You can just buy it, ignore what you don't want, and use it 'traditionally' (though still digitally..).
I'm still waiting for them to stop making 3D movies so I can watch a normal movie like a normal person. Avatar was 6 years ago. The joke stopped being funny back when AirBnB was still about blow-up mattresses.
Plenty of movies are made only in non-3D versions, so, no, that doesn't either.
If no theater around you shows non-3D movies at all, that might, but that's more a consequence of your decision to live in an area where 3D movies are apparently unusually popular (or non-3D movies unusually unpopular) than anything else.
Nah. Pop open the cover and install an aftermarket control board that runs Free software. Eventually, this will be more user-friendly (better interface one doesn't have to relearn every monthly update), convenient (better software features), and economical (how many appliances are thrown out due to software malfunctions).
> Pop open the cover and install an aftermarket control board that runs Free software.
Appliances will get redesigned so that it's hard to do it. If they really want to drive the message home, then like 'maxerickson said, it's epoxy time.
> Eventually, this will be more user-friendly (better interface one doesn't have to relearn every monthly update)
See mobile.
> convenient (better software features)
See all software.
> and economical (how many appliances are thrown out due to software malfunctions).
I haven't opened too many post-infopocalypse appliances but the ones I've seen have been dead simple, apart from their over-"engineered" control boards. These things used to run off mechanical timers, and that is still the underlying philosophy, with new "smart" features mostly UI-based.
It seems to me that one could design a general sequencing board to run many models. Some types would be harder than others (washing machines with brushless motors), and moreso if manufacturers start to add digitally-communicating sensors, but these don't seem insurmountable to handle pretty generally. So a total end-user installed cost of say $400? That seems within the price differential between "low end" and "high end" models that differ in software.
It just takes will since it requires not just picking from what the advertising says, like anything Free. But IMHO this is a social momentum issue and the disadvantages of proprietary trash-land will only be more and more pronounced as there are ever-more features for manufacturers to fuck up.
And as far as epoxy? Manufacturers don't really care if you mod things they've made, they just don't want to be on the hook for supporting this. The protectiveness is rooted in thinking their shoddy software is some kind of "competitive advantage". Completely replacing the control board sidesteps this.
I've had Ubuntu running on my old desktop for a few years now. It's literally a 50% chance as to whether I'll be able to get the GUI login screen to come up, and be able to log in successfully on my first try, without having to ssh in from another machine and fiddle around with things.
Are you running the nouveau driver? If you are, know that it's notoriously unstable and crashy, especially older versions of it.
I've installed and run Linux on many computers over the past $WAY_TOO_LONG. Anecdotes aren't data, but your experience is an outlier these days.
Regardless. I gather that you're trying to slyly imply that your bad experience with Ubuntu means that Free Software is synonymous with low quality or something.
There are many Ubuntu installs that "just work". If this is your "old desktop", then it sounds like you probably didn't set out to purchase hardware known to work well with Linux.
One broken machine isn't an indicator of much of anything.
I actually hope for that. My parents' washing machine blew some motor driver IGBTs along with the MCU and its proprietary firmware. It's basically scrap metal now as replacement boards are sold barely cheaper than a new machine.
Pinball machines, but I'd hardly call one-size-fits-all pinball central controllers a harbinger of a brave new world of DIY control board installs. There's significant economic incentive to tinkering with a pinball machine until it works.
Ironically, the all-in-one controllers also tend to be missing some of the more popular pinball machine models, as the IP owners for those machines had the legal muscle to boss around the companies that make the all-in-one boards. As a result, some of the more popular pinball machines are dying as their control boards wear out and they cannot be replaced, because even the popular manufacturers either rotated what they make or went out of business / got bought. :-p
I was reading recently that there's a special type of paint you can use on the walls of your house to block wifi signals, essentially keeping your wifi contained within your walls and keeping the noise level down by blocking your neighbours' wifi.
