IoT devices should all have a last will and testament so you know up front what will happen when the company selling them inevitably goes out of business. Will my clock still tell the time? Will the robot mower skulk in the flowerbed? Will some/all/none of the features still work when it can't connect to that pointless service in the cloud? Can I modify it myself or connect it to an alternative server?
@jtonline what happens when it becomes hackable?
@jtonline I do like the thought of a robot mower skulking in the undergrowth just waiting for an opportunity to pounce.
@jtonline Don't forget my personal worst of the bunch "Can it be used without your proprietary mobile App that does God knows what in the background" ...
But yes, in general we need people to stop buying stuff that doesn't run OSS that we have access to and can easily update from.
@jtonline in my dreams it would include API documentation (with annual auditing) and a mock backend container, along with a setting to provide an alternate backend URL for the endpoints.
It could be held in escrow while the company or product line is alive, but ideally this would be available to all--a kind of "right to repair" that's actually a "right to re-implement and operate," at least for personal use.
@earth2marsh and local APIs!
@jtonline @andypiper that would be brilliant transparency, like energy usage stickers but more actionable. I wonder if it would be possible to make a standard template to fill in and compare/contrast
@jtonline the answer to all these is generally no
@sldrant almost always. One of the few devices I can remember being given any sort of end of life thought was the O2 Joggler. Even that was very much an after thought though. Maybe the EU needs an anti-brick directive! :)
@jtonline I was always disappointed with the jogger. But yes, so many devices get bricked (sonos sound the worst) that I generally refuse to buy expensive cloud dependant products
I blame @andypiper for fueling the problem by buying all his expensive cloud-connected clocks :)
@sldrant @andypiper yeah, implants are a whole extra level of
My dad recently got a pacemaker which has some sort of hub and remote monitoring. I've not asked if there's a home assistant integration yet!
@jtonline @andypiper what would you even do with an integrated pacemaker?!
@sldrant @jtonline @andypiper call 999, flash the house lights and unlock the smart locked front door so the ambulance crew can get in quicker...
@jtonline I promise that all and any IoT I build will rather be more of a ioT and ONLY connect to a local opensource server controlled by the buyer, and happily run even if the Internet implodes in a puff of blasting trackers and AI's and no longer reachable. they can build their own packet-forwarding mesh-network instead.
@jtonline i get that this is a joke, but the MQTT protocol has this feature https://www.hivemq.com/blog/mqtt-essentials-part-9-last-will-and-testament/
@kellogh it was a jokey but serious suggestion, and mqtt is exactly where I shamelessly stole the term from :)
Bonus points if devices/services had insurance backed guarantees to keep their cloud running, at least long enough to migrate. Like an abta for things!