Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
A few years ago, my brother bought an electric awning. He was really excited about it because, apart from the power connection, no additional switches needed to be installed. This awning doesn’t offer that option either.
Once set up, it connects to the home Wi-Fi and can be controlled from anywhere in the world via an app. Great! Right?
Unfortunately, the manufacturer hasn’t updated the app in so long that it no longer works on the phone.
The awning is now stuck closed and is just electronic waste... -
@stefano the main issue is that often there's no possibility of choice.
If you don't want an alarm system relying on the cloud, soon you won't be able to install an alarm system at all.It's what I hate the most about our times.
Everyone conforms to what most people do. I assume this is a drawback due to data availability and analysis, and marketing strategies adapting through those data. -
R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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It can get pretty bad
Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported
Second Sight left users of its retinal implants in the dark
IEEE Spectrum (spectrum.ieee.org)
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano many telcos have migrated their SMS infrastructure to the cloud as well.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
sigh. reminds me of a project I inherited where through a comedy of errors and wishful thinking, there was no way mobile data was going to work given the then current constraints.
so, I made the entire client/server control interaction work with SMS messages instead.
It wasn't a consumer application so we were the "cloud" anyway, but in the end the SMS system worked better as it was more reliable than the available mobile data.
plus, if the underlying system that supports SMS isn't available, you definitely aren't getting mobile data - and it doesn't care what level of 'G' you're on 2, 2.5, 5... whatever. Given that 3G has been switched off in a lot of areas already, anything 3G is now dead to the world too. SMS isn't though.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano too many people plan for how things work when everything is functioning as it should. Not enough people see the need to plan for how things work when everything is falling apart.
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@theolodian @s1m0n4 @stefano
Why not simpler? Wires, siren, sensors / magnet reed switches, lamp and battery UPS controller using even just a relay & key-switch? Or simple mpu (PIC18F) if display, keypad and zone needed.Edit:
My son did a demo one with a 555 timer, for exit delay, on a model with a door, window (reed switches + magnets) key-switch for school.
Anti-tamper 4 wire is simple. -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
True indeed...
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@theolodian @s1m0n4 @stefano
Why not simpler? Wires, siren, sensors / magnet reed switches, lamp and battery UPS controller using even just a relay & key-switch? Or simple mpu (PIC18F) if display, keypad and zone needed.Edit:
My son did a demo one with a 555 timer, for exit delay, on a model with a door, window (reed switches + magnets) key-switch for school.
Anti-tamper 4 wire is simple.@raymaccarthy @s1m0n4 @stefano the OP was on about notifications, way beyond me to DIY those. You can get ESP32 alarm control boards ready made, and then you can connect them into HA for the advanced functions. Then you can also integrate any other HA sensors, etc. Looks far easier than rolling your own from scratch. Even so it will have been at least 5 years before I actually get around to it.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano First you sell your soul. Then the company that bought it goes under.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano http://infrastructures.org/ is still a thing, but I missed the tower-like sea structure graphic they had up
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano
all my Life people laugh sayin I got my head inda clouds, now them's got their businesses, memories n contacts there, while da heavier da clouds get, da harder da rains onda rising plains ... -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano The landscaper we used to use installed Nest irrigation controllers because they were 'smart' and 'connected'. Then Google acquired Nest and the product line was discontinued, the cloud service was shut down in a few months, and those controllers could no longer be managed or monitored.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano Vorwerk recently discontinued the cloud services for their Neato vacuum robots, bricking tens of thousands of 500€+ devices.
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@stefano the main issue is that often there's no possibility of choice.
If you don't want an alarm system relying on the cloud, soon you won't be able to install an alarm system at all.It's what I hate the most about our times.
Everyone conforms to what most people do. I assume this is a drawback due to data availability and analysis, and marketing strategies adapting through those data. -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano
This is one of my big concerns with a battery we just had installed to go with our existing solar panels. The app for the panels was so we could check on efficiency but the battery is entirely app driven. Not that we had many options for our particular panels due to some foibles (and a bankrupt company), but very not ideal. -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano Silly! The Cloud is forever!
Why, just look up at that gray sky and you'll see what I mean!!
And ever!
/s -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano many years ago worked in a state of the art data center just completed. Two outside power feeds, 2 battery rooms, just about everything automated.
A storm hit. Took down radio tower and the one water pump for coolers. Witnessing was spooky because all the fire doors were openly swinging in the wind. Back up lighting acted like an automated prop for a horror film.
Everyone had to be called in to manually take down everything before servers auto shutdown from overheating.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano Ugh, yes. Looking ahead for even a year or so thinking about the maintainability of some web code is apparently already hard enough.
But alarm systems are _infrastructure_. Those go in decades. A decade is a _loooong_ time in cloud...
I'll remember this story the next time I'll be "dialing in" to our current alarm system at 9600 baud or whatever it is.
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@stefano Vorwerk recently discontinued the cloud services for their Neato vacuum robots, bricking tens of thousands of 500€+ devices.
@Rik_Dhuyvetters exactly. I still have one of them (broken, but still...).
