this post was submitted on 05 May 2024
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Shitty Million Dollar Ideas
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This is a place to pitch goofy million dollar ideas that you had in the shower, as you were falling asleep, or during a fever dream. Think of it is as shitty Shark Tank.
The usual rules apply:
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No bigotry
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Be nice to each other
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I don't get the obsession with 'smart' devices given all they seem to do is overcomplicate simple designs that have worked just fine for decades - in addition to opening them up to abuse or corporate surveillance. The smartest device I own is my Pixel 8, and I barely even use it unless I need to make a call or message someone. I won't even buy a post-2014 car purely because they just contain too much tech I'll never use and don't want (not to mention the privacy concerns with cellular data transmission and telemetry.)
I love my smart house, but I also self host Home Assistant and nothing that I rely on uses a cloud provider.
It's really nice having motion activated and time based colored lights, and I don't have to worry about the privacy or connectivity concerns from the majority of Internet of Shit products.
Just be careful that it doesn't become overly attached and try to become your mother.
For starters, a smart toilet is the dumbest thing I've heard of in a while. But home automation is pretty neat if you're into to that sort of thing. Theres a lot of open source programs out there to keep yourself independent of corporate spying. If you know what you're doing, you can set things up securely and in a way that protects your privacy. For things like lighting, HVAC and speakers there isn't much in the way of overcomplicating the hardware either. I'm with you on cars though. Fuck that noise
Remote access (such as via a phone or computer) and automation. It is nice to be able to do anything you want in your home. For example:
I personally would not want toilet flushing as a smart feature.
Every company which makes objects is filled with middle management idiots who spend 100% of their time either harassing their staff, or producing reports about how the people who actually make the stuff are still doing their jobs properly yes. They spend quite a lot of time just sitting in their offices. They're dying for something to come along that means they can have a meaningful contribution to the process. Any time you hear about some boneheaded decision that makes the product worse in every way, you can be pretty well assured that it's one of these guys deciding that they're finally going to make their mark and be remembered with this new genius idea they've come up with.
I had a guy tell me I needed to relax, I was getting all worked up over these minor issues and it would be better if I just went with the flow and found a way to just show up and do some work and not be bothered by wanting everything to be perfect.
I told him that my solution that involved just being able to relax and not be bothered was to quit and find a new job where I wouldn't have to fight these battles for things to be set up semi sensibly. He became alarmed and told me that hadn't been what he meant. Eventually I did do exactly that, and the new job I found was quite a bit better in practically every respect.