That these people are all so concerned about them being local only,
and in the next breath talk about how they have it hooked up to Samsung, Apple, Google, Amazon, or whoever for VA.
What is the point of bitching about something being local only? You gave that up for voice control.

HomeAssistant has an offline-voice mode, if you are concerned about privacy.

I use it without voice control at all, since my setup is pretty simple. For the few awkward lights I have, I just use a cheap zigbee button or the HA app on my phone - and even that's rarer, since my automation is more along the lines of "turn these lights on at dusk, and off at 10PM".

It was dumb from the beginning to connect all lightbulbs to the internet.

Philips Hue used to use Zigbee, not wifi. It was a local wireless standard (hence the hub).

This is more like Logitech deciding that bluetooth mice should suddenly be wifi mice.

their hardware was awesome back in the day (and in my mind still beats a Fire stick) but it's almost commoditzed now

I have a TCL-branded smart TV that uses the Roku platform. For a smart TV, the interface is interface is pretty usable and the ads aren't that annoying. Just a three-wide grid system of channels and inputs, and an ad to the right. Plus I can remove the default streaming platforms and add only the ones I want, and place them in any order.

I'd stick with Roku OS if we were looking for a new SmartTV. But damned if I ever checked out their Roku channel.

Fine with me, as long as every driver who refuses insurance puts the full legally required minimum liability amount into an escrow account that can be used to pay for any damages inflicted on others.

We probably should fix the required legal minimums. In my state, the minimum is $10k in property damage, and $30k in injury for auto insurance.

That helps keep insurance rates low, but that won't cover a bad injury that keeps someone in the hospital for a few days, or even an accidental where there are no injuries but a newer vehicle is destroyed.

We probably should re-examine the concept of insurance. In theory, it's sound. But in practice, it's either a burden on the poor or they are horribly underinsured. But all solutions tend to have downsides. Any public system runs the risk of subsidizing the well-off and creates perverse incentives, such as building in low-lying ocean-side areas where there are hurricanes.

My theory is it's that most companies can't figure out how to hold meetings. Teams require meetings. Methodologies tend to formalize them and encourage more. As a result, they just make the problem worse. Limit meetings to what is defined beforehand, what is necessary, and have an email summary so that anyone who can't make it can catch up. That, regardless of most methodologies, would result in a better workplace environment. Instead, we get standups that veer off-topic, while important information is not revealed.

If they can't charge a fee unless they can list it in an itemized prospectus to potential customers, then you'll find that it's suddenly practical for ISPs to list every single fee they charge.

A lot of the fees are bullshit that are listed in ways to imply they are mandatory taxes the government is charging.

It's like if you ordered a pizza, and they requested a "DOT Compliance Fee". That may sound like a tax, but it's actually them pushing the cost of insurance onto you.

Or if you went to the local big box store, and your receipt had "Department of Labor fee" on the receipt, but it's actually them charging you for having to pay their workers a minimum wage.

Most businesses don't do this, for obvious reasons. That's just normal overhead for business. But for some reason we tolerate this for phone companies.

So just have one Google exam then.

There's a difference between having a solid understanding of a subject but still having to look something up, and someone who lacks all knowledge.

A good test will separate the former from the latter.

I was rejecting crypto because I wasn't losing money fast enough.

Now, with option trading, I can finally lose money at the accelerated rate I need!

Hopefully it is cloud connected

With the normal Yale smart locks, they will collect to Home Assistant and work just fine without the cloud.

I doubt this is any different.

I'm perfectly fine with smart locks - but I'm the sort of person who has left their garage door unlocked for a few days without one. At least this way, I can just have a door sensor on it and have it automatically lock if it is shut for a certain period of time.

I think home automation has a place, but that place is as an enhancement to existing functionality. If automation goes down for some reason, the device should return to the same functionality that it had when it was dumb.

adult stuff as opposed to man-child stuff

Guess what, you are an adult now. That means you can make your own rules instead of following some outdated straightjacket stereotype of 'adult stuff'.

You don't need anyone's permission to play video games. It's kind of sad that you associate game playing with childhood. Games have a long history in human culture, with the earliest generally accepted board games predating the bronze age. Games likely much farther back - but it is harder to tell what some artifacts are in the absence of writing, and there are other games available that may leave no trace in the archeological record.

But for as long as there is history, we've had games. They've been a way to socialize, entertain, and even train ourselves. It's okay to play them.

Every civilizational collapse begins with everybody lying about everything.

That's quite a claim.

Kind of curious how you know it was everybody lying about everything that brought down civilizations like the Indus Valley (commonly attributed to drought), Easter Island (commonly attributed to resource overuse), or lowland classical Mayan (attributed to disease, invasion, and/or prolonged drought) or Aztec (generally agreed that invasions were the cause of the collapse).

If you would perhaps want a more complex explanation of collapse, there's the work of Joseph Tainter. His theory basically boils down to civilizations collapse when the cost of maintaining a complex society exceeds the benefits.

50% more fans = 50% faster CPU. ;)

Awhile back, a woman on Instragram posted a video of a couple and accused them of trying to abduct her child.

The police did investigate, and found the claims had no merit. She ended up being charged with a crime, since she had filed a police report after the video went viral.

I think it's rather reasonable to assume that accusing a random couple of attempting to kidnap a child, and posting a video where they could be recognized, does create a situation where that couple may be harmed.

Now she didn't do so anonymously, but if she did, that wouldn't negate the danger.

Perhaps we do need a mechanism for those accused of misdeeds and attempted misdeeds to have some method of setting the record straight.

One could easily imagine a situation where an abusive ex-partner falsely claims their ex was stealing from work on Facebook, or a bigot may claim a new gay couple in their neighborhood are pedophiles on Nextdoor. It's easy enough on either service to create a fake name.

On the flip side, one could see a large business going after bad reviewers. Or a corrupt police department harassing those who publicly criticize them.

So a balance needs to be made.

I just know how to code.

Most of us don't have photogenic memories nor the time to read everything.

Thus we may need to *gasp* look things up.

So please forgive us mere mortals who may not know every API and every library off the top of our heads.

Are you suggesting there's no evidence that the Hepatitis B vaccine has been linked to Austim?

The question is not if it's been "linked to", but if there's a causal factor.

A common example is ice cream and sexual assault. Ice cream sales have been linked to sexual assault. Now obviously there's not a plausible mechanism between the two for a causal factor, but there is a third factor - warmer weather, which is likely the causal factor for both ice cream sales and sexual assaults.

So the question is if there's a causal factor that may lead to more people getting vaccinated and higher autism diagnosis rates. Which there is a plausible factor - people who are more likely to seek medical care for their children.