Apparently, even Matter requires Internet access for the initial device registration. If the cloud servers stopped operating, you would no longer be able to add or replace devices.

I have >500 devices in my HA instance. Many of them just don't have equivalent version with open standards. A lot will function locally without Internet access, such as Z-wave, Wiz, and Kasa. But the Wiz and Kasa require internet access for initial device setup, just like Matter, unfortunately.

I have setup SSL on my HA instance. It is required to use SmartStart for Z-wave. I self host, and setup a Wireguard VPN in pfSense. Fortunately, Comcast doesn't use CG-NAT. IPv6 is enabled, but not really relevant in my case. I use IPv4 with the VPN.

Many ISPs use CG-NAT, and/or don't support IPv6. They can pay for a Nabu Casa subscription, though, but this is cloud-dependent.

There is a lesson here, though . If you have a working local-only solution, and your device is an IP device, you should block it from accessing the Internet in your router, so that it does not perform unwanted firmware updates. Most consumer routers don't have an easy way to do this, unfortunately. I use pfSense, and it is possible.

Well, the OP you replied to was about public health insurance in general, not specifically Medicare, which has many gaps not found in other systems. Also, the OP wasn't specifically about you.

And used correctly, with critical thinking, can enhance productivity.

The biggest problem is that it doesn't cite its sources. That makes it quite difficult to double check whether what it generates is actually correct.

Whenever I tried to get ChatGPT or Gemini to cite sources, they came up with links that were 404, non-à propos, or just completely made up - they never even existed. I don't know why that is. It must be some limitation of how LLMs work. That means one will still need to do separate traditional search engine queries to double check the information. Prior to generative AI, I would start with a search engine query, then use the information in code, letter, conversation, etc. This was a much longer process, that required more brain power and time to read, sift and understand all the query results. With generative AI, you have to be able to understand the generated output, and how to double-check it with a search engine. It is still way faster than without it.

So, I wouldn't say it's making me stupid. But it's making me lazier - I no longer start with search engine queries, because that takes longer.

EOM.

I used a local Envoy as well from 2010 to 2022 . It worked fine in Home assistant locally, as you say. I never blocked it from the Internet, however. My understanding is that the internal memory may fill up eventually, if it is unable to upload all its data to the Enphase cloud servers. I don't know how likely that is. I had 28 micro inverters in 2010. I did major expansions after that, adding two IQ gateways and 42 IQ8+ in 2022. The original Envoy did not work well in combination with the two IQ gateways on one site. Enphase replaced it at no cost with an Envoy-S. I now have all 3 connected, and working great in Home assistant. Except that all 3 require cloud.

My understanding is that the Envoy-S, when originally released, still allowed local access. Not certain about the IQ gateways. Enphase changed it at some point in a forced firmware upgrade. At the point I got my Envoy-S and both IQ8+, I believe they might already have been cloud only. Nevertheless, the result of all this is that I no longer have local access to monitoring for the 28 panels I put up in 2010.

Damn. You beat me to it !

And I'm really pissed about it. If the company folds, which many clean energy companies are doing due to changing polices such as NEM3 and the OBBBA, I'll lose per panel monitoring, and cumulative stats.
It should not be legal to forcibly remove local features, without a way to roll back.

Yes, it should absolutely do that. And when using a chat bot with the copy/paste method, it already does. You always have the entire conversation history, and it's possible to go back and copy & paste a previously working version. However, it's difficult to find out what that version might have been, since you cannot easily tag it in the conversation history, much less search for it later. Also, the chat bot should have the option to always show a visual side by side diff of any changes it made. Instead, it works more conversationally, discussing multiple independent snippets, and it's not immediately obvious if one of those snippets is in off-limits code.
Github copilot, inside Visual Studio (2022 - not Code), is better this way for the visual diff feature. But it loses the conversation history feature. And there is still no locally integrated source control. And no containerization if you want to run your code from the IDE in a sandbox, before letting it go wild on your local development system (akin to "prod").

TLDR, all these assistants are still in their infancy. There are a lot of improvements to be made to the user experience for iterating.

Exactly. And it's mind blowing that the source control isn't already built in to the whole vibe coding iterative process.
I use coding assistants mostly with a browser and clipboard. It is not efficient.
But at least I'll be the one overwriting my own files.

Then presumably, you used said assistant only once ?

Maybe the AI was trained on Maniac Mansion ?

You would only deal with it to the extent those deficits are actually a problem that needs solving, which would need to be established first.

Indeed, it is no problem at all.

Healthcare only exists in the vaccuum, at the individual level. Infectious diseases only spread to uninsured populations.

There is always enough funding for healthcare when significant portions of the populations are allowed to opt out.

And when people vote to take away their own healthcare, this never affects access for anyone else who wants or needs it.

You could have just stated bleach + cremation. No need for ivermectin if you're already dead.

I have suffered sevetal major injuries from modern medicine. Enough to be disabled. Nevertheless, I would still much rather be alive than dead. When it's time to go, I would prefer it to be on my terms, and less painful than taking bleach.