registrations_suck - Slashdot User

Submission + - Man's vacuum bricked by manufacturer - he modifies it to work offline (tomshardware.com) 2

Submitted by registrations_suck on Sunday November 02, 2025 @05:17AM

registrations_suck writes: Manufacturer issues remote kill command to disable smart vacuum after engineer blocks it from collecting data — user revives it with custom hardware and Python scripts to run offline.

The smart vacuum cleaner was remotely bricked for not collecting data.

An engineer got curious about how his iLife A11 smart vacuum worked and monitored the network traffic coming from the device. That’s when he noticed it was constantly sending logs and telemetry data to the manufacturer — something he hadn't consented to. The user, Harishankar, decided to block the telemetry servers' IP addresses on his network, while keeping the firmware and OTA servers open. While his smart gadget worked for a while, it just refused to turn on soon after. After a lengthy investigation, he discovered that a remote kill command had been issued to his device.

In the end, the owner was able to run his vacuum fully locally without manufacturer control after all the tweaks he made. This helped him retake control of his data and make use of his $300 software-bricked smart device on his own terms. As for the rest of us who don’t have the technical knowledge and time to follow his accomplishments, his advice is to “Never use your primary WiFi network for IoT devices” and to “Treat them as strangers in your home.”

Submission + - AirBnB hosts complain about not getting a share of "services" hired by customers (phocuswire.com) 1

Submitted by registrations_suck on Monday July 14, 2025 @12:19PM

registrations_suck writes: AirBnB now offers "services" of various kinds that people can add on to a booking. Customers can also of course acquire services on their own. Examples of services include things like a private chef or a message therapist.

Hosts are complaining that since it is their property, they should get a cut, despite them having nothing to do with the service involved. From the article:

"Airbnb hosts bear the brunt of services being carried out on their properties without much benefit to their business, according to experts—and some believe the arrangement could actually be to Airbnb hosts’ detriment.

“[Airbnb is] essentially subletting the property for commercial activities while the owner of the property gets nothing extra for that privilege,” Bowles said.

“If I were the host, I would not be thrilled that local businesses will practice their trade at my property,” said Max Starkov, hospitality and travel consultant. “Especially since I won’t be making a dime!”

Hosts are reacting too, Sloan said. “The thing that we heard most from hosts as soon as this happened was, ‘How do I start direct booking?’”

According to Sloan, Airbnb is leveraging physical assets it doesn’t own, and Bowles contended that it’s the hosts, not Airbnb, who take on the risks.

“The host bears all of the operational costs and risks while Airbnb captures the profit,” Bowles said. “So, you're going to have increased wear and tear on your properties—massage tables, cooking equipment, workout sessions, weights—it's all happening in the host space with no additional compensation.”

What's next? Hosts demanding a fee if someone orders in a pizza or other food?

Submission + - Air Force Shuts Down HAARP (adn.com)

Submitted by registrations_suck on Wednesday May 14, 2014 @11:29PM

registrations_suck writes: The Air Force is shutting down HAARP. Subject to all kinds of conspiracies, blacked out on Google Maps for years, and its true mission, as described by those in the know, being dubious for years, HAARP gives people like me and Alex Jones the heebeejeebies. I'm glad it's shutting down, but I wonder what is replacing it.

FAIRBANKS — The U.S. Air Force gave official notice to Congress Wednesday that it intends to dismantle the $300 million High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Gakona this summer.

The shutdown of HAARP, a project created by the late Sen. Ted Stevens when he wielded great control over the U.S. defense budget, will start after a final research experiment takes place in mid-June, the Air Force said in a letter to Congress Tuesday.

While the University of Alaska has expressed interest in taking over the research site, which is off the Tok Cutoff, in an area where black spruce was cleared a quarter-century ago for the Air Force Backscatter radar project that was never completed. But the school has not volunteered to pay $5 million a year to run HAARP.

Responding to questions from Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski during a Senate hearing Wednesday, David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology and Engineering, said this is "not an area that we have any need for in the future" and it would not be a good use of Air Force research funds to keep HAARP going. "We're moving on to other ways of managing the ionosphere, which the HAARP was really designed to do," he said. "To inject energy into the ionosphere to be able to actually control it. But that work has been completed."

Comments of that sort have given rise to endless conspiracy theories, portraying HAARP as a super weapon capable of mind control or weather control, with enough juice to trigger hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes....

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