I appear to have joined the Internet of Things brigade...
-
... but I did so inadvertently - honest, @OriginalGriff :-D Suffering from a bad case of audiophilia, and with the climate out here warming up, I wanted a very quite fan for the sitting (listening) room. The problem is that even the least mains hum - and fans are notorious for this - is a disaster, as the the room dimensions are roughly 6.5m X 6.5m. The wavelength of 50 Hertz AC in warm air? 6.5M. :~ I get standing waves all over the place to the extent that I have use a graphic equalizer to damp any music at 50 Hertz to an acceptable level. On a shopping trip on Thursday I came across one that truly was silent - seven weirdly shaped blades, a rigid, non-adjustable column and zero hum or vibration, so presumably a DC motor. It was the most expensive fan of its type in the shop, and twice what I thought I would pay, but I bought it anyway. As I walked to the cash desk with the young sales lady, I asked if it had a remote control. She replied in the affirmative - I just need to download the app to my 'phone! So now I can be on the other side of the planet and control my fan anyway I want - speed, swing, elevation, even 'natural air', whatever the :elephant: that is. How incredibly useful this will be when I am hot but not in the same place as the fan - I can still turn it on. :wtf: Actually, being a paranoiac as well as an audiphiliac, and in light of the fact that the fan and app are from Xiaomi, I suspect it has nothing to do with user convenience, and all to do with Chinese paranoia. I reported here a few years ago about an unbelievable licence agreement from Xiaomi when I bought a hardware router made by them. Essentially, I would have subjected myself to Chinese law anywhere on the planet - and probably off it as well! I returned the router under EU law which stipulates that non-agreement with a licence first presented post sale voids the sale. The licence agreement for this product is very little different. Criticism of China on social media would appear to be close to fatal. That reminds me - I must check the fan for Semtex and C-4. :suss: :laugh: If Xiaomi imagine that I am going to let this thing access my local network, I am afraid they are in for a severe disappointment. Of course, as I haven't accepted the licence agreement, I haven't agreed not to hack it... :cool:
-
... but I did so inadvertently - honest, @OriginalGriff :-D Suffering from a bad case of audiophilia, and with the climate out here warming up, I wanted a very quite fan for the sitting (listening) room. The problem is that even the least mains hum - and fans are notorious for this - is a disaster, as the the room dimensions are roughly 6.5m X 6.5m. The wavelength of 50 Hertz AC in warm air? 6.5M. :~ I get standing waves all over the place to the extent that I have use a graphic equalizer to damp any music at 50 Hertz to an acceptable level. On a shopping trip on Thursday I came across one that truly was silent - seven weirdly shaped blades, a rigid, non-adjustable column and zero hum or vibration, so presumably a DC motor. It was the most expensive fan of its type in the shop, and twice what I thought I would pay, but I bought it anyway. As I walked to the cash desk with the young sales lady, I asked if it had a remote control. She replied in the affirmative - I just need to download the app to my 'phone! So now I can be on the other side of the planet and control my fan anyway I want - speed, swing, elevation, even 'natural air', whatever the :elephant: that is. How incredibly useful this will be when I am hot but not in the same place as the fan - I can still turn it on. :wtf: Actually, being a paranoiac as well as an audiphiliac, and in light of the fact that the fan and app are from Xiaomi, I suspect it has nothing to do with user convenience, and all to do with Chinese paranoia. I reported here a few years ago about an unbelievable licence agreement from Xiaomi when I bought a hardware router made by them. Essentially, I would have subjected myself to Chinese law anywhere on the planet - and probably off it as well! I returned the router under EU law which stipulates that non-agreement with a licence first presented post sale voids the sale. The licence agreement for this product is very little different. Criticism of China on social media would appear to be close to fatal. That reminds me - I must check the fan for Semtex and C-4. :suss: :laugh: If Xiaomi imagine that I am going to let this thing access my local network, I am afraid they are in for a severe disappointment. Of course, as I haven't accepted the licence agreement, I haven't agreed not to hack it... :cool:
Ah, for the old days when opening the sleeve the CD was in constituted agreeing to the T&C's (which were on the CD inside the packet) ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
-
Ah, for the old days when opening the sleeve the CD was in constituted agreeing to the T&C's (which were on the CD inside the packet) ... :laugh:
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
I had a dose of that with a client who spent a couple of grand on a small GIS package before Cyprus joined the EU. Because the software was not fit for his purpose I used the 'not agreeing to this licence' ploy (the licence terms being the 'not fit for purpose' concerning ownership of data). The vendor came back with the 'But it said on the packet' ploy. I just gave them the CD back, and asked for the price to be refunded. They refused, my client sued, and the other side fortunately had a good lawyer who sent us a cheque. I don't know if there were any test cases for this, but as long as you didn't click through the licence agreement on install, you were going to win. We sued for fraud.
-
... but I did so inadvertently - honest, @OriginalGriff :-D Suffering from a bad case of audiophilia, and with the climate out here warming up, I wanted a very quite fan for the sitting (listening) room. The problem is that even the least mains hum - and fans are notorious for this - is a disaster, as the the room dimensions are roughly 6.5m X 6.5m. The wavelength of 50 Hertz AC in warm air? 6.5M. :~ I get standing waves all over the place to the extent that I have use a graphic equalizer to damp any music at 50 Hertz to an acceptable level. On a shopping trip on Thursday I came across one that truly was silent - seven weirdly shaped blades, a rigid, non-adjustable column and zero hum or vibration, so presumably a DC motor. It was the most expensive fan of its type in the shop, and twice what I thought I would pay, but I bought it anyway. As I walked to the cash desk with the young sales lady, I asked if it had a remote control. She replied in the affirmative - I just need to download the app to my 'phone! So now I can be on the other side of the planet and control my fan anyway I want - speed, swing, elevation, even 'natural air', whatever the :elephant: that is. How incredibly useful this will be when I am hot but not in the same place as the fan - I can still turn it on. :wtf: Actually, being a paranoiac as well as an audiphiliac, and in light of the fact that the fan and app are from Xiaomi, I suspect it has nothing to do with user convenience, and all to do with Chinese paranoia. I reported here a few years ago about an unbelievable licence agreement from Xiaomi when I bought a hardware router made by them. Essentially, I would have subjected myself to Chinese law anywhere on the planet - and probably off it as well! I returned the router under EU law which stipulates that non-agreement with a licence first presented post sale voids the sale. The licence agreement for this product is very little different. Criticism of China on social media would appear to be close to fatal. That reminds me - I must check the fan for Semtex and C-4. :suss: :laugh: If Xiaomi imagine that I am going to let this thing access my local network, I am afraid they are in for a severe disappointment. Of course, as I haven't accepted the licence agreement, I haven't agreed not to hack it... :cool:
On the serious side, for any device to phone home it has to connect to the Internet via your phone (app) or your wireless router. Should be easy to block both. OTOH, if you want it to connect, you have to trust the device's server, probably in AWS (from my experience). You are not paranoid, they really are out to get you. :)
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
-
On the serious side, for any device to phone home it has to connect to the Internet via your phone (app) or your wireless router. Should be easy to block both. OTOH, if you want it to connect, you have to trust the device's server, probably in AWS (from my experience). You are not paranoid, they really are out to get you. :)
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
I have an old Wi-Fi only tablet that I just use in the evenings for catching up on the news and Kindle. I might just install the app on that, and then block it and whatever it's talking to on my firewall.
theoldfool wrote:
You are not paranoid, they really are out to get you.
NO no - I AM paranoid, but they're still out to get me, because they're paranoid as well. :laugh:
-
... but I did so inadvertently - honest, @OriginalGriff :-D Suffering from a bad case of audiophilia, and with the climate out here warming up, I wanted a very quite fan for the sitting (listening) room. The problem is that even the least mains hum - and fans are notorious for this - is a disaster, as the the room dimensions are roughly 6.5m X 6.5m. The wavelength of 50 Hertz AC in warm air? 6.5M. :~ I get standing waves all over the place to the extent that I have use a graphic equalizer to damp any music at 50 Hertz to an acceptable level. On a shopping trip on Thursday I came across one that truly was silent - seven weirdly shaped blades, a rigid, non-adjustable column and zero hum or vibration, so presumably a DC motor. It was the most expensive fan of its type in the shop, and twice what I thought I would pay, but I bought it anyway. As I walked to the cash desk with the young sales lady, I asked if it had a remote control. She replied in the affirmative - I just need to download the app to my 'phone! So now I can be on the other side of the planet and control my fan anyway I want - speed, swing, elevation, even 'natural air', whatever the :elephant: that is. How incredibly useful this will be when I am hot but not in the same place as the fan - I can still turn it on. :wtf: Actually, being a paranoiac as well as an audiphiliac, and in light of the fact that the fan and app are from Xiaomi, I suspect it has nothing to do with user convenience, and all to do with Chinese paranoia. I reported here a few years ago about an unbelievable licence agreement from Xiaomi when I bought a hardware router made by them. Essentially, I would have subjected myself to Chinese law anywhere on the planet - and probably off it as well! I returned the router under EU law which stipulates that non-agreement with a licence first presented post sale voids the sale. The licence agreement for this product is very little different. Criticism of China on social media would appear to be close to fatal. That reminds me - I must check the fan for Semtex and C-4. :suss: :laugh: If Xiaomi imagine that I am going to let this thing access my local network, I am afraid they are in for a severe disappointment. Of course, as I haven't accepted the licence agreement, I haven't agreed not to hack it... :cool:
But can it run Doom? There's an idea for an article... :)
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
