9mo ago

Smart gardening firm’s shutdown a reminder of Internet of Things’ fickle nature

arstechnica.com

17 comments

While open-sourcing could help some AeroGardens maintain its value and better avoid becoming e-waste, there's also risk of the devices being hacked for alternative purposes that Scotts Miracle-Gro may not want to be associated with.
As if people don't hack proprietary firmwares with shitty security all the time? Do they not get that more often than not, it will be more secure if open sourced?
I think they don't do these things out of a fear of their stuff being exploited, they do it in case some time in the future they can somehow extract more profit out of it. They sit on it for decades like Nintendo and their 80s games or trade the IP and patents around from company to company.
- They do it for financial exploitation and Ars Technica is complicit with laundering their disinformation.
- i think they do these things out of a fear of their stuff being exploited.
  I think it's simpler; out of a fear of IP theft.
https://lemmy.world/c/homeassistant
I always make sure my appliances are comatible, and so should everyone.
- And able to be controlled locally with no need to talk to a cloud API. Fast, reliable, private, and future-proof.
I’ve had Aerogardens for years. I don’t think any of mine are IoT devices. I’ve grown a ton of lettuce, basil varieties, peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, etc.. A bit pricey up front if you don’t buy on sale, but I feel I got way more produce out of them than expected.
- Agreed on all counts. I've never thought of my AeroGarderns as IoT devices and in fact never configured the wi-fi, which was always kind of a goofy stunt anyway: It's got front panel controls.
Wrong, we don't control it. It withholds a libre license text file, bad!
IoT at home is still new and it’s good that there are explorative attempts. Just don’t expect to be there when the market found what works.
- I don't know if I would consider it new, it's been available in a relatively mainstream way for over a decade.
  
  I think that’s still new, in terms of adoption.
Tech fads. They never get hyped 🙄
cough AI cough
- Most "AI" I have seen are basically fancy iterations of autocomplete.
  
  There is a certain amount of irony when people respond to a comment that mentions AI with a reflexive "AI is just a fancy autocomplete!" Without any relevance to the larger context.
Can anyone recommend something similar that is more open? I like the idea but I don't want to get tied into a new ecosystem and all for every dang thing I buy.
- Which bit of it are you particularly interested in? The app connectivity? Basic dumb all in ones are available on Amazon are more than good enough for growing the simple stuff like peppers and lettuce. None of the all in ones are bullet proof in terms of reliability, they are pretty disposable and I would not count on them lasting years.
  
  Not a fancy one. I'll try one as dumb as I am!

17 comments