[Ipg-smz] nest app for Linux?

[Mark Brownstein]

At an Intel AI Developer conference that I attended last year, one of 
the presenters made a comment that stuck with me -- 'it's amazing how 
easily people will give up their privacy for convenience.' I guess that 
I may be a victim of this, too.

In the case of my Nest Thermostat, I got it, basically, for nothing - 
$150 with a $75 rebate from the Gas Company and a $75 rebate from the 
Department of Water and Power. What it cost me was, basically, the tax 
that I paid on it.

It may not be that big a deal to replace my Nest thermostat with an 
Ecobee (now on sale at Costco - but no rebate). But I'll still have the 
less-than-satisfactory Nest Hello, and a handful of Google echo minis. 
I'm not sure I can replace them all at once (or want to spend the 
money), but until I do, Google will still be listening for every burp or 
other body noise, in addition to the 'Hey Google' stuff that we shout at 
them.

When our Internet went out a few times yesterday, our smart light bulb 
stayed on -- 'Hey, Google' wouldn't touch it. Turning the knob on the 
lamp did the trick.

My area is having fires. Internet is going out. If my friends didn't 
have cell phones - and the towers didn't stay functional, there would be 
no way to reach them to see how they were - or, worse, for them to pick 
up their VOIP phones and call for help.


On 10/11/2019 1:49 PM, Tom Henderson via Ipg-smz wrote:
> I'm also not a fan of Nest.... but once invested, you either let it 
> slurp or not. You can't even null-route the bad guys.
>
> Tom
>
>
> On 10/11/19 2:04 PM, Lynn Greiner via Ipg-smz wrote:
>> I don't entirely trust Nest's privacy. Looking at the Ecobee instead. 
>> Two of
>> their models were PC Mag Editor's Choice this year, FWIW.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ipg-smz <ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org> On Behalf Of Dennisf63 via
>> Ipg-smz
>> Sent: Friday, October 11, 2019 1:40 PM
>> To: Christine Hall via Ipg-smz <ipg-smz at netpress.org>
>> Cc: Dennisf63 <dennisf63 at wildblue.net>
>> Subject: Re: [Ipg-smz] nest app for Linux?
>>
>> On 10/11/2019 01:02 PM, Christine Hall via Ipg-smz wrote:
>>> They both have the Linux kernel in common, but beyond that, my
>>> understanding is that they're pretty much completely different -- but
>>> don't take my word for it.
>> Getting back to the Nest line of geek-dom, the thermostat is really 
>> pretty
>> cool. It can learn your patterns so it raises the temp and lowers it 
>> in line
>> with your habits, for example. It even senses when no one is home and 
>> drops
>> the temp to a pre-set lower level, then "wakes up" when it senses 
>> people in
>> the house. I walk by the one in my hall and it lights up -- motion 
>> detector.
>>
>> But, I think it emerged from the mind of uber geek Paul Allan, and 
>> when a
>> geek designs an interface to something that will be used by the hoi 
>> poloi,
>> well, the results are pretty, but confusing, and then the documentation
>> that's written for it only adds to the confusion, and now Google has 
>> taken
>> it all over (cameras, security systems, etc., etc.
>> etc.) and they created an app that is supposed to interface with ALL 
>> those
>> Internet of Things gadgets via WiFi.
>>
>> Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't out to get me.
>>
>> -- 
>> Dennis Fowler
>> P. O. Box 70
>> Otego, NY 13825
>> dennisf63 at wildblue.net
>>
>>