Ask Lemmy

When I bought my current house, the previous elderly owner's sons had outfitted it with Ring doorbell and security/monitoring including Alexa in a few rooms...even had a piece of paper stapled to the ceiling above his bed that said "ALEXA EMERGENCY". It was Probably good idea to keep an eye on their dying parent.

The day I closed on it...I ripped out the panels, unplugged anything Alexa, and disconnected the ring doorbell. The only things ring-related still here are a motion sensor and 1 or 2 door sensors...but all the wiring has been disconnected.

Fuck Ring.

I ended up putting in Eufy with a Home Base, zero subscription.

Televisions.

I will not have any "smart TV" that has access to the Internet, spewing ads and harvesting data in my house. I currently have two older dumb models and when they ultimately fail, I will switch to projectors. Chromecast and a Raspberry Pi server can handle everything I want, without ads

Pretty much anything that doesn't run on foss. Game consoles in particular. When they all started requiring a subscription for basic online functionality, I moved all my gaming to PC and now also those retro bootleg handhelds. Love my Retroid Pocket 5.

Company apps.

Every business you deal with has an app these days. Grocery stores, restaurants, etc... Just install and scan to get your discounts and track your points. Yeah... No thanks.

Microsoft products or any suscription that doesn't have to be a suscription.

Avoid Google as much a possible, may be next phone will be graphene.

No social networks

I got an Epson printer to replace the HP that stopped doing email/app service because HP seemed it too old. The Epson just takes ink from a bottle which is really cheap to refil. The Epson has a tiny screen (which makes sense when you realize Epson is just a sub brand of Seiko). I fully expect the app to stop working some day.

Cars.

Most any vehicle made after 2006 will have one or more of these three issues:

1. Lack of repairability. Not just computerization, but auth to the point where changing your brake pads and rotors can make your vehicle refuse to move until those brakes and rotors are authorized over the Internet by the vehicle manufacturer. And the software to do so costs $1M to buy, needs a $6k/mo subscription, and can only be bought by authorized dealers, locking out independent repair shops.
2. Privacy. Almost all vehicles after 2006 and any before that with OnStar records everything the vehicle does and sends that up to the mothership to be repackaged and sold to data brokers. Then your insurance gets a copy and jacks up what you pay because you braked hard and sped slightly over the limit a few times. Modern cars will also record everything that happens inside and around the vehicle, to the point where when you buy the car you have to sign a waiver that states they have permission to record anyone doing anything inside the vehicle, up to and including having sex in the back seat.
3. DRM. When you buy a vehicle with all the bells and whistles, but many of those bells and whistles are shut down until you pay $$$/mo to have them turned back on. Sorry, but if the vehicle came with it, I will gleefully crack that software until I can use that feature. I paid for it when I bought the vehicle, so I have every right to use it without paying a cent extra.

New anything. Analogue or bust, if it wants to talk to the internet and isn’t a game console or computer then it can absolutely go and fuck itself dead.

If I see an ad playing at a gas station pump, I get back in my car and keep driving.

I had the same shit with an hp printer. I returned mine though.

I’m really picky about where I buy gas. There ar two places that don’t play ads at the pump and i go there. I worry they’ll change.

Cars. Basically every new model is always online, connected, and streaming who knows what data. Not to mention the awful UX of touchscreens.

Why should a car be connected to the internet? The infotainment is justified but should be controllable. And this includes EVs. Just because your wheels are moved by electric motors it doesn't automatically mean the entire car is "tech" and must be connected to everything and anything.

Newer cars. They come with cameras pointed at my face!

Acoustic guitars. Lately, they've been making these acoustic guitars with some sort of a box inside that gives it some reverb/delay, to make it sound a little richer. I hate it, it sounds shitty, and it makes the guitar unnaturally heavy.

It's an acoustic guitar, a pinnacle of woodworking artistry. Technology being involved is morally offensive.

as far as I can tell. everything. its like any time there is a new purchase I have to scrounge around to see if there is a dumb option.

Several years ago, I bought a color laser printer/scanner. It cost about twice what an inkjet one costs. It has now lasted twice as long as the average inkjet, and no sign of that changing. And it doesn't have any of the subscription bullshit. Money well spent.

I mean, you bought an HP printer. What did you expect?

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