Dumb light switches. The installation, software updates, re-pairing, latency, security issues, and 3-5 year obsolescence seem like way too high a price to pay just to avoid getting off the couch and flicking a switch that works 100% of the time and never needs any maintanence.
I've been using the same Hue lightbulbs for at least 8 years now and never had any of the issues you describe. When you have a home with children and a fair number of rooms, you'll find that turning off the lights at night is not just a simple matter of "getting off the couch and flicking a switch." Also, I've rarely encountered smart lighting that didn't have a physical switch as a fallback option (for example, my Lutron Caseta switches have buttons on them that will work just fine if the network goes down, and my Hue bulbs are all connected to dumb switches), so the idea it doesn't work "100% of the time" is a strawman argument.
I’ve been using Hue lights for about 6 years now. They’re mostly not a pain, except for when they are.
Some examples:
- I used to move a lot, like every year or so. Each move required a few hours of setup in the new place. Compared to screwing in a few bulbs, that’s a big difference.
- I waited so long to update my base that my hue app will no longer connect to it. I have to reset the whole system to get it back. I’m not going to do that until I have to, so I basically can’t add or change any hue light configurations without resetting everything.
- sometimes the hue light switches just don’t do anything. I’m guessing this is if they’re having trouble connecting to the network or something. I’ll just keep tapping the “off” button until something happens 30s later.
> When you have a home with children and a fair number of rooms, you'll find that turning off the lights at night is not just a simple matter of "getting off the couch and flicking a switch."
What on earth are you talking about? My best guess is that your children turn on the lights, and you have to go around turning them off? Sounds like a parenting problem, not a technology problem.
I could be perfectly content with a traditional up/down physical light switch. But depending on the smart bulbs you choose, there's a lot of really cool features that might make it worth it to you despite the slightly more complex setup. And additionally, you can set up physical switches for these devices too.
> Safety. On vacation and want to change the room lights so potential thieves casing the joint don't suspect it's unoccupied? Easy to set up.
> Easily dim lighting via software to the level you want to reduce eye strain or a headache.
> Colorful lights are fun, and can impact mood in ways you like. Add a little orange to the light for comfort. Make it a little bluer for focus. And it makes sexy time more fun.
> It's sort of a social thing. It's pretty cool when you invite people to a party and you have unusual colored lights, or set it up to bounce to the music. Or program some red and green lights to make a christmas party have a cool theme.
* Going even further, a development environment based on the command-line. My entire IDE is in the terminal. I wrote about it too. [1] That post is a little outdated, though.
I heat my house with a wood stove in the winter. It is inexpensive, works when the power goes out 1-3 times a year (I also use it for cooking then), and I can source fuel from my land. Ironically I use an electric chainsaw most of the time, and cut up big trees 45 minutes/day in the late winter, since the batteries last about that long.
I think pour-overs and the moka pot coffee maker, both of which I use daily, are better and nicer than technological advancements like the Keurig machine. They also work when the power is out.
I like to think and plan with pencil and paper. I like physical books because I like writing in the margins, or writing all the interesting words from them on the first page or inside the front cover. I suppose I highlight on the kindle too, so its not so bad either way.
For woodworking I have some electric tools but I really like using hand tools. The sawdust (or wood shavings instead of dust!) that hand tools create is much easier to clean up and I assume better for one's respiratory health than the ultra-fine particles. I also like that they are quiet, and I can work beside the wood stove at night to carve things.
+1 for moka pots. picked em up when backpacking with a bunch of Italians, and they're great for camping. there are a few easy hacks to make em great, like adding a paper filter on the inside (just watch out for the pressure)
Makefiles seem to be making a comeback. My current and previous teams use them extensively across projects in multiple languages and I don't have any major gripes.
I have taken a huge liking to Mill. It is a build tool written in Scala, but it is not only for Scala at all. The author’s blog post is quite informative (https://www.lihaoyi.com/post/SoWhatsSoSpecialAboutTheMillSca... ), but the core idea is that a functional program’s call stack maps one-to-one to a build description, where functions are build steps.
Something as simple as
def cSources = ..
def compile() = T {
proc(“gcc”, cSources(), “-o”, outputBinary)
Path(outputBinary) // last expression is result
}
def link() = T {
// similar to previous one, using compile() somewhere
}
will automagically convert this description into a build graph, that can be executed parallel and cached.
Makefiles have never left for me. They execute jobs related to build and packaging, and they do that job super well. Also helps that make is installed by default on most Linuxes
What outdated tech are you still using and are perfectly happy with?
- Spinning rust. My daily driver has 7200 RPM drives and an old Core i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz. It's connected to my old Sony receiver from 1998 and using VLC to play music from the 70's at the moment, shaking the house. The drive has registered a lot of errors but keeps on working.
- 1990's Sony reference line receiver. It's not green-tech but helps warm the room in the morning, offsetting the wallboard heaters so the wasted energy is a wash. That plus my old JBL's I bought from a coworker in the 90's keep hibernating animals out of the ceiling.
- ICE vehicles. Truck, side-by-side, etc... and a 1947 Fordson 2N tractor that still out-performs horses though both tractor and horses have their moments. I buy all vehicles used and extend their life.
- Manual hand operated tools. Sometimes battery tools are more of a hassle when I have a quick thing to get done. They are perhaps useful to keep around when electricity is no more. The scythes and related tools are also good exercise.
- SFTP for transferring files. It's not really outdated, just fallen out of popular use. To be outdated bots or humans would have to be able to exploit due to being unmaintained or something else would have to be faster. Can't beat lftp+sftp for splitting big files into multiple TCP streams through firewalls. Torrents can come close but have other negative characteristics including being useless for private files.
- Cheap wired headphones. No batteries to replace or fail which is good given many Bluetooth headphones do not have user serviceable batteries. No RFI. No hacking or leaking data. Less junk in the landfill. They seem to still be popular for audiophiles.
- Wired keyboards and mice. Not sure if that is considered outdated tech.
- Wired switches, appliances, lights, Ethernet, surveillance cameras will always be perfectly good for me.
- I have a GPS map in the truck but I also keep paper map books in the truck and am happy to use both. GPS may be jammed soon.
- All the free notebooks and pens vendors gave me over the years for taking notes, to-do lists, reminders.
I have the same cpu. It’s crazy to think I’ve had it for almost ten years. Sometimes I feel like I want to buy I new system but I really don’t have any reason to.
Instead, here's a list of things I still use and believe are better without recent "advancements":
- Automatic (mechanical) watch: Aside from being amazing piece of technology just to marvel at, it's great because it's reparable and doesn't need batteries
- Paper books: I've had a Kindle for a long time, and appreciate the portability in certain circumstances, but nothing seems to be the same as a paper book. Can't put my finger on it, but it's probably to do with the immediacy of physical objects
- Non-IoT everything (fridges, light-switches, TVs, thermostats, etc.): I think we're all on the same page on this one, so I'll just say this; they're pointlessly shite
- Pen and paper, for study: Numerous studies show people remember things better and more deeply when they write them down
- Cash: Makes transactions more personal, and the spending of money more tangible
- Games consoles without internet: Switch it on, play games. I don't have time for a 20GiB "patch" that wasn't there on day one because you didn't have time to finish the game before release
I came here to make the same comment. Also, all my personal docs are text files I edit with emacs. I have a self hosted git repo I use to share docs between machines.
I too have a kindle but read mostly paper books. Niel Gaiman made a comment once that books were like sharks. Sharks survived for millions of years by being the best thing in their particular ecological niche. Books survive because they're the best at being books. I think he also made a comment that kindles are good at being bookshelves. So read a paper book at home, but take the kindle with you on a vacation when you can't take your home bookshelf with you.
>Non-IoT everything (fridges, light-switches, TVs, thermostats, etc.): I think we're all on the same page on this one, so I'll just say this; they're pointlessly shite
I want as few things in my house connected to the internet as possible. My computers, my video game consoles, and my phone, that's it. I don't see the value proposition for connecting my appliances or my light bulbs or whatever else to the internet.
It's not my opinion but apparently most manufacturers' that headphone jacks are outdated. I recently got my first mobile phone with BT only and I hate it, so I at least wish I had my headphone jack back.
All my computers use wired headphones and peripherals, but more because I hate changing batteries or disconnects.
I don't dislike wifi, but if I am having video calls or playing games I try to avoid it, if I have a network cable close, just to avoid one source of error. The thought of getting battery powered shifters on a bike confuses me.
Not a fan of IoT and the two Shelly plugs I have I only use for measuring power usage, I don't think I've switched anything on or off except trying it out once.
I guess I'm not necessarily longing for old stuff, or not even for stuff that was hip and cool when I was young, but I think I am easy to satisfy with some "this generation of thing is SO much better than the one before" that I don't need incremental (to me) improvements.
Like:
Walkman: good; portable CD player: worse; Minidisc: didn't have one, but not better enough; MP3 player: much better; MP3s on phone: perfection, but technically only one less thing to carry, it's still an mp3 player (I still listen to CDs at home and in the car, but because the car is old and because I buy CDs in the first place...)
I went from a flagship phone back to a mid-tier one for the headphone jack, and I don't regret it for a day. I can use cheap headphones, which is great for me since I often lose or break them. I can plug into the aux input of my car. I make beats with the Pocket Operator KO, which I can sample directly from the phone with a cheap cable.
You could do all that with a $5 USB C to 3.5mm adapter (or a $10 one that also lets you charge).
Plus there is no shortage of cheap USB C headphones.
I never understand why so many people choose to die on this hill, especially considering that USB has replaced every other port already, usually to a positive reception.
I bought a Pixel 3A phone shortly after it was released in 2019.
Since then, there have been 5 additional Pixel releases, each with shiny new features, and about a year ago I received an offer to trade in my Pixel 3A for the latest model at basically no cost.
Wait, what? Why would Google be willing to hand me a new phone that's four model years newer as if it's an even exchange for my old phone?
Well, it's because the Pixel 3A had an amazing feature that newer phones in the line no longer have: free unlimited storage in Google Photos.
Owners of newer models instead have to pay at least $2 a month for the most basic Google One data storage plan, and if you take a lot of photos and video, you likely have to upgrade to their higher-storage plans.
No thanks, I'm perfectly content with my older-model Pixel, and I will likely run it into the ground. Photo quality is still very good, especially for low-light photography, and there is nothing else about the phone that feels laggy.
i'd still be using my Pixel 2 XL with LineageOS but it turns out it wasn't an OS/software issue that was slowing it down, the hardware was pretty borked. so when I flashed it, it died :/
picked up a newer pixel after trying the dumb-phone thing for a minute, but I'd rather still be on the pixel 2
I had a Pixel 2 for many years and loved it! It fell out of my pocket as I got out of the car one day, hit the concrete, and never turned on again. So I got a replacement Pixel 2 off Back Market! Still the least-worst, simplest phone, in my opinion.
Readit News
Some examples:
- I used to move a lot, like every year or so. Each move required a few hours of setup in the new place. Compared to screwing in a few bulbs, that’s a big difference.
- I waited so long to update my base that my hue app will no longer connect to it. I have to reset the whole system to get it back. I’m not going to do that until I have to, so I basically can’t add or change any hue light configurations without resetting everything.
- sometimes the hue light switches just don’t do anything. I’m guessing this is if they’re having trouble connecting to the network or something. I’ll just keep tapping the “off” button until something happens 30s later.
What on earth are you talking about? My best guess is that your children turn on the lights, and you have to go around turning them off? Sounds like a parenting problem, not a technology problem.
> Safety. On vacation and want to change the room lights so potential thieves casing the joint don't suspect it's unoccupied? Easy to set up.
> Easily dim lighting via software to the level you want to reduce eye strain or a headache.
> Colorful lights are fun, and can impact mood in ways you like. Add a little orange to the light for comfort. Make it a little bluer for focus. And it makes sexy time more fun.
> It's sort of a social thing. It's pretty cool when you invite people to a party and you have unusual colored lights, or set it up to bounce to the music. Or program some red and green lights to make a christmas party have a cool theme.
I'll rather just say "Siri, movie time" and the lights fade out automatically.
And if I get up, a motion sensor will light the way to the kitchen or bathroom automatically.
* Command-line tools in general. I wrote one too.
* Going even further, a development environment based on the command-line. My entire IDE is in the terminal. I wrote about it too. [1] That post is a little outdated, though.
[1]: https://gavinhoward.com/2020/12/my-development-environment-a...
I think pour-overs and the moka pot coffee maker, both of which I use daily, are better and nicer than technological advancements like the Keurig machine. They also work when the power is out.
I like to think and plan with pencil and paper. I like physical books because I like writing in the margins, or writing all the interesting words from them on the first page or inside the front cover. I suppose I highlight on the kindle too, so its not so bad either way.
For woodworking I have some electric tools but I really like using hand tools. The sawdust (or wood shavings instead of dust!) that hand tools create is much easier to clean up and I assume better for one's respiratory health than the ultra-fine particles. I also like that they are quiet, and I can work beside the wood stove at night to carve things.
Something as simple as
will automagically convert this description into a build graph, that can be executed parallel and cached.[^1]: https://ninja-build.org/
Autoconf emits a source distribution that's build-configured using a famous 'configure' shell script.
Since POSIX is still a thing I wouldn't even put autoconf as outdated. It still has purposes.
For example I'd say that outdated tech would be running your website using CGI, preferably using C backend for extra mushiness.
- Spinning rust. My daily driver has 7200 RPM drives and an old Core i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz. It's connected to my old Sony receiver from 1998 and using VLC to play music from the 70's at the moment, shaking the house. The drive has registered a lot of errors but keeps on working.
- 1990's Sony reference line receiver. It's not green-tech but helps warm the room in the morning, offsetting the wallboard heaters so the wasted energy is a wash. That plus my old JBL's I bought from a coworker in the 90's keep hibernating animals out of the ceiling.
- ICE vehicles. Truck, side-by-side, etc... and a 1947 Fordson 2N tractor that still out-performs horses though both tractor and horses have their moments. I buy all vehicles used and extend their life.
- Manual hand operated tools. Sometimes battery tools are more of a hassle when I have a quick thing to get done. They are perhaps useful to keep around when electricity is no more. The scythes and related tools are also good exercise.
- SFTP for transferring files. It's not really outdated, just fallen out of popular use. To be outdated bots or humans would have to be able to exploit due to being unmaintained or something else would have to be faster. Can't beat lftp+sftp for splitting big files into multiple TCP streams through firewalls. Torrents can come close but have other negative characteristics including being useless for private files.
- Cheap wired headphones. No batteries to replace or fail which is good given many Bluetooth headphones do not have user serviceable batteries. No RFI. No hacking or leaking data. Less junk in the landfill. They seem to still be popular for audiophiles.
- Wired keyboards and mice. Not sure if that is considered outdated tech.
- Wired switches, appliances, lights, Ethernet, surveillance cameras will always be perfectly good for me.
- I have a GPS map in the truck but I also keep paper map books in the truck and am happy to use both. GPS may be jammed soon.
- All the free notebooks and pens vendors gave me over the years for taking notes, to-do lists, reminders.
Instead, here's a list of things I still use and believe are better without recent "advancements":
- Automatic (mechanical) watch: Aside from being amazing piece of technology just to marvel at, it's great because it's reparable and doesn't need batteries
- Paper books: I've had a Kindle for a long time, and appreciate the portability in certain circumstances, but nothing seems to be the same as a paper book. Can't put my finger on it, but it's probably to do with the immediacy of physical objects
- Non-IoT everything (fridges, light-switches, TVs, thermostats, etc.): I think we're all on the same page on this one, so I'll just say this; they're pointlessly shite
- Pen and paper, for study: Numerous studies show people remember things better and more deeply when they write them down
- Cash: Makes transactions more personal, and the spending of money more tangible
- Games consoles without internet: Switch it on, play games. I don't have time for a 20GiB "patch" that wasn't there on day one because you didn't have time to finish the game before release
I too have a kindle but read mostly paper books. Niel Gaiman made a comment once that books were like sharks. Sharks survived for millions of years by being the best thing in their particular ecological niche. Books survive because they're the best at being books. I think he also made a comment that kindles are good at being bookshelves. So read a paper book at home, but take the kindle with you on a vacation when you can't take your home bookshelf with you.
I want as few things in my house connected to the internet as possible. My computers, my video game consoles, and my phone, that's it. I don't see the value proposition for connecting my appliances or my light bulbs or whatever else to the internet.
Very happy with my Rachio smart sprinkler
All my computers use wired headphones and peripherals, but more because I hate changing batteries or disconnects. I don't dislike wifi, but if I am having video calls or playing games I try to avoid it, if I have a network cable close, just to avoid one source of error. The thought of getting battery powered shifters on a bike confuses me.
Not a fan of IoT and the two Shelly plugs I have I only use for measuring power usage, I don't think I've switched anything on or off except trying it out once.
I guess I'm not necessarily longing for old stuff, or not even for stuff that was hip and cool when I was young, but I think I am easy to satisfy with some "this generation of thing is SO much better than the one before" that I don't need incremental (to me) improvements.
Like:
Walkman: good; portable CD player: worse; Minidisc: didn't have one, but not better enough; MP3 player: much better; MP3s on phone: perfection, but technically only one less thing to carry, it's still an mp3 player (I still listen to CDs at home and in the car, but because the car is old and because I buy CDs in the first place...)
Plus there is no shortage of cheap USB C headphones.
I never understand why so many people choose to die on this hill, especially considering that USB has replaced every other port already, usually to a positive reception.
Since then, there have been 5 additional Pixel releases, each with shiny new features, and about a year ago I received an offer to trade in my Pixel 3A for the latest model at basically no cost.
Wait, what? Why would Google be willing to hand me a new phone that's four model years newer as if it's an even exchange for my old phone?
Well, it's because the Pixel 3A had an amazing feature that newer phones in the line no longer have: free unlimited storage in Google Photos.
Owners of newer models instead have to pay at least $2 a month for the most basic Google One data storage plan, and if you take a lot of photos and video, you likely have to upgrade to their higher-storage plans.
No thanks, I'm perfectly content with my older-model Pixel, and I will likely run it into the ground. Photo quality is still very good, especially for low-light photography, and there is nothing else about the phone that feels laggy.
https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6220791
picked up a newer pixel after trying the dumb-phone thing for a minute, but I'd rather still be on the pixel 2