NO MORE "SMART" APPLIANCES

[cdev]

[...]   I am not encouraged by the grit nor the wittiness of recent college grads. [...]

A college degree is the new high school diploma....    with a huge lifetime debt attached to it!

Poor is the new black. And if youre black you'll notice that people are always trying to sell you high margin low value products as they are all you can afford, and they know it. They make much more off the poor than they do the rich, in fact. No wonder there are tons of liquor stores in poor neighborhoods.. And rent to own. Rent a VCR for $35 a month instead of buying one with the pittance you earn after all the fees are all taken out. They basically just leave you what it takes to get to and from work. After the wage garnishment. poor kids parents are almost never married, they were never married or they are divorced. This is the norm now. There are lots of services that are now eligible for. They all cost an arm and a leg.

>More families should do critical thinking about whether each particular child is suited to higher education, but that wouldn't be "fair" so we are where we are...

My half brother used to say to me with a sneer "Life isnt fair" while he silently ripped me off. And he was right. It isnt fair. Lots of poor parents' children die because they couldn't afford a drug that costs $5. Its deemed poverty's fault.  The death is just natural. Its what happens when you are poor. Nobody suggested to poor people that life was fair then or now. Fairness is for rich people. If you are asking that question, chances are you are rich. You are probably one of the 1% to even know that there are human rights somewhere.

Education is wasted on a lot of people who dont even understand what it is they are studying. My parents were both artists and one was also an inventor.  What my mother was trying to point out is that art is an affliction that effects people later in life. And you have little choice in the matter. Whether to produce or consume.

They are both akin to a happy disease that people dont enter (and shouldn't enter) unlless their bodies give them no other choice, they really shouldn't enter these arts.. If their only choice is to submit to it, then, they end up afflicted, and they usually do quite well at it. But they spend all their time at it. Its a disease, as she said. often its not until later in life that this happens. Its the push to start making "progress" earlier and earlier in life thats causing a lot of problems, parents are increasingly obsessed by getting their very young children into the right pre-school, etc. Extending the competitive aspect of schooling earlier and earlier in life. Give the kids a break! They have to have a childhood.

When I was a child, I got to be a child. At that time, everything wasn't under the control of "THEY" (whomever "they" are. I did lots of stuff on my own. And most kids did.

[cdev]

[...]
It's troubling how many are agreeing to this foolishness, a population literally asking for dependence, then they become more abusive, and the only logical end state is subjugation, which may already be true for all I know.

The majority of people simply don't (yet) see what is happening...    but they will, when their household budgets hit a "subscription brick wall" and they have to start making choices:  do I eat, or subscribe? 

You certainly dont get anything for free anymore.Here in the US your rights are determined by where you live, by state. As the medical standard of care is determined by norms. Some states the norms are fairly high, others its worse than sub saharan Africa for the poor.   Not even air, as its already being sold in a few countries..is free now, everywhere.  People in the most polluted countries are already paying people in less polluted countries for their air. Air and water are now commodities that are mined, like oil.

They want people to be buried by debts. They dont hit a brick wall, they just charge you an overdraft fee and whenever you get money in your account again, lots of it is eaten up by these innumerable overdraft fees, all taken out first before you have any money.  You agreed to this, remember, when you signed the EULA. So you wont even be able to cross the street (since its now private property, not public) without adding lots of money to unlock the digital gates. . The commons has been taken. And sold off. They now own the rights to sell it to you. Its the concession they saved the governments from. Eliminating their moral hazard to be responsible. Because after all if a government is responsible theyhave to do at least their own definition of an adequate job. Thats what they mean about moral hazard.

This was the intent of these various cartels to do. If you don't play the game as they want you to, they don't want your business, they keep telling us in various ways. They certainly dont want the poor in the smart cities. Before you enter the glittrering mile they will check your bank account, to make sure you're not wasting their time..  Isnt it like this in Visapuram already?

All of these various "smart" appliances are tied to innumerable add-on and upsells. Those are where the profits are, we're told again and again. There was no profit in making selling commodity products like computers, or smartphones, whose prices are cut to the bone in order to hook people on that brand. Then all the information thats discovered from the GPS-containing thing is sold..   They have rigged the system so its all deemed to be their property. You, your very existence becomes their property, their inalienable right is to own you. And all your thoughts, your contacts, and save it in perpetuity and sell it to others. Its in these "residuals" that the real profits lie..  They keep the low rollers out.

"A smart city aims to become a citizen-centered city where citizens actively engage in urban operation and share urban data within a high-tech ICT infrastructure. It premises ‘smart citizens’ who can understand and utilize digital technology to adapt well to the various infrastructure of smart cities. In reality, however, not only tech-savvy citizens but those who are not likely to coexist in a smart city. Disadvantaged groups with relatively insufficient awareness and the necessity of technologies might be excluded from smart cities’ various benefits. The smart city innovations need to encompass diverse social groups’ engagements to claim their legitimacy and sustainability from a long-term perspective. In this light, this study examines the potential digital divide in the advanced technologies used in the emerging 5G smart city era. Using survey data, we investigate if the smart citizens’ social and technical readiness in terms of the use experience and necessity of new technologies can predict the adoption and use of the emerging 5G smart city innovations. The empirical results from this study can inform the digital divide between the general public and technology-disadvantaged groups. The findings can also guide policymakers in prioritizing technologies that are accessible and beneficial to all potential residents of smart cities in the future. Finally, the results yield specific policy implications for practitioners who design more inclusive and sustainable smart cities in the 5G era. View Full-Text
Keywords: sustainable smart city; digital divide; 5G technologies"

[MadScientist]

[...]
It's troubling how many are agreeing to this foolishness, a population literally asking for dependence, then they become more abusive, and the only logical end state is subjugation, which may already be true for all I know.

The majority of people simply don't (yet) see what is happening...    but they will, when their household budgets hit a "subscription brick wall" and they have to start making choices:  do I eat, or subscribe? 

This was the intent of these various cartels to do. If you don't play the game as they want you to, they don't want your business, they keep telling us in various ways.

All of these various "smart" appliances are tied to innumerable add-on and upsells. Those are where the profits are, we're told again and again. There was no profit in making selling commodity products like computers, or smartphones, whose prices are cut to the bone in order to hook people on that brand. Then all the information thats discovered from the GPS-containing thing is sold..   They have rigged the system so its all deemed to be their property. You, your very existence becomes their property, their inalienable right is to own you. And all your thoughts, your contacts, and save it in perpetuity and sell it to others. .

THankfully most people’s life are interminably boring and not worth much comment

[cdev]

Thats why they have to scare everybody, make their lives more terrifying so worthy of charging money to surveil. They have to justify all this after all.

What is it Jon Shepard and Stephen Colbert were celebrating "Keep Fear Alive"

Very perceptive slogan, indeed.. as thats what its become all about. Every person has become a potential dissident, a terrorist. If they can turn them into a cash cow, somehow. Before they were just a poor schmuck from the ghetto whose life was worth nothing to anybody.

[SiliconWizard]

[...]   I am not encouraged by the grit nor the wittiness of recent college grads. [...]

A college degree is the new high school diploma....    with a huge lifetime debt attached to it!

The higher the average education level of a given population - as measured by degrees - and the lower its absolute value, since a large part of the reason why people get educated is economic. It thus mainly serves as a selection tool in an economic system. It's akin to an inflation problem.

More families should do critical thinking about whether each particular child is suited to higher education, but that wouldn't be "fair" so we are where we are...

The problem with this assertion is that I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean.
How are parents supposed to decide, with which criterions? Then how can they live with the "what if" guilt? And, I've actually known a few people that were only mediocre high-school students, that became interested and pretty good at uni. I have a couple friends who frankly I even doubted they'd manage to graduate from high school, and ended up with a PhD. Conversely, a probably larger fraction of good students in high school become uni dropouts.
Finally, what would be the purpose of that? Lowering the number of students, so that the average value of degrees would raise instead of drop? I don't think it's the right way of seeing it, as the underlying issue, as I pointed out above, is an economic one.

[cdev]

A lot of schools basically support themselves on the fees they charge international students in particular.

Imagine the huge cost of being a parent today, all these costly screens which must be bought. Here in the US many people are deciding not to have children. Birth rates are falling. Of course the usual suspects are piping up, they are afraid that wages might rise. To them this is a disaster, it seems.

The solution, of course, import the children instead. So in 1986 they started a huge global deal to do exactly that. Which they finished in 1994. It created the World Trade Organization. And put "services" on the poker table as tradable services. We are told this is the future of all work.

The parents knew that this changed everything for them. The pool of potential competition became a lot larger for Americans, its also true.  l argue in 1995, it became 7 billion.  But it left the wealthy everywhere  far ahead of the pack if they could afford all that was asked of them even with all the changes. .

Add it to the long list of everything else, costly screens, that they all must pay for.

This lets a vast part of the world cut public funding for education. And everything else.

[cdev]

Americans often mistakenly think that a four year degree is all thats required tio get a job in a field that afford them job stability. However this has not been true in a long time, often they need an eight year degree for that (in most fields) which we often don't have the money for. We are getting pushed out by the high cost of education. Which is the desired effect because they say we want/expect too much. We and our "unrealistic expectations"

...

[Rick Law]

...
The higher the average education level of a given population - as measured by degrees - and the lower its absolute value, since a large part of the reason why people get educated is economic. It thus mainly serves as a selection tool in an economic system. It's akin to an inflation problem.
...

This is one problem from many.  I see that at least on the Software Development front, employers are relying more on internships to discern the capability of the applicants.  I also see a "shot gun approach" (fire a pile of pellets vs a single bullet).  They cast a wide net, gamble the internship salary, and cherry-pick a very limited few to turn into employees.

... ... Birth rates are falling. Of course the usual suspects are piping up, they are afraid that wages might rise. To them this is a disaster, it seems.

The solution, of course, import the children instead. ... ...
... ... The pool of potential competition became a lot larger for Americans, its also true.  l argue in 1995, it became 7 billion.  But it left the wealthy everywhere  far ahead of the pack if they could afford all that was asked of them even with all the changes. .

Add it to the long list of everything else, costly screens, that they all must pay for.
...
...

This causes a few problems.  (1) The usual with Ponzi Scam, the pool needs to be ever increasing for the new to pay for those taking benefits.  (2) The new arrivals may not be adequately trained and culturally attuned in their new environment and operational norms thus causing production issues. (3)  The new who is still too new yet to gain permanent status doesn't cost as much to employ because their visas tied them to an employer and they also cost less as certain costly rules applies only to those with permanent status.

At least in the Software Development front, the competition is not a "fair" competition.  I am seeing a two tier wage system already - companies with many on visas and those without.

To break in, graduates (or not) needs to be top quality to convert from intern to employees.  They also need to produce measurably more need to produce more than the new arrivals captive by the employer (the one who did the paper work) and at lower cost (not permanent, some costly rules doesn't apply).

The world is a rough world for the newly graduated even if they are merely well qualified, let alone marginally qualified.  Statistics dictates that 1/2 will be below median, but to gain and keep employment, one better be top quartile at least.  The second quartile has hope, while not impossible but is unlikely to win.  The bottom half likely will end up working at a coffee shop or eatery.

This is what leads me to think that the number of smart people needed to sustain a high tech economy may not be adequate.  Too many are hired based only on cost.  Low cost candidates may be good ones too, but less likely they have the same commitment to success of the company if they are not a long term employee of that company.  They also make the long term employees less committed to the company as the "lifers" (hoping to stay in the job for life) sees they are only as long term as cost permits.  So for those want-to-be lifers, they may feel why waste time understanding the overall architecture and the other systems when tomorrow I may be shown the door.  The short term cost savings to the employer may end up posting a very negative impact to the employer long term.

[cdev]

They should look closely at their existing employees rather than laying them off. Otfn one of those existing employees was doing more than their fair share of work and by laying them off a larger loss is incurred than one might think from what the contracting company admits to. The contracting companies are often getting bribes to place some of their overseas staff here permanently, and that creates a conflict of interest they wont admit to.

India may be well and good but it also is a hotbed of visa fraud according to USCIS.

[cdev]

This was a trade, they get the jobs, we get the money from all the IP laws we want, we get. In exchange these countries get the jobs behind the scenes of course..


But the deal was broken..  By people liike the ones in this film. 30 million poor people had their lives given back to them without paying the money, that cost over $15,000 a year.  Thats money that did not go to US drug companies, largely.



I also recommend reading the (Free online book) Genocide By Denial by  Peter Mugyenyi who figures prominently by the above film. a story that moves me to tears because I lived in a neighborhood with many Aids patients.. who I saw all around me, dying. My next door neighbor was an AIDS doctor, my roommate for many years during that time was a scientist working on AIDS drugs..
This was in San Francisco. California.

So we traded our jobs away for the huge profits represented by IP, Ive been told now four times, by experts on the subject..

How many jobs have been traded away? It could end up being millions.. as many as they can handle (Our visa quotas are likely against WTO law and if found to be so will be struck down) to be done by companies in India to broker in exchange for the huge profits.. they take something like half of the money.   This is the award winning story. Which isnt over yet. Its Biden's job, the reason why he was picked, to implement these long planned changes. It was Trumps job to make that look like our protectionist impulses were decisively, theatrically defeated. To make this look like our wishes.

...
The higher the average education level of a given population - as measured by degrees - and the lower its absolute value, since a large part of the reason why people get educated is economic. It thus mainly serves as a selection tool in an economic system. It's akin to an inflation problem.
...

This is one problem from many.  I see that at least on the Software Development front, employers are relying more on internships to discern the capability of the applicants.  I also see a "shot gun approach" (fire a pile of pellets vs a single bullet).  They cast a wide net, gamble the internship salary, and cherry-pick a very limited few to turn into employees.

Onecan do an awful lot with dirt cheap (or even free) labor from the rest of the world. Thats the whole goal of all these changes, taking full advantage of this huge store of free labor. Millions of young people willing to do almost anything to land a job in the US they can put on their Resumes.

... ... Birth rates are falling. Of course the usual suspects are piping up, they are afraid that wages might rise. To them this is a disaster, it seems.

The solution, of course, import the children instead. ... ...
... ... The pool of potential competition became a lot larger for Americans, its also true.  l argue in 1995, it became 7 billion.  But it left the wealthy everywhere  far ahead of the pack if they could afford all that was asked of them even with all the changes. .

Add it to the long list of everything else, costly screens, that they all must pay for.
...
...

This causes a few problems. 

Yes, but the high cost of labor in the rich countries is also seen as a huge potential problem by foreign oligarchs, an existential threat for the rich in these countries Their people want "living wages" that threatens their entire business model, how they became rich as it were. So they had to stop this. So they made a deal.  A deal Ive been hearing about since the 80s. It makes it illegal for a country like the US to block the treaty with anything at all. Lets say they outlawed democracy, if it reduces THEIR profits.., It defines what is theirs, you see. We cant take it away with any laws.  Sure the people lose but not iof the rule says its on top. It subsumes all other laws.

None of this is allowed to "matter" because it flies in the face of the established narrative.. The former Clintoin Administratuion folks have brainwashed America in vieweing them as heres.. They have set upo a whole false narrative..

And GATS has been hidden by numerous means.. Bernie Sanders being one of them, all we need is "elect more democrats"
  as shown by the last few years of hijinks.. Lots of energy was spent to set all this up. Hasnt it?

(1) The usual with Ponzi Scam, the pool needs to be ever increasing for the new to pay for those taking benefits.  (2) The new arrivals may not be adequately trained and culturally attuned in their new environment and operational norms thus causing production issues. (3)  The new who is still too new yet to gain permanent status doesn't cost as much to employ because their visas tied them to an employer and they also cost less as certain costly rules applies only to those with permanent status.

If they get permanent status they lose their jobs if they are in the US, they are not wanted if they have those rights..
They are no longer slaves but those rights make them unemployable in their system.   This same system that decided to allow 30 million poor people in Africa to just die, when a cure was available.  You are likely right now watching this story unfold before you. It is true.


>At least in the Software Development front, the competition is not a "fair" competition. 

I went to lots of these fake interviews. My credentials were very good for those jobs, I had had a great dream job for a dream employer. My on paper qualifications were stellar. What did they tell me? They said that the job ads I was answering were faked..  They already had somebody picked out. It was all a sham. It was required for the work permits to have tried and failed to hire and find Americans.

>I am seeing a two tier wage system already - companies with many on visas and those without.

Its hard to argue with several employees for the price of one. The Internet makes it possible for the workers to be anywhere in the world now. Thats the big change thats happening. You have the labor consuming countries, olike the US, Australia and Europe, and the labor exporting countries around the equator, many of which had healthy low cost education system, so naturally all the children of their elites degreed up. Now since those countries had few jobs, they need jobs, and are willing to pay for them. Pay for the experience, to get their starts in life.

By the current rules of economics, the increase in competitive pressure determines the wages. Indeed they are worth much less when the number of potential workers more than ten times more. Jagdish Bhagwati explains this well in one of his papers. Its worth reading. Also read the basic economics of the services trade by Copeland and Matoo.. Everything changed in 1994 when the world, led by the wealthy countries such as the US, decided to change the law of commerce. This is the law of business, not the law of politics. Countries are still free to legislate as much as they want about gay marriage, abortions, holidays and other political matters that dont involve money.

>To break in, graduates (or not) needs to be top quality to convert from intern to employees.


I think they are supposed to have the equivalent of a six year degree and be a manager, to be hired by the employer who had already hired them and brought them here, taking a substantial payment from their wealthy parents. They see it as an investment in their future in America. Plus they claim "they make it all back on the dowery"

But the truth is, I think there is a lot of political pressure behind this global shift they want so badly from both India and the US's government. Even if they have a shortage of flesh and blood people with the qualifications, they can just lower their standards and hide it, lie about it.

> They also need to produce measurably more need to produce more than the new arrivals captive by the employer (the one who did the paper work) and at lower cost (not permanent, some costly rules doesn't apply).

They cant produce less? If they are paid so much less, as it seems they are, it seems that would create a lot of inertia in their favor.

The world is a rough world for the newly graduated even if they are merely well qualified, let alone marginally qualified.  Statistics dictates that 1/2 will be below median, but to gain and keep employment, one better be top quartile at least.  The second quartile has hope, while not impossible but is unlikely to win.  The bottom half likely will end up working at a coffee shop or eatery.

What is to stop foreign chains, working as they do with so much lower cost labor, and inetrnational laws guaranteeing their equal rights to compete,  from taking over those businesses too? Nothing. They will simply expand and expand..


>This is what leads me to think that the number of smart people needed to sustain a high tech economy may not be adequate.  Too many are hired based only on cost.  Low cost candidates may be good ones too, but less likely they have the same commitment to success of the company if they are not a long term employee of that company.  They also make the long term employees less committed to the company as the "lifers" (hoping to stay in the job for life) sees they are only as long term as cost permits.  So for those want-to-be lifers, they may feel why waste time understanding the overall architecture and the other systems when tomorrow I may be shown the door.  The short term cost savings to the employer may end up posting a very negative impact to the employer long term.

[cdev]

This has all been planned ever since 1996, when in Punta Del Este, Uruguay the negotiations were begun the week of September 15-20. On the 20th they issued a Declaration which was certified later in a UN Declaration. It was part of a movement to bring about a new international Economic Order, or NIEO. In part this was intended to make up for colonialism. To funnel jobs to the former colonial territories, from people who could afford it. Why do you see we are seeing all this publicity about how Americans are quitting jobs, its because this huge change has been in the planning since 1986, thats why.We signed the Marrakesh Agreement in the spring of 1994. India is the new Back Office of the World. And they are hoping to launder a lot of lies told in the past (with the US's help) but a fly appeared in the ointment of several programs and that fly had a name, Julian Assange..

It was him who revealed a large trove of frank cables between various US Embassy senders..  This cable was about an epidemic of visa fraud.. discovered by the US counsular office in Hyderabad in 2008. It concluded that most applications for US work visas were laden with fraud. And that there was a lot of cmplicity between "legitimate" Indian entities that shoud have known better and that it was a big problem. They acted very professionally when this was uncovered.. Even The Hindu.. which is one of the good guys here.

Like China is the Factory of the world. Doing work that many US companies wanted to offload from US workers, for less. US companies didnt want the business when they became commodities. Not enough profit. Its been like that with drugs, too.

 Americans are very skilled at making You Tube videos.. and so on. For which we get paid a lot. Americans dont like jobs that involve high risk of life threatening illnesses. But they do like mortgages and working. Which presents problems. The average hospitalization for Covid costs a patient around $40,000 in the US now. The government is no longer going to pay the bills. We (meaning our government) are against public healthcare on principle, and have been for a long time. What principle you ask? The golden rule, those with the gold, rule.   Thats what GATS was for, after all.

We lost the manufacturing jobs first because wages here were ten times higher.
The US rejected protectionism, wasn't that clear enough from the last year? The January 6 frakas?

We are the experts at manufacturing consent, after all. Only six huge companies control the countries media, practically all of it. They invented the concept of IP, big companies like Pfizer did. Then we sold lifesaving drugs all throughout the world, AIDS drugs for example, if one could pay for them, they saved your life. Children were dying like flies, though in Africa. (<<Free book link, read it!  Its a first person account from a doctor who really made a difference in what was and remains one of the world's most senseless and horrible tragedies in our lifetimes..Its as real as it gets. )

Due to a disease that nobody should have still been dying from, due to a cure having been discovered ten years previously. A cure to a horrible disease that literally a drug that only cost pennies to make would cure.. reviving people from Deaths door, (as shown in the film ) literally, quite like Lazarus. (They wanted around $15,000 a year for it, when the drugs only cost pennies to make as illustrated by Yusef Hamied of CIPLA, the Indian pharma manufacturer who single handedly saved 30 miillion lives.. )


Now the same thing is happening to peoples jobs..  for life, which will ruin a lot of them. And its based on frauds.. in large numbers..

My theory is that stuff like this being leaked is the real reason they went after Julian Assange..  He exposed the big scam that is GATS and TISA, and the house of cards+ half baked bad economics theories it all is based on.

[MrMobodies]

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Can-we-use-mini-nest-without-wifi-I-don-t-have-wifi-connection/td-p/115556

Can we use mini nest without wifi? I don't have wifi connection.
hiteshy93
 hiteshy93
Community Member
‎03-02-2022 12:48 AM

I want to connect my mini nest 2nd generation with Bluetooth to my phone. But I am unable to do that. Also I don't have a wifi connection at home. Is wifi mandatory to make connection with phone and speakers through Bluetooth?

SamInPgh
Community Member
‎03-02-2022 03:05 PM

Actually, you can use it as a Bluetooth speaker without an internet connection if you first set it up WITH an available internet connection and pair it via Bluetooth with your phone using Google Home while it is still connected to Wifi.  This initial setup can be done on any private WiFi network, such as at a friend's house, etc. After this initial setup and pairing is done, it should show up as an available Bluetooth speaker on your phone no matter where you are (as long as the Mini is within range, of course).

hiteshy93
Community Member
‎03-03-2022 07:44 AM

I had setup it using wifi but now I can see the Bluetooth speaker in my phone.. but when I click on that. It keeps showing me "pairing" only. * When you say ok Google it revert back " * no wifi connection found  ".

SamInPgh

Community Member
In response to hiteshy93
‎03-04-2022 08:29 AM

As I mentioned in my previous reply, you need to pair it with your phone while you are still connected to the Wifi network. It must be successfuly paired once in order to use it without the Wifi network later.

Unbelievable.

* Artificially restricting it/ denying me my the rights to use it.
So it's there but it is SET to refuse to work without a connection to google repeadly and "desperately" going to the WIFI scan section like that is MORE IMPORTANT than it working as advertised out of the box.

That to me sounds like BULLYING.
Absolutely disgusting behaviour.

I paid for it, my device in my possession... wait a minute it I paid for it and it still don't belong to me so I'd return it.


It reminds me a little bit like this when you are not in control of your own equipment:

In 2006 or so I had a few laptops given to me. They had built in dialup modems. On one of them had this hidden rootkit I found and removed later that would prevent internet/lan connectivity through the ethernet port on the PCMCIA card nic I installed and would interfere with the network components and present the dialup prompt repeatedly to some premium rate number. Obviously the previous owner used it for dialup . Remove it and it would return.

[SiliconWizard]

You always need to read the EULA these days... because in effect, you rarely "own" products you buy anymore, at least not in the usual sense of ownership.
What you own is a right to use them according to the EULA. Which is very different.

Interestingly, this is *software* that allowed companies to pull this off. You can't do this with products that do not contain any software. At least that I can think of.

[MrMobodies]

You always need to read the EULA these days... because in effect, you rarely "own" products you buy anymore, at least not in the usual sense of ownership.
What you own is a right to use them according to the EULA. Which is very different.

Interestingly, this is *software* that allowed companies to pull this off. You can't do this with products that do not contain any software. At least that I can think of.

It seems to me like, a right to use them in a certain way that they set in which case for something like that I'll be executing my rights as a buyer (whatever's left of it) to return it wherever it came from for a full refund.

[james_s]

You always need to read the EULA these days... because in effect, you rarely "own" products you buy anymore, at least not in the usual sense of ownership.

While that sounds like good advice, in practice virtually nobody actually reads the EULA, ever. I certainly don't, they're pages and pages of legal speak gobbledegook.

[SiliconWizard]

You always need to read the EULA these days... because in effect, you rarely "own" products you buy anymore, at least not in the usual sense of ownership.

While that sounds like good advice, in practice virtually nobody actually reads the EULA, ever. I certainly don't, they're pages and pages of legal speak gobbledegook.

Yes, and that's part of why they can pull this off. =)
You don't know any of it until you can't use your product anymore for some reason, and then you bitch and buy another.

[MrMobodies]

Like the folks in their Trustpilot review:

https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/google-nest-mini

Nest
Earliest review 2 start Aug 18, 2015
Reviews 816  •  Bad
Claimed profile
Replied to 30% of negative reviews
Replies to negative reviews in > 1 month

Excellent 4%
Great      1%
Average  1%
Poor      6%
Bad     88%

Mark Prentice 1 review GB Rated 1 out of 5 stars Feb 27, 2022
I have 6 nest cameras 2 thermostats …
I have 6 nest cameras 2 thermostats nest protect and just bought a nest outdoor floodlight wired camera, that don't work on the nest app , I pay a yearly fee for my nest cameras but can't see my new nest outdoor floodlight camera in the nest all and have my 60 day history, wtaf ,

So he buys the equipment and PAYS to see it.   

Joke: I have a rule I like stick to... if it is not in-house, cabled up, tested, guaranteed to work, independent of what goes on out there and left alone after the install until I decide what I want to do with it in the future then it's no good to me it's a pile of p*ss. If they love their product so much they might as well keep it and not sell it.

[SiliconWizard]

Oh and, buying anything Google is like letting the wolf enter the barn. You're much better off if it doesn't work anyway.

[PlainName]

So he buys the equipment and PAYS to see it.

I think that's fair enough where you have a choice - it's an ongoing cost to the provider to supply the cloud service (just like your broadband is an ongoing cost to your ISP). You can't expect a vendor to sell a service for a cheap one-off price and then be around years later to fix your broken kit (or sell you more of the same).

However, it's not really on if you elect not to use the vendors service and supply your own (direct connect over the LAN, for instance) but aren't allowed to for non-technical reasons.

It would be kind of OK if you knew upfront what you're buying into and then elect not to buy into it. But some of these vendors have a basic free service which magically gets more and more limited over time until you have to pay to get some functionality back. That's bait a switch, albeit in a long game.

[MrMobodies]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/08/new-google-nest-cams-can-record-video-without-a-monthly-subscription/

New Google Nest Cams can record video without a monthly subscription
Google hopes less restrictive subscription requirements will entice more buyers.

We'll get to the new models in a minute, but the biggest news is that Google is making the cameras more useful without a monthly subscription. Previously, core camera features like recording video were locked behind a $6-$12 monthly subscription plan called "Nest Aware," but the new cameras can now record local video. You only get three hours' worth of "events" (motion detection, as opposed to 24/7 video), but it's a start. Google has also moved activity zones and some image recognition features from the cloud-based pay-per-month service to on-device processing, so they work without a subscription, too.

Still I would like the option to send the video onto my own cctv recorder.


https://smarthomestarter.com/can-you-record-nest-cam-locally/

Does Nest Camera Record Offline?
Nest cameras rely entirely on Wi-Fi, and the camera would not work if there is no internet connection or if the signal is inconstant. Although the Nest camera cannot record without the internet, it can store footage when offline. It has enough internal memory to store up to one hour of recorded events when it’s offline. [/b]

No ethernet cable option? What a joke!

So a burgler could come along, see nobody's home, interrupt the signal and just walk in whilst these things are recording and the owner may get an alert that the cameras have dropped off but not a clue of what is acxtually going on.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Nest/comments/8hpi7v/connecting_a_nest_cam_to_ethernet/

riddlerthc 5 points 3 years ago

You can power the Nest cam's via PoE but you cannot hook them up to ethernet for data side. I've got mine PoE powered connected to my WiFi network.

So it has ethernet connectivity but again artificially? restricted it.
I don't know what they are playing at here.

https://store.google.com/gb/magazine/compare_cameras

From £159.99
From £239.99
From £74.99

Requires Google Home app 

1080p HD video with HDR and Night Vision
24/7 live streaming *

*I could do that anyway with my old cheapo noname and some other 1080p cameras I have come across.

That's a lot of money for locked down a pile of p*ss.

Sounds to me more like scamming customers out of their money with what they can and can't do with their stuff that they "buy" but don't actually own.

I have a friend who buys Hickvision camera's cheaper than that with what I believed has more resolution for banks and businesses and of course joins onto a cctv recorder with alarm inputs/outputs.

[SiliconWizard]

Google is a lot more interested in the data they can collect from those items, than any direct money they get from them.

[Rick Law]

You always need to read the EULA these days... because in effect, you rarely "own" products you buy anymore, at least not in the usual sense of ownership.
What you own is a right to use them according to the EULA. Which is very different.

Interestingly, this is *software* that allowed companies to pull this off. You can't do this with products that do not contain any software. At least that I can think of.

This is software AND the internet that enabled companies to abuse customer and made a purchase not a purchase.

Personally, I am still sore at Adobe.  Long ago, I purchased Adobe Premier (professional) v1.5 for personal use - at over $1000 usd then if I recalled correctly.  I have my kid's baby videos, trip videos, so on, all saved in their library work file formats.

Lo and behold, one day a few years ago, I boot up my old machine intending to make a new mix of clips for relatives.  It gave me a page saying I need to activate.  It was activated before and was actively in used.   I was puzzled but went ahead to re-activate.  The activation server no longer exist.  I called them.  I was informed I must (re)activate on the net only.  No other way to re-activate that product.  So, I can't even start that damn program to export any of the clips!

So, my entire library of old video clips are in-prison. Unfortunately, upon import and thinking I got it stored, I erased those tapes for reuse.

I really dislike this "purchases" when in fact they are merely just right to use and for a limited time only.

[cdev]

I dont know if the option of a class action lawsuit is available to you and others in our boat, but we should investigate it.  I also bought Premiere and another similar, expensive p[rogram but found that I liked another program a great deal more, which was free. So that s the one that I ended up learning. That is the problem with software.

When it comes to IP we basically gave away the store by our various positions as we are doing with COVID-19 and prostate cancer/Xtandi, and so on. Our government seems fixated on making sure corporations have every right they possibly could have under the assumption that whats best for them is best for all of us.  This isn't always true by any means. Often that position is paradoxically what is the worst for everyday people, not at all good for us.

But this is what we get for our inattention to many issues. The entitiues who feel that they have the most to gain from lobbyists and lawyers and buying offices in Geneva, our new world capital, do.

You always need to read the EULA these days... because in effect, you rarely "own" products you buy anymore, at least not in the usual sense of ownership.
What you own is a right to use them according to the EULA. Which is very different.

Interestingly, this is *software* that allowed companies to pull this off. You can't do this with products that do not contain any software. At least that I can think of.

This is software AND the internet that enabled companies to abuse customer and made a purchase not a purchase.

Personally, I am still sore at Adobe.  Long ago, I purchased Adobe Premier (professional) v1.5 for personal use - at over $1000 usd then if I recalled correctly.  I have my kid's baby videos, trip videos, so on, all saved in their library work file formats.

Lo and behold, one day a few years ago, I boot up my old machine intending to make a new mix of clips for relatives.  It gave me a page saying I need to activate.  It was activated before and was actively in used.   I was puzzled but went ahead to re-activate.  The activation server no longer exist.  I called them.  I was informed I must (re)activate on the net only.  No other way to re-activate that product.  So, I can't even start that damn program to export any of the clips!

So, my entire library of old video clips are in-prison. Unfortunately, upon import and thinking I got it stored, I erased those tapes for reuse.

I really dislike this "purchases" when in fact they are merely just right to use and for a limited time only.

[cdev]

Some other NLEs might be able to import Premiere files?  Have you looked into that?

[cdev]

Now people are finally getting it, whats being done.. coercively sometimes, in the online world.


(I dont know their exact specialized name for it. Its not simple upselling, its more specific. It has a special name )


>So he buys the equipment and PAYS to see it.

>I think that's fair enough where you have a choice - it's an ongoing cost to the provider to supply the cloud service (just like your broadband is an ongoing cost to your ISP). You can't expect a vendor to sell a service for a cheap one-off price and then be around years later to fix your broken kit (or sell you more of the same).


>Sure, you have a "choice",

>However, it's not really one if you elect not to use the vendors service and supply your own (direct connect over the LAN, for instance) but aren't allowed to for non-technical reasons.

>It would be kind of OK if you knew upfront what you're buying into and then elect not to buy into it. But some of these vendors have a basic free service which magically gets more and more limited over time until you have to pay to get some functionality back. That's bait a switch, albeit in a long game.

The legal term for that is "ratchet clause" or often simply "ratchet". It applies for example, when time passes new rights vest in many areas where WTO rules apply. The ratchet locks in because its impractical to give corporations rights and then take them back, so the ratchet applies in perpetuity it seems in many areas. For example, privatization concessions often lock in and election victories cant reverse them, except at tremendous punitive costs. In the past elections would frequently result in policy changes like the winds.. Now whats called a "golden straitjacket" is said to have been put into place. (see the Trilemma of the global market economy, as described by Dani Rodrik, for example)

For example, many people wonder why if in the past a government agency fixed some problem which was broken due to a market failure..  but then later say via the WTO was required to disinvest in it, and the service became private property.. they think nothing has changed.

They dont understand the meaning and reasons given for progressive liberalization, for example.

Once a governmenment has disinvested in something, its made so, in practical terms,  it cant claw it back. This is to give international investors true certainty.

Whats happening is the right to regulate has been withdrawn from the fickle voters