Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano too many people plan for how things work when everything is functioning as it should. Not enough people see the need to plan for how things work when everything is falling apart.
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@theolodian @s1m0n4 @stefano
Why not simpler? Wires, siren, sensors / magnet reed switches, lamp and battery UPS controller using even just a relay & key-switch? Or simple mpu (PIC18F) if display, keypad and zone needed.Edit:
My son did a demo one with a 555 timer, for exit delay, on a model with a door, window (reed switches + magnets) key-switch for school.
Anti-tamper 4 wire is simple. -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
True indeed...
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano Client had a new CCTV system installed, old one was accessed via web page or an app directly from a phone.
New one does all that if you configure it correctly, but they set it up so you didn't need any firewall rules or anything.
So I checked the firewall... and I asked "why is this making multiple connections to Hong Kong?"
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@theolodian @s1m0n4 @stefano
Why not simpler? Wires, siren, sensors / magnet reed switches, lamp and battery UPS controller using even just a relay & key-switch? Or simple mpu (PIC18F) if display, keypad and zone needed.Edit:
My son did a demo one with a 555 timer, for exit delay, on a model with a door, window (reed switches + magnets) key-switch for school.
Anti-tamper 4 wire is simple.@raymaccarthy @s1m0n4 @stefano the OP was on about notifications, way beyond me to DIY those. You can get ESP32 alarm control boards ready made, and then you can connect them into HA for the advanced functions. Then you can also integrate any other HA sensors, etc. Looks far easier than rolling your own from scratch. Even so it will have been at least 5 years before I actually get around to it.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano First you sell your soul. Then the company that bought it goes under.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano
all my Life people laugh sayin I got my head inda clouds, now them's got their businesses, memories n contacts there, while da heavier da clouds get, da harder da rains onda rising plains ... -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano Vorwerk recently discontinued the cloud services for their Neato vacuum robots, bricking tens of thousands of 500€+ devices.
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@stefano the main issue is that often there's no possibility of choice.
If you don't want an alarm system relying on the cloud, soon you won't be able to install an alarm system at all.It's what I hate the most about our times.
Everyone conforms to what most people do. I assume this is a drawback due to data availability and analysis, and marketing strategies adapting through those data. -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano
This is one of my big concerns with a battery we just had installed to go with our existing solar panels. The app for the panels was so we could check on efficiency but the battery is entirely app driven. Not that we had many options for our particular panels due to some foibles (and a bankrupt company), but very not ideal. -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano Silly! The Cloud is forever!
Why, just look up at that gray sky and you'll see what I mean!!
And ever!
/s -
Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano Ugh, yes. Looking ahead for even a year or so thinking about the maintainability of some web code is apparently already hard enough.
But alarm systems are _infrastructure_. Those go in decades. A decade is a _loooong_ time in cloud...
I'll remember this story the next time I'll be "dialing in" to our current alarm system at 9600 baud or whatever it is.
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@stefano Vorwerk recently discontinued the cloud services for their Neato vacuum robots, bricking tens of thousands of 500€+ devices.
@Rik_Dhuyvetters exactly. I still have one of them (broken, but still...).
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano Isn’t it a matter of network infrastructure reliability and ubiquitousness more than the tech itself?
One could have said the same about cell phone networks when they first appeared.
Your data transits regardless via a network service provider…?
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
Cloud storage I refuse to use any device that depends on it.
Local persons stood in front of fully charged solar battery's and were unable to use any power at all. There was an outage.
They made two errors, their device synchronized with mains and only works with Eco Flow Cloud.
My delta pro delivers, any time anywhere.
I no longer endorse eco flow...
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano We got a thermopump installed and the chap was « …and now you have to enter the wifi credentials. » « Can we not do it? » « Sorry? » « Will it work if we don’t connect it to the wifi? » « Oh, I guess it will… » I can’t believe how normalized spyware is now.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano and he didnt say to buy a new one?
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@raymaccarthy @s1m0n4 @stefano the OP was on about notifications, way beyond me to DIY those. You can get ESP32 alarm control boards ready made, and then you can connect them into HA for the advanced functions. Then you can also integrate any other HA sensors, etc. Looks far easier than rolling your own from scratch. Even so it will have been at least 5 years before I actually get around to it.
@theolodian @s1m0n4 @raymaccarthy @stefano Afaik there are 2g, 3g and 4g modem-modules out there which can be controlled by a arduino/ESP level device to send out SMS alerts.
Still has it's own complexity but should be accessible without going too deep into microcontroller programming.
[...]
Heh, a simple search brought up this:
esphome.io/components/sim800l/
"The SIM800L Component provides the ability to dial, answer calls, send/receive SMS text messages and send/receive USSD codes. The device must be connected via a UART bus supporting both receiving and transmitting line."
So .. doing that within home-assistant and the esphome addon should be possible..
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
@stefano The vulnerability tech giants have thoughtlessly placed the world in terrifies me.
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Yesterday, one of the younger electricians was telling me about the beauty of the new alarm systems he installs. While acknowledging the quality of my current one, he said, "It uses a SIM card and calls you. The new ones are 4G or Wi-Fi and use the cloud, so notifications go straight to your smartphone, it's not calling anymore."
I asked him, "And what if the cloud stops working? Why should I have to depend on the company’s cloud to receive alerts from my alarm? My alarm is 10 years old and works perfectly. Can you say with certainty that the company’s cloud will still be effective 10 years from now?"
He looked puzzled for a moment, then admitted he had never thought about it.
The real problem is that people do not realize what this means until things actually happen.
Same issue I had when they started replacing phone lines with VOIP.
