Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) : Discussion and Group Therapy Thread

[vk6zgo]

Get them to sort out their Alexa app then, it bloody well bugs the hell out of me when I ask Alexa to do something like switch the lights ON etc and the thing responds with I can't find any home automation devices on Daniel's account, Daniel is one of my sons and who does not have an Amazon account. I'm the Amazon account holder and everything is set up in my name, so WTF is going on there then

About as good as the Tesla voice control.

A salesdroid couldn't show me how to do something basic[1] safely (oops), but said it could use voice control. OK, I said, show me. He managed to turn on the seat heater (oops).

A car that heats your bum but doesn't allow you to see out properly?! Gimme a break! And then there's the DoubleSpeak that "full self driving (beta)" means the driver is, repeat isn't, repeat is, repeat isn't in charge of what the car is doing.

[1] put airflow over the windscreen to demist it

"Schrödinger's driver"?

[tggzzz]

Have you tried just throwing it in the bin and switching the light on yourself? Seriously. It's useless. All of it. The only reason Amazon even introduced Alexa was to provide a sales uplift of "hey alexa, order me some more shitpaper" at which point it can ship you "480 rolls of overpriced anal sandpaper from the lowest chinese bidder". Anything else probably doesn't work because unless it drives revenue at Amazon, no one gives a flying fuck if it works or not.

It's a wasteland of shite and you bought a little plastic and electronic portal into it.

I'm not sure whether to refer to IoT as IoV, IoE, IoS, IoPF, IoDoS (vulnerability, exploit, shit, partial failure). Screwed by a computer and/or company that you didn't know existed.

Timeline:

• 70s: services in the proprietary cloud - proprietary timesharing systems and computing bureaux
• 80s: personal computing - everybody breathed a sigh of relief to be in control of your own data and not locked into proprietary systems
• 00s: services in the proprietary cloud - everybody breathed a sigh of relief that they didn't have to be in control of their own data because it was looked after inside proprietary systems. Again.
• XXs: services outside the proprietary cloud. Again.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Victor Meldrew is an unappreciated hero.

[MED6753]

Yep, I got some of them as well, but unlike where you live, I'm in a densely populated city and loads of other people also have similar devices. I also got my late Mother a set of those, and she found, like I did, someone else would operate their wireless controlled device what ever it was and ours would also operate, and that could be rather dangerous having devices switching at random. I also had a wireless doorbell and I tossed into the dustbin as the bloody thing would activate randomly, especially in the middle of the night.

So in your situation living in the wide open spaces like you do, they are a perfect solution unless one of your nearby neighbours has a set as well.

Good point. Never had an issue with random switching so you are probably correct.

[MED6753]

No, I was given Alexa as a Christmas present, so I saw a way simply controlling the power and lighting in my lab without major rework moving sockets / switching which would have to get HA approval, which TBH I doubt they would grant, and instead, would want us to give up our 4-bed house for a family who needs it more than we do and move to a smaller house which would send my lab down the shitter for a start, and I'd be forced to spend time sitting with SWMBO watching untold crap on TV and bored to death or divorced. Alexa allows me to switch on and off bits of kit in my stacks that do not have a power switch on the front panel (designers take heed) and access to the rear of the kits is simply a no no, so remote switching is a must, and Alexa does provide that control, cheaply and simply.

Fast isolation is number 1 requirement if you have any bench gear. I would reorganise everything so you have at least a reachable master switch somewhere. Asking Alexa to turn shit off when there's a RIFA pumping out smoke is not an option

Life lesson here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXTboF8kusw

My breaker panel is on the wall in the living room just in case.

[tggzzz]

Get them to sort out their Alexa app then, it bloody well bugs the hell out of me when I ask Alexa to do something like switch the lights ON etc and the thing responds with I can't find any home automation devices on Daniel's account, Daniel is one of my sons and who does not have an Amazon account. I'm the Amazon account holder and everything is set up in my name, so WTF is going on there then

About as good as the Tesla voice control.

A salesdroid couldn't show me how to do something basic[1] safely (oops), but said it could use voice control. OK, I said, show me. He managed to turn on the seat heater (oops).

A car that heats your bum but doesn't allow you to see out properly?! Gimme a break! And then there's the DoubleSpeak that "full self driving (beta)" means the driver is, repeat isn't, repeat is, repeat isn't in charge of what the car is doing.

[1] put airflow over the windscreen to demist it

"Schrödinger's driver"?

More like "Schrödinger's liability", but worse... people deny there is a box, so they won't have to consider what happens when it is opened.

There are a few key questions that cut through a lot of crap.

Electronics:

• what are the clock domains, and how are they crossed
• what's the averaging period
• when component X fails, what does the system do

Computing:

• what is the meaning of "address" or "identity"
• what consistency is guaranteed, given the lack of a global time and global system administrator/controller
• when computer X fails, what does the system do

Business:

• when it fails, who do I sue

[tggzzz]

I also had a wireless doorbell and I tossed into the dustbin as the bloody thing would activate randomly, especially in the middle of the night.

Ah yes. The IoS that is a Ring doorbell.

Daughter has a ring doorbell and an intelligent alert dog with - as the rescue centres term it - a "high prey instinct".

Didn't take long for the dog to recognise the "somebody approaching front door" prompt that appears on her smartphone, and react accordingly. Even when the door in question is 40 miles away and receding at 100mph.

Laws of unintended consequences, and all that.

[Zucca]

Have you tried just throwing it in the bin and switching the light on yourself? Seriously. It's useless. All of it. The only reason Amazon even introduced Alexa was to provide a sales uplift of "hey alexa, order me some more shitpaper" at which point it can ship you "480 rolls of overpriced anal sandpaper from the lowest chinese bidder". Anything else probably doesn't work because unless it drives revenue at Amazon, no one gives a flying fuck if it works or not.

It's a wasteland of shite and you bought a little plastic and electronic portal into it.

Edit: incidentally I don't work with that division. Alexa is retail which are a completely different side of Amazon.

AMEN! GO AND TRY WITH MY WIFE.... moreover with my Flir Camera Alexa is red and the rest of the room is blue... that cunt is pissing out power 24/7...

[Specmaster]

Have you tried just throwing it in the bin and switching the light on yourself? Seriously. It's useless. All of it. The only reason Amazon even introduced Alexa was to provide a sales uplift of "hey alexa, order me some more shitpaper" at which point it can ship you "480 rolls of overpriced anal sandpaper from the lowest chinese bidder". Anything else probably doesn't work because unless it drives revenue at Amazon, no one gives a flying fuck if it works or not.

It's a wasteland of shite and you bought a little plastic and electronic portal into it.

Edit: incidentally I don't work with that division. Alexa is retail which are a completely different side of Amazon.

AMEN! GO AND TRY WITH MY WIFE.... moreover with my Flir Camera Alexa is red and the rest of the room is blue... that cunt is pissing out power 24/7...

Sounds like you're living in a huge fridge, I'm forming a mental image of your family all huddled together round poor old Alexa, all jockeying for hand warming space on her buttons, and all issuing voice commands to make her LED display go wild in a vivid display of shades of blue and thus pissing out even more heat.

[Cerebus]

About as good as the Tesla voice control.

A salesdroid couldn't show me how to do something basic[1] safely (oops), but said it could use voice control. OK, I said, show me. He managed to turn on the seat heater (oops).

A car that heats your bum but doesn't allow you to see out properly?! Gimme a break! And then there's the DoubleSpeak that "full self driving (beta)" means the driver is, repeat isn't, repeat is, repeat isn't in charge of what the car is doing.

[1] put airflow over the windscreen to demist it

Given the recent performance(s) of Telsa's, and now Twitter's, overlord that sounds about right. 'That' being the vehicle adjusting itself so you can't see what's in front of you while still making you feel all cozy and warm. I'm a little surprised that it didn't also make a voice synthesised announcement that explained how whatever had just gone wrong was someone or something else's fault.

[Cerebus]

I also had a wireless doorbell and I tossed into the dustbin as the bloody thing would activate randomly, especially in the middle of the night.

Ah yes. The IoS that is a Ring doorbell.

Daughter has a ring doorbell and an intelligent alert dog with - as the rescue centres term it - a "high prey instinct".

Once you've had a taste of fresh free-range organic postman's leg you just can't go back to the stuff in tins and packets.

Didn't take long for the dog to recognise the "somebody approaching front door" prompt that appears on her smartphone, and react accordingly. Even when the door in question is 40 miles away and receding at 100mph.

Laws of unintended consequences, and all that.

Oh my, that is droll.

[tggzzz]

Given the recent performance(s) of Telsa's, and now Twitter's, overlord that sounds about right. 'That' being the vehicle adjusting itself so you can't see what's in front of you while still making you feel all cozy and warm. I'm a little surprised that it didn't also make a voice synthesised announcement that explained how whatever had just gone wrong was someone or something else's fault.

Worth watching some of these videos, where someone shows his Tesla behaving and misbehaving. ISTR Musk has "reached out" (gag! ugh!) to him
https://www.youtube.com/@ChuckCook/videos

[bd139]

It's doing exactly what it's going to do. Two routes to systems engineering:

Route 1: design a constrained system and add rules to allow cases to occur.

Route 2: start with an unconstrained system and add rules to stop cases occurring.

Driving is an unconstrained system. AI/ML based driving is about trying to plug holes in a sieve. There will always be holes and in this case bodies everywhere.

Put the cars on rails and you have a constrained system.

[mansaxel]

Fast isolation is number 1 requirement if you have any bench gear.

I have mushroom pushbuttons around the shop connected as NC emergency stop buttons in the self-hold circuit of my bench power contactor. Same circuit also holds or breaks the heavy workshop three-phase power.

[Zucca]

red mushroom pushbuttons on my bench too, cuts the entire bench off the mains.

[bd139]

I've got someone with a broom handle.

[tggzzz]

I've got someone with a broom handle.

I thought you had divorced her!

[mnementh]

I've got power strips plugged into a 12ga outlet block on the floor and really good intentions of doing something better someday soon...

mnem
tzzzzt.

[bd139]

I've got someone with a broom handle.

I thought you had divorced her!

No she'd just watch me cook!

[mnementh]

mnem
what's that smell?

[Specmaster]

Happy holidays everyone, have a good one.

[mnementh]

Oh, wouldja lookit all the pretty colors... It's like Walt Disney threw up.

mnem

[Zucca]

Merry XMas to all you addicted!

[Specmaster]

I've got someone with a broom handle.

I thought you had divorced her!

No she'd just watch me cook!

Now why does this spring to mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHnifVTSFEo

[25 CPS]

I did some Christmas shopping for myself and bought a few models.

What I got: As seen in 1951 because that's what the two model companies made.

What I wanted: As seen from 1979 until scrapped and/or 1985 until scrapped, the way I got to experience things.

[Specmaster]

I did some Christmas shopping for myself and bought a few models.

What I got: As seen in 1951 because that's what the two model companies made.

What I wanted: As seen from 1979 until scrapped and/or 1985 until scrapped, the way I got to experience things.

Yeah..And...What...models of what???