🔌General Home Automation > Other Automation Systems
Cloudless, PC-less, PLC-less timer
bkenobi:
I have historically had a tendency to want the latest and greatest tech. In school I would buy a new video card and sell my old one ("old" being a few months of use) to another student. At that time, I could upgrade for ~$20USD for a card that was costing ~$200. When I moved out of the dorm, I realized it was harder to move the old stuff and so I ended up keeping it telling myself I'd have a backup. After moving a half dozen times and seeing the boxes of old slightly used tech it got me thinking about the waste of both money and resources. I think more about throwing the useful (to someone) items out more so than I do the loss of funds. It really bothers me that the business model of the HA industry is to get people to buy into a proprietary tech that they will intentionally orphan in the near future leaving owners with little more than a slightly dusty paper weight. If that device lost only a bonus feature that would be one thing. But, many cloud based devices are ONLY useful that way.
I have a weather station I got for the cost of shipping recently thinking I could find a way to make it work locally too. Though I haven't done so yet, the company hasn't turned a profit and still relies on KickStarter to go forward. This will not end well and I'm sure I'm going to end up with a new paper weight soon (unless Apple or Google buys them). It's not that I expect the weather station to last forever. I expect it to last it's expected life functioning fully as intended. When the business fails, the expected life becomes the life of the servers...
dhouston:
Before becoming disabled, my job (and/or the local sheriff ;)) had me moving every couple of years so I, too, learned to limit the things I held onto. Since being disabled, I've tried to give away anything I can no longer use so that others might make use of it.
However, I also have 8 computers (3 W10, 3 W7, Mac Mini, iMac) plus several Arduinos and a few RPis that I'm hanging onto in case I'm able to finish a few projects and write/test software for them. My two monitors have multiple video inputs that I can switch between which reduces the total desk space needed.
One W7 PC has a removable HDD and I have 10 versions of Linux that can be swapped in/out. I recently sent a W98 PC that had a nice ISA bus oscilloscope card (made obsolete by the PCI bus) plus the CRT monitor I used with it to a local electronics recycling center and will likely be sending a lot of electronic components to a dumpster soon.
And, while I, too, was an early subscriber to Byte, I usually tossed them after a few months. My kids got my books, Dr. Who tapes, and vinyl LPs years ago.
dhouston:
--- Quote from: JeffVolp on July 20, 2016, 09:19:27 AM ---We have a library that still includes several hundred VHS movies that we occasionally watch. While the quality is certainly not up to BD or even DVD standards, we watch for the content, not to see each whisker on the actor's face. Some of us don't have the money to replace older products with the latest technology.
--- End quote ---
Make sure you maintain your VCR since they now are no longer being made. This article makes a few points in their favor - e.g. VHS tapes have a longer shelf life than DVDs.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/07/caetlin_benson_allott_explores_the_legacy_of_vhs_and_vcr.html
I only have a few VHS tapes of classic movies and a couple concerts although I do have a fairly recent Toshiba VCR/DVD recorder/player that can copy VHS to DVD. I've about 3 dozen DVDs but have moved to streaming over the past few years. One Lenovo Q190 W10 PC is dedicated to streaming to my TV. At my age, it's hard to stay awake past 10PM so I frequently stream favorite TV shows the following day at a more geezer-friendly hour.
dave w:
--- Quote from: JeffVolp on July 21, 2016, 12:03:16 PM ---
And I even have some cassette tapes for the tape player in my 280ZX!
Jeff
--- End quote ---
Off topic, but I had a 280Z. Great car. Kept it for 10 years. At 120 the front end got way too light, but it would cruise at 100.
JeffVolp:
--- Quote from: dhouston on July 22, 2016, 01:53:45 PM ---Make sure you maintain your VCR since they now are no longer being made. This article makes a few points in their favor - e.g. VHS tapes have a longer shelf life than DVDs.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2016/07/caetlin_benson_allott_explores_the_legacy_of_vhs_and_vcr.html
--- End quote ---
Thanks for linking that article. It was an interesting read.
We still have 3 functioning VCRs, 2 of which are SuperVHS compatible. Someday when I have time I have to transfer our library of SuperVHS tapes over to a digital format. But like with purging unused stuff, there seems to always be something more important to do, such as checking into this board while out of town for my high school class reunion. ;D
Jeff
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