Re: No shit, Sherlock
> I've seen LED light arrays sold in Lidl as 'television simulators' to give the impression through net curtains that there is somebody inside a house.
It doesn't stop criminals from watching the power usage though and noting that the kettle didn't go on during the advert breaks and figuring out that you're faking it.
Moreover, I simply leave my television on because that way it fools all burglars, not just the deaf ones.
I also shut my curtains at such times so that burglars don't notice that no light appears to leak into the room from the rest of the property from time to time because I don't get up and go to the bathroom, or kitchen (which kind of gives the game away) and also so that the really confident/brave/stupid/desperate can't shine a torch through my net curtains and ascertain that there's nobody watching the T.V.
Of course then there's the problem of the curtains being shut all day every day.
But, otoh, the other way around there's the problem of the curtains never being shut, no extraneous light bleed and the T.V. never being turned off or ever making a sound - so, swings and roundabouts really.
I had some power blocks that were controlled from my ZX81 back in the 1980s,which used to turn lights on and off at random during the evening and even turn the T.V. on and off at 'home' time and off at bed time - a better solution than a bunch of LEDs that pretend to be a silent movie buff ; )
> It won't be long til someone writes some code to produce spoof IoT traffic with the same intent.
Assuredly.
Most people still won't bother though, because they don't know or care about it.
Maybe insurers will insist on it, if you want your payout after a burglary though. We'll have to see: on the one hand, they're populated by teams of clueless lusers the same way as the estate agents on the high street but (on the other) they're tight-fisted bastards who make a point of knowing every possible way to avoid parting with a single penny, so who knows?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
