* Posts by Ten98

9 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jun 2011

Google's Nest halts sales of its fire alarm – because waving your hand switches it off

Ten98

Re: I haven't had an alarm triggered by toast for 10 years

Well the reason it needs firmware updates and connectivity is because it's more than just a smoke and CO2 detector, it's actually a secondary sensor for the Nest thermostat unit which adds additional ability to detect where you are in the house.

The idea is that you have one of these upstairs and the thermostat downstairs, so the thermostat can see you leaving the house downstairs in the morning, and the smoke detector can see you going to bed upstairs in the evening.

Another feature is the CO2 detector can shut down the boiler when it detects high levels of CO2, which is somewhat useful.

There is also the night light feature which puts a light on if the sensor sees you walking under it at night, or if the smoke alarm is going off.

So yeah the real reason to have one is simply to add an upstairs sensor for your Nest, the smoke alarm feature is great, but somewhat overkill if you're buying it just for that one feature. I doubt anyone is going to replace all of their £5 smoke alarms with these £120 units, I think the most likely scenario is that you keep your downstairs smoke alarm and maybe reposition one of your upstairs smoke alarms to make room for the Nest sensor.

Personally I can't see the issue with the alarm being able to be deactivated by accidental waving. The idea of a smoke detector is to wake you up if you're sleeping during a fire. If you're waving, you're awake, whether or not you're waving intentionally seems kind of irrelevant.

Ten98

Re: Why would you make it convenient to turn off an alarm?

Why would you make it convenient to turn off an alarm?

Because smoke alarms are annoying. The more difficult it is to disable them during the inevitable false-positives that they give, the more likely they are to be disabled in a more permanent manner.

A smoke alarm that goes off full blast every time you burn toast is not useful. You become accustomed to the sound and no longer assume that there is a fire when you hear it, you assume that someone is making toast.

If the alarm is difficult to shut off, e.g. if you have to get a chair to actually reach the button, chances are at some point you will just take the battery out.

I think the delayed start to the Nest alarm that gives you a little warning if its about to go off, and the "wave to disable" feature are actually really good ideas.

The less annoying your alarm is to live with, the more likely you are to leave it connected and working.

Ten98

Re: Myself

It does work, it isn't broken.

The point of a smoke alarm is to wake you up if you're asleep when fire breaks out.

You can wave to turn it off.

You have to be awake to wave.

Whether you waved at it intentionally to turn it off, or accidentally because your arms were flailing around in a panic, it makes no difference, you're still awake and aware of the fire.

The real issue here is why they have decided that it is a problem that needs to be fixed. This seems to be purely driven by the media "outcry" about the perfectly useful and working feature.

Ten98

Re: Love it

Well since the point of a smoke alarm is to wake you up if you're asleep while your room is filling with smoke, I don't really see the problem with it.

If you're waving your arms around doing the Team America secret signal as you put it, then surely you are A: Awake and B: Aware of the fire.

At that point, what difference does it make if the smoke alarm is on or off?

Snowden's email provider gave crypto keys to FBI – on paper printouts

Ten98

Re: Truth from 1957

I think the problem is not that we are slow learners, it's that those who would seek to control and dominate us are fast learners.

They have learned how to distract the masses away from politics and government. Ask any member of the public what they think about surveillance or corruption in government and you will be met with a resounding "meh".

They are far more interested in what the people of Made in Chelsea or X-Factor are doing, or poring over allegations of child abuse from the 1970s than what those in control of their country are up to.

A precious few give a shit about any of this, and we are easily silenced, ignored or labelled "conspiracy nuts". They don't care about appealing to us, because we are now a small minority which can easily be "handled".

Has UK gov lost the census to Lulzsec?

Ten98
FAIL

Facepalm

Either you didn't read the previous comments before venting your moronic spleen, or you didn't read the Reg's own follow up story "Lulzsec Disavows Census Hack". or you did and choose to ignore them.

Either way you're a moron. Your precious, precious information about how old you are, what GCSE's you have and where you live (which nobody is in the least bit interested in anyway) is perfectly safe.

How much will this hurt Lockheed Martin? if by "this" you mean irresponsible journalists blindly writing stories without checking any facts, then not much.

They will have to prove that nobody has accessed the Census records without proper authorisation. This will take some poor sysadmin a few hours at worst. Then his boss will ask him to DOUBLE check and TRIPLE check since, because so many news agencies are reporting it, it MUST HAVE HAPPENED, RIGHT?

I fucking hate you people.

Ten98

Pathetic story, even more pathetic comments

Quite frankly I expect more from the Reg than to blindly copy and paste the same story all the worthless news outlets are peddling today.

There is absolutely no proof or even any credible suggestion that the census data has been taken.

Someone has posted on Pastebin using the Lulzsec ascii and vaguely convincing wording that they have done so. Lulzsec have denied the hack, and all of the other hacks that they have carried out they've claimed responsibility for on their Twitter feed.

I could log on to Pastebin right now and post a vaguely convincing fake Lulzsec post.. Jesus christ guys, how stupid are you?

The census data is EXTREMELY secure. I doubt it's even hosted on a database connected to a network, let alone the internet.

Ten98

lame comments on this story

Lulzsec Twitter:

"People should keep releasing fake LulzSec stuff. It helps filter out the peon masses from the respectable, fact-checking media outlets."

You hear that TheReg? That's you, the peon masses.

I find the reactions on here absolutely hilarious.

LulzSec disavows alleged Census hack

Ten98
FAIL

Hardly Surprising

This story will now disappear from the front pages of BBC news, Sky News et al, and the real story: "Actually Lulzsec deny any involvement in this, and the guy they arrested was just running one of the IRC networks they use and had nothing to do with the Census Hack, which never actually happened" will disappear off to page 100.

They won't issue an apology for reporting a PASTEBIN COMMENT as NEWS (?!?!?) and everyone will go on beleiving that "These Lulzsec guys are out to get me and my Census data!111!!!".

Question: Does the public believing this fabricated story that Lulzsec are out to get them and are scary boogeymen and can simply be arrested at any time DAMAGE or HELP the military industrial complex and their grip on control?