What are your current obsessions?

[wonder_lander]

At the moment I'm really into my Smart Home stuff with the following installed:
Tado Smart Heating and Water - Been using this since version 1 4 years ago and recently installed version 3.
Smart Bulbs and Lights - I've got 4 Philips Hue colour change Iris lamps as well as 4 lamps that I've converted into smart lamps via Sonoff wifi enabled inline switches. (http://bit.ly/2inrkvr)
IP CCTV - Using a mixture of internal and external IP/PoE CCTV cameras and Blue Iris Software
Amazon Echo - I've got 4 dots spread around the house and these are used for controlling the lights, heating,reminders, timers, lists, shopping, music and news!

I've also jumped big time into Ubiquity networking gear!
I've installed a Unifi USG to serve as router/firewall, I've then got 2 x 8 port US-8-60w (4 PoE ports each) as well as one Unifi UAP-LR access point.

 

[ian]

Great thread and would imagine we can have some long conversations Also into my home tech, but that comes hand in hand with my business, but just installed the Nest thermostat, as well as the Nest Smoke Alarms (nothing more important than knowing if a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm goes off it 'kills' the boiler). Also installed some Philips Hue bulbs solely for the purpose of setting a timer for our outside lights (yes they say don't install in an enclosed light, or outside, but given one is because they get too hot and the other because they get too cold, I figured they cancel each other out lol).

Also obsessed (still) with Battleground Players Unknown (PUBG to those in the know), though obsession never wins out over time.

Quite into researching Crypto currencies at the moment too.

 

[Admin]

just imagining when your wifi goes down and you cant see, eat or keep warm! Im sure you'll remember the old fashioned way..

 

[wonder_lander]

just installed the Nest thermostat, as well as the Nest Smoke Alarms (nothing more important than knowing if a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm goes off it 'kills' the boiler).

What does it actually do to the boiler, shut off the power or merely cut the heating and water production?

I dabbled in Z-wave stuff a couple of years ago and had a z-wave smoke alarm. Unfortunately it would randomly go off so I lost all confidence in it. I then moved to a fire angel setup where they were each interlinked but again this failed and it would wake the house at random times and beep randomly too!

Currently I've got standalone smoke and carbon monoxide alarms but I do think this will be an area to "upgrade" in the new year

 

[wonder_lander]

just imagining when your wifi goes down and you cant see, eat or keep warm! Im sure you'll remember the old fashioned way..

On the USG I've got failover WAN so if my primary connection dies then it flips over to a 4G modem

 

[Admin]

What does it actually do to the boiler, shut off the power or merely cut the heating and water production?

I dabbled in Z-wave stuff a couple of years ago and had a z-wave smoke alarm. Unfortunately it would randomly go off so I lost all confidence in it. I then moved to a fire angel setup where they were each interlinked but again this failed and it would wake the house at random times and beep randomly too!

Currently I've got standalone smoke and carbon monoxide alarms but I do think this will be an area to "upgrade" in the new year

I've got fully autonomous fire and smoke alarms that dont even need batteries...they do however go off when they shouldnt sometimes, like when there is a fox outside!

 

[wonder_lander]

I guess I'd also add TV and media distribution down too for me

I'm using DVBLink products and 4 port DVB-S2 tuner in my home server to digitally distribute live TV to smart TV's, tablets, mobile and laptops inside and outside the house.
For boxsets and films then I rip those to the server and use Emby as the front end, again this works inside and outside the home to the various smart TV's, laptops, tablets and mobiles.
We've got a Netflix account for 4x connections and also a spotify family account

 

[wonder_lander]

I've also jumped big time into Ubiquity networking gear!
I've installed a Unifi USG to serve as router/firewall, I've then got 2 x 8 port US-8-60w (4 PoE ports each) as well as one Unifi UAP-LR access point.

I've also got a KoolaSafe Kids wifi hotspot. We have 2 small children (6 and 3) and internet security is a big concern for me.

Next thing I'll be investigating is Pi-Hole as a network solution to block ads across all devices. I support Acorn through my paid sub so no loss of revenue there

 

[mat]

My smoke alarm sometimes goes off if I am having an extra hot shower, I just hope the neighbors never see me run out into the hallway flapping a towel at it in the nude.

 

[Adam H]

just imagining when your wifi goes down and you cant see, eat or keep warm! Im sure you'll remember the old fashioned way..

Going beyond that, does anyone else think about whether we are heading into a point of no return with electronic storage and reliance on technology ? EMP shocks would knock out most magnetic based HDD's, SSD drives would be more vulnerable I suspect ? On a personal note my missus occasionally sends away for real tangible photos still instead of keeping everything on a harddrive but the amounts of other data that would be lost would be huge, so on a commercial stage and beyond id imagine it would be catastrophic.

If there was a EMP shock of scale we could be thrown back into the dark ages ............maybe it's happened before ... I need to stop watching Ancient Aliens

 

[Admin]

Going beyond that, does anyone else think about whether we are heading into a point of no return with electronic storage and reliance on technology ? EMP shocks would knock out most magnetic based HDD's, SSD drives would be more vulnerable I suspect ? On a personal note my missus occasionally sends away for real tangible photos still instead of keeping everything on a harddrive but the amounts of other data that would be lost would be huge, so on a commercial stage and beyond id imagine it would be catastrophic.

If there was a EMP shock of scale we could be thrown back into the dark ages ............maybe it's happened before ... I need to stop watching Ancient Aliens

Xapos bitcoin vaults house servers that have never been online and are in EMP bomb proof rooms :O

 

[wonder_lander]

Going beyond that, does anyone else think about whether we are heading into a point of no return with electronic storage and reliance on technology ? EMP shocks would knock out most magnetic based HDD's, SSD drives would be more vulnerable I suspect ? On a personal note my missus occasionally sends away for real tangible photos still instead of keeping everything on a harddrive but the amounts of other data that would be lost would be huge, so on a commercial stage and beyond id imagine it would be catastrophic.

If there was a EMP shock of scale we could be thrown back into the dark ages ............maybe it's happened before ... I need to stop watching Ancient Aliens

Have you watched the series Revolution? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2070791/

I run multiple on site duplications as well as a 650GB cloud backup to Crashplan of photos and important documents.

 

[Adam H]

Have you watched the series Revolution? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2070791/

I run multiple on site duplications as well as a 650GB cloud backup to Crashplan of photos and important documents.

No I havent seen Revolution but looks right up my street lol

 

[wonder_lander]

No I havent seen Revolution but looks right up my street lol

There's plot holes galore but I still found it an enjoyable watch!

 

[RobM]

Simulation theory. Becoming harder to function.

 

[Systreg]

I don't think any of you could survive where I live, it's like prehistoric times here, but I like it that way

When using the toilet, I have to go round the back of the house and fill a bucket and another container with water to flush the toilet with. There is no mains water here, everything comes from an old open well, and that water is a urine colour lol, even after going through a filter. It's only used for washing and is not drinkable, so I get all my drinking/cooking water delivered in 5 litre bottles from Tesco.

As for high tech stuff, I've got a Huawei wireless hub on Three, sometimes the signal is ok, other times it's slowwwww or non existent, welcome to Ireland

 

[Edwin]

Going beyond that, does anyone else think about whether we are heading into a point of no return with electronic storage and reliance on technology ? EMP shocks would knock out most magnetic based HDD's, SSD drives would be more vulnerable I suspect ? On a personal note my missus occasionally sends away for real tangible photos still instead of keeping everything on a harddrive but the amounts of other data that would be lost would be huge, so on a commercial stage and beyond id imagine it would be catastrophic.

If there was a EMP shock of scale we could be thrown back into the dark ages ............maybe it's happened before ... I need to stop watching Ancient Aliens

Carrington-level super solar flare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859

It's going to happen some day, and statistically there's a decent chance it's within our lifetimes. Whether it will be enough to knock out everything everywhere is another question. But it could mess up a lot of stuff pretty bad.

One way to protect against extreme events (whether natural or man-made) is to have remote backups of your core data. Sure, you could still end up with your data fried and the data centre thousands of miles away fried too, but it's a much safer bet than relying entirely on local(ish) backups. Something like Backblaze for instance.

 

[Edwin]

Have you watched the series Revolution? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2070791/

I run multiple on site duplications as well as a 650GB cloud backup to Crashplan of photos and important documents.

Presumably you're aware that Crashplan are shutting down their consumer-facing service?
https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/consumer/nextsteps/

If you need an alternative, I can recommend Backblaze. $5 a month for unlimited* backup space (*for a single PC - it includes directly-attached external drives as well as internal drives, but doesn't include networked drives, which I think is fair enough at the price).

 

[wonder_lander]

Presumably you're aware that Crashplan are shutting down their consumer-facing service?
https://www.crashplan.com/en-us/consumer/nextsteps/

If you need an alternative, I can recommend Backblaze. $5 a month for unlimited* backup space (*for a single PC - it includes directly-attached external drives as well as internal drives, but doesn't include networked drives, which I think is fair enough at the price).

Cheers Edwin, I'm on the small business plan having migrated from the Home plan but will look again next year when my renewal is up

 

[martin-s]

We use Crashplan business too. Still not found a better alternative.