WTF is nest? a rant about americentrism in tech and internet in general

[Damascus]

6 minutes ago, YellowJersey said:

It's a bit unreasonable to compare European dwelling sizes to Canadian and American dwelling sizes. In North America, most cities have plenty of space to spread out. In Europe, I'm going to assume that space is at more of a premium. I think it a lot of it boils down to geography and population density.

The EU and the USA are nearly identical when it comes to landmass, with populations of 512m and 327m respectively.  So while it is a factor, it's not actually the main cause.  

The bigger difference is centralization!  European cities have a lot of history, a lot of people and incredibly well developed transit networks, so population tends to heavily cluster towards hubs, as opposed to the massive sprawl found in the USA, and to a lesser extent Canada

[imreloadin]

Gotta love "I have different opinions on things than other people and that makes them wrong" posts...seriously bud, Americans clearly have a different perspective to technology and household appliances than you do and thus buy different types of products. Someone having a different opinion than you doesn't make them wrong or you right, it just makes them different.

6 hours ago, zassou said:

and this is the americantrism at its worst. people only live in the status quo, that for this moment, maybe their biggest audience is coming fron the us, but as time grow, that will change, and it's sooner than you think. 

with 451M internet users, some 50% greater than the population of us, india has the 2nd highest of web-browsing population after china, which of course we all know they don't exist.

and the economic boom in sub-sahara africa, especially east africa countries, the number is growing faster than people ever imagined.

American companies usually tend to make products with American's as their central consumer of said products, as they're making products that they themselves would want to buy. China and India are both major mobile internet browsing countries, meaning they do so from a cellular phone as they don't have infrastructure/can't afford things like wired utilities such as internet, electricity, etc. It's vastly easier and cheaper to throw up a cell tower than it is to string out cable/fiber/other types of wired internet mediums. So no, I don't think that simply the number of people browsing the internet will change internet commerce that much in the foreseeable future as those consumers don't even have basic infrastructure in large portions of their countries to allow the use of the types of products American companies design.

6 hours ago, zassou said:

where i live in, there is no such thing as home depot, ever. the only place that carries some level of granular of tools is walmart, and they are almost, if not always over priced. and i have trouble locating wooden boards that are not laminates peeled off from some ye olde furnitures.

(im give you one on units of measurement, after all you still can't figure out what a kilometre is)

every time tech outlets like verge science still defending their use of archaic units of measurements, i cant help wondering who is the real archaic ones.

Again, like I said previously, American products are geared towards American levels of infrastructure. Also, I'd simmer down on calling people archaic since you just said your community can barely produce construction quality wood...if that's the case then obviously a smart device like a Nest makes zero sense for you as you don't have the infrastructure capable of supporting said device.

[Monkey Dust]

1 hour ago, Damascus said:

The EU and the USA are nearly identical when it comes to landmass, with populations of 512m and 327m respectively.  So while it is a factor, it's not actually the main cause.  

The bigger difference is centralization!  European cities have a lot of history, a lot of people and incredibly well developed transit networks, so population tends to heavily cluster towards hubs, as opposed to the massive sprawl found in the USA, and to a lesser extent Canada

Yep. In the UK (probably applies to most of Europe, but I'll go with what I'm most familiar with). 90% of the decent and semi-decent jobs are in a handful of big cities, which is where most of us try to live. If you want lots of space you either have to be able to spend deep into seven figures, be willing to live in a borderline war zone, or live with a soul-destroying commute. Though personally I'd rather put up with a small house and live close to where stuff is happening, it's not all about access to work.

[Otto_iii]

hi,

you mean california, not america

[Otto_iii]

double post and idc, it will probably fall into the ocean soon so don't be bothered too much by them, you'll probably feel bad for them in a few years. 

[minibois]

13 hours ago, zassou said:

running folding@home 24h non stop except gaming.

 

and why tf nier automata still not on sale?

Ah, I see we have a double man of culture here.

[Lorant]

14 hours ago, zassou said:

and to be clear, i live in an old flat where it has no gas and heating pipelines. i turned my electrical heater almost full whack as outside is -3 degrees and windy af. my pc is running folding@home 24h non stop except gaming.

 

and i have to carry lpg cylinder on stairs to my home.

 

and why tf nier automata still not on sale?

Sounds like simple jealousy, when you put it that way.

 

We have a better system than you, cry more.

 

Plus Nest can make our amazing systems more efficient.  

 

Win-win for us.

 

Not to be a dick, but I know people from Kazakhstan and other poor countries that have immigrated to America just fine.  They all love central air and heating too.  You too can move here and get the goods.  Come on!

[Bombastinator]

6 minutes ago, Lorant said:

Sounds like simple jealousy, when you put it that way.

 

We have a better system than you, cry more.

 

Plus Nest can make our amazing systems more efficient.  

 

Win-win for us.

 

Not to be a dick, but I know people from Kazakhstan and other poor countries that have immigrated to America just fine.  They all love central air and heating too.  You too can move here and get the goods.  Come on!

It’s a system set up more against cold anyway.  It gets colder so more is needed. .-3c is still positive High 20s in farenheight.  Disturbingly warm in my area for this time of year.  It’s not normal to see anything al all above that in my area through March. I’m expecting temps between -10 and -30c for the next 3-4 months. And I’m in a city in a river valley where things are unusually warm.  Take another 5-10c off that for the rest of the state.  Go a bit west and it’s colder.  Go East and it’s wetter.  Go south and it’s warmer of course.  So buildings are made more heavily because they need to be.  If it never got colder than -3c here I’d be living in the same kind of building.

[Zando_]

 

Nice.

Back on topic, uhhhh what's really the point of the OP? Reee smart thermostats and my country doesn't have Home Depot? 

[AlwaysFSX]

31 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

 

Nice.

Back on topic, uhhhh what's really the point of the OP? Reee smart thermostats and my country doesn't have Home Depot? 

"Wahh I'm angry I don't have a normal air conditioning setup and I use senseless units when it comes to temperatures in relation to humans."

 

That's about all I understood out of the post, but of course I'm just a dumb American.

[PlayStation 2]

9 minutes ago, AlwaysFSX said:

"Wahh I'm angry I don't have a normal air conditioning setup and I use senseless units when it comes to temperatures in relation to humans."

 

That's about all I understood out of the post, but of course I'm just a dumb American.

I've always been of the thought process that the Metric system was excellent for scientific applications and the like, while the Imperial system was excellent at conveying, well, average measurements into more understandable and realistic measurements that our brain could roughly tell what it's supposed to be. Neither system is objectively inferior, it’s just that they’re both intended for different purposes.

Always irritates me when people act like Americans don't understand the Metric system. A lot of us do. We just choose to not use it in our daily lives because Imperial is better at actually conveying things in a non-scientific manner.

[AlwaysFSX]

15 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

I've always been of the thought process that the Metric system was excellent for scientific applications and the like, while the Imperial system was excellent at conveying, well, average measurements into more understandable and realistic measurements that our brain could roughly tell what it's supposed to be. Neither system is objectively inferior, it’s just that they’re both intended for different purposes.

Always irritates me when people act like Americans don't understand the Metric system. A lot of us do. We just choose to not use it in our daily lives because Imperial is better at actually conveying things in a non-scientific manner.

^^^

Also the cost of converting everything here to metric, when it really doesn't matter, would be such an expensive project that the money could be better spent on I don't know... quality of people's lives??

[harryk]

14 hours ago, zassou said:

why is anyone need a smart device to control their home temprature?

and how and why do they need to control it?

why is central heating and air conditioning so common in america?

an aircon always comes with a remote controller with lcd display, that worked fine; still why would anyone need a fancy colour lcd on a thermostat that suck up electricity just to display things you dont normally get to see?

I have an Ecobee smart thermostat and absolutely love it so I'll try to explain why.

 

- I can create a schedule of temperature settings. No reason to run the AC when I'm not home.

- The thermostat will automatically switch between heat and AC as necessary to achieve the desired temperature. 

- The thermostat will analyze the schedule along with previous data and current weather data to determine when to activate in order to make it the right temperature at the right time. For example, if its 3:00pm and the temperature is 80F but the schedule has it set to be 70F at 5:00pm the thermostat will calculate the necessary run time and preemptively turn on the AC before 5:00pm so when I get home at 5:00pm it is 70F.

- There are motion sensors so it can detect when I am home and when I am not. With this it will dynamically adjust the schedule. For example, if the schedule has me away for work from 8:00am to 5:00pm it will not run the AC and allow the house to warm up. But if I come home early, the sensors will detect that I am home and turn on the AC so I don't have to sit in a hot house all afternoon.

- In addition to the motion sensors, there are multiple temperature sensors. I have one in my bedroom so at night the thermostat only utilizes the bedroom sensor. The whole house doesn't need to be cooled down, just the bedroom.

- The thermostat creates an extensive data log (see attached). Not only does the thermostat use this data to be more efficient and smarter, I can look at it to understand my own usage and figure out why my electric bill doubled in a given month.

- I can remote connect to the thermostat via the internet. Not as important to me; I rarely do this except when I go on vacation and forget to change the schedule.

 

Supposedly this thermostat is saving me money too, but I'm honestly more interested in the features that make it work better for me, i.e. make it the temperature I want when I want.

 

[Monkey Dust]

14 minutes ago, AlwaysFSX said:

^^^

Also the cost of converting everything here to metric, when it really doesn't matter, would be such an expensive project that the money could be better spent on I don't know... quality of people's lives??

Or you could do a UK and half convert to metric. So measure fuel economy in miles per gallon (UK and US gallon being different), but buy fuel in litres. Weigh most things in Kilos, but people in stones and pounds. Wine and spirits in ml, beer and cider in pints. Also, no one under 50 understands Fahrenheit, and no one over 50 understands Celsius. It's almost like we're incapable of making up our minds...

[Bombastinator]

6 minutes ago, Monkey Dust said:

Or you could do a UK and half convert to metric. So measure fuel economy in miles per gallon (UK and US gallon being different), but buy fuel in litres. Weigh most things in Kilos, but people in stones and pounds. Wine and spirits in ml, beer and cider in pints. Also, no one under 50 understands Fahrenheit, and no one over 50 understands Celsius. It's almost like we're incapable of making up our minds...

Transitional period.  The people over 50 will die and farenheight will be over with.  Metric conversion was tried twice in the US.  Guess who complained?  The over 50 set.   Britian is doing it the only possible way.  You just happen to be living during the messy part.

 

Theyre doing the worst stuff first.  I was in England briefly in the 80’s the coinage was insane.  That’s over with at least.  They’re doing one measurement type at a time and they’re doing them slow.  This cannot be done in the US because our government changes too completely and too fast.  There are only two parties and it’s winner take all.  Parliamentary system has an advantage here.

[RonnieOP]

This whole "rant" is just asinine to me.

 

First off. Every AC/heat system does not come with a fancy remote and lcd screen. Not everyone lives in a recently built home with modern technology.

 

Depending on the age of your home it could have just a manual thermostat that uses mercury. That setup is in thousands and thousands of homes right now. And the manual thermostats are not very accurate or efficient. My house was built in the 90s. It had a manual thermostat. 

 

I have a nest in my home i installed myself. I love it. It was only $200 and tbh if i had paid $500 if still say it was worth every penny.

 

I can set a schedule based on my families needs.

 

During the winter i have it set to where the heat in on until about 11pm and then cuts back on around 6:30am. This way the heat isnt on wasting money during the times we are asleep and under covers warm. 

On days that nobody is going to be home between 9-5 i can set it to where the heat cuts off at 9 and cuts on at 4:30 so money isnt wasted while nobody is home but its comfortable when we get home.

 

If it suddenly gets really cold and nobody is home i can adjust it so the dog doesnt freeze or have to worry about pipes freezing.

 

If i thought it was going to be really cold and it turns out to be warm i can adjust the thermostat so that im not wasting money heating the home.

 

Also the biggest reason someone would buy one is because...they can. I work for my.money ill spend it how i want. Its no different then spending money on a decent car when cheaper ones do the same functions. Or spending extra on a gaming pc to play at 1440p 144hz when i could spend less an play at medium settings 1080p 60hz.

 

Theres plenty of reasons why someone would want to have one. It has nothing to do with anyones nationality. A simple google search would of given you all the answers you needed in about 2 mins. Seems like thats an epic fail on your part. But dont worry im not going to blame your fail on whatever country you live in. As that factor has nothing to do with anything.

 

As far as units of measurements.....why the shit would that matter? Nobody is forcing you to learn or use it. It works fine for me. Never had an issue. I also dont have any issue with other units since, unlike some people, i know how to use google and can convert any unit in a few seconds.

 

Your whole rant has nothing to do with nest. Its a thinly hidden rant about your disgust of a different nation. Your not fooling anyone. We can all see your xenophobic thoughts hidden in this "nest rant".

 

 

 

 

 

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

This whole "rant" is just asinine to me.

 

First off. Every AC/heat system does not come with a fancy remote and lcd screen. Not everyone lives in a recently built home with modern technology.

 

Depending on the age of your home it could have just a manual thermostat that uses mercury. That setup is in thousands and thousands of homes right now. And the manual thermostats are not very accurate or efficient. My house was built in the 90s. It had a manual thermostat. 

 

I have a nest in my home i installed myself. I love it. It was only $200 and tbh if i had paid $500 if still say it was worth every penny.

 

I can set a schedule based on my families needs.

 

During the winter i have it set to where the heat in on until about 11pm and then cuts back on around 6:30am. This way the heat isnt on wasting money during the times we are asleep and under covers warm. 

On days that nobody is going to be home between 9-5 i can set it to where the heat cuts off at 9 and cuts on at 4:30 so money isnt wasted while nobody is home but its comfortable when we get home.

 

If it suddenly gets really cold and nobody is home i can adjust it so the dog doesnt freeze or have to worry about pipes freezing.

 

If i thought it was going to be really cold and it turns out to be warm i can adjust the thermostat so that im not wasting money heating the home.

 

Also the biggest reason someone would buy one is because...they can. I work for my.money ill spend it how i want. Its no different then spending money on a decent car when cheaper ones do the same functions. Or spending extra on a gaming pc to play at 1440p 144hz when i could spend less an play at medium settings 1080p 60hz.

 

Theres plenty of reasons why someone would want to have one. It has nothing to do with anyones nationality. A simple google search would of given you all the answers you needed in about 2 mins. Seems like thats an epic fail on your part. But dont worry im not going to blame your fail on whatever country you live in. As that factor has nothing to do with anything.

 

As far as units of measurements.....why the shit would that matter? Nobody is forcing you to learn or use it. It works fine for me. Never had an issue. I also dont have any issue with other units since, unlike some people, i know how to use google and can convert any unit in a few seconds.

 

Your whole rant has nothing to do with nest. Its a thinly hidden rant about your disgust of a different nation. Your not fooling anyone. We can all see your xenophobic thoughts hidden in this "nest rant".

 

 

 

 

 

Cold makes people miserable.  For him barely below freezing isbhorrific because he lives in a warm country and his home has no insulation or heating because it doesn’t normally get below the temps where he needs it.  His house is built for the climate it resides in just as homes in northern climates are.

[RonnieOP]

13 hours ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

It's basically a light switch. Wireless doorbells... I've never seen anyone using one. Hardwired doorbells for apartments and hardwired video doorbells for houses are the norm around here.

The wiring for my doorbell has a short somewhere in it so i use a ring doorbell wirelessly. Before that i had some cheap $20 amazon kit.

 

I get the alert on my phone and i have 2 of the chime add ons plugged in to on both sides.

 

I would like to have it hardwired but i dont feel like taking the time to fix the issues with the wires since the ring doorbell works fine.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

2 hours ago, AlwaysFSX said:

"Wahh I'm angry I don't have a normal air conditioning setup and I use senseless units when it comes to temperatures in relation to humans."

 

That's about all I understood out of the post, but of course I'm just a dumb American.

I wish where I live didn't get over 100 degrees F! I have seen it get to 122 degrees F (and was outside working my tailfeathers off; to this day I still don't have any tailfeathers!) and temperatures over 110 are not uncommon.

 

2 hours ago, handymanshandle said:

I've always been of the thought process that the Metric system was excellent for scientific applications and the like, while the Imperial system was excellent at conveying, well, average measurements into more understandable and realistic measurements that our brain could roughly tell what it's supposed to be. Neither system is objectively inferior, it’s just that they’re both intended for different purposes.

Always irritates me when people act like Americans don't understand the Metric system. A lot of us do. We just choose to not use it in our daily lives because Imperial is better at actually conveying things in a non-scientific manner.

I use both because I have to since manufacturers use both. Frankly, I wish former President Carter had been successful at getting the SSA to switch over to metric. Life would be a lot easier now.

 

2 hours ago, AlwaysFSX said:

^^^

Also the cost of converting everything here to metric, when it really doesn't matter, would be such an expensive project that the money could be better spent on I don't know... quality of people's lives??eventually

Actually, converting over to metric would save money--eventually--and would improve the quality of people's lives. Metric is so much simpler to use. However, the transition would take decades until older equipment (and the stubborn holdouts) finally die.

[Bombastinator]

31 minutes ago, RonnieOP said:

The wiring for my doorbell has a short somewhere in it so i use a ring doorbell wirelessly. Before that i had some cheap $20 amazon kit.

 

I get the alert on my phone and i have 2 of the chime add ons plugged in to on both sides.

 

I would like to have it hardwired but i dont feel like taking the time to fix the issues with the wires since the ring doorbell works fine.

It could turn out to be a gigantic PITA.

doorbell wiring is low voltage and therefor isn’t often covered by building code.  As a result it was often put in the very cheapest easiest way possible and cannot be fished or pulled. has a nasty habit of being nailed in under painted exterior boards and can be really really hard to get to.  As doorbell wire goes bad it often has to be abandoned and there is no way to put in more without it being a gigantic expensive PITA.

 

ive got 3 wireless doorbells.  My sister has two. Both houses are old.

[Riddler356]

2 hours ago, handymanshandle said:

lways irritates me when people act like Americans don't understand the Metric system. A lot of us do. We just choose to not use it in our daily lives because Imperial is better at actually conveying things in a non-scientific manner.

Same, i can even visualize a meter or Kilometer, understand how 25c feels but only 1 other person i know IRL has any similar sense so i almost never use metric as a result and have to convert stuff to freedom units when i talk to to people here.

[RonnieOP]

10 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

It could turn out to be a gigantic PITA.

doorbell wiring is low voltage and therefor isn’t often covered by building code.  As a result it was often put in the very cheapest easiest way possible and cannot be fished or pulled. has a nasty habit of being nailed in under painted exterior boards and can be really really hard to get to.  As doorbell wire goes bad it often has to be abandoned and there is no way to put in more without it being a gigantic expensive PITA.

 

ive got 3 wireless doorbells.  My sister has two. Both houses are old.

Yeah. Its not really worth the time and effort.

 

 

[RonnieOP]

13 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I wish where I live didn't get over 100 degrees F! I have seen it get to 122 degrees F (and was outside working my tailfeathers off; to this day I still don't have any tailfeathers!) and temperatures over 110 are not uncommon.

 

I use both because I have to since manufacturers use both. Frankly, I wish former President Carter had been successful at getting the SSA to switch over to metric. Life would be a lot easier now.

 

Actually, converting over to metric would save money--eventually--and would improve the quality of people's lives. Metric is so much simpler to use. However, the transition would take decades until older equipment (and the stubborn holdouts) finally die.

Not saying you are wrong...but how would it improve someones quality of life?

 

[Riddler356]

2 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Transitional period.  The people over 50 will die and farenheight will be over with.  Metric conversion was tried twice in the US.  Guess who complained?  The over 50 set.   Britian is doing it the only possible way.  You just happen to be living during the messy part.

 

Theyre doing the worst stuff first.  I was in England briefly in the 80’s the coinage was insane.  That’s over with at least.  They’re doing one measurement type at a time and they’re doing them slow.  This cannot be done in the US because our government changes too completely and too fast.  There are only two parties and it’s winner take all.  Parliamentary system has an advantage here.

IIRC the US does officially use metric, albeit in a roundabout method due to the foot being defined as a specific portion of a meter and things like that.

 

17 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

It could turn out to be a gigantic PITA.

doorbell wiring is low voltage and therefor isn’t often covered by building code.  As a result it was often put in the very cheapest easiest way possible and cannot be fished or pulled. has a nasty habit of being nailed in under painted exterior boards and can be really really hard to get to.  As doorbell wire goes bad it often has to be abandoned and there is no way to put in more without it being a gigantic expensive PITA.

 

ive got 3 wireless doorbells.  My sister has two. Both houses are old.

This house im in was built by my grandparents (and construction crew) in 74, the doorbells were wired in but failed in the mid 80's, to fix it (looked into it because I wanted to install a ring doorbell) would take dismantling the siding and then removing the ceiling as the wires run in such a way that access through normal means is not possible unless you were 5 years old, and we are not sending a 5 year old to the ceiling to run wire.

[JZStudios]

17 hours ago, gabrielcarvfer said:

Move to a house with better insulation or move to a warmer place. I was looking for a warmer place in the US (to give as an example), but the temperatures really varies a lot...

With numbers that low I thought you were looking at Phoenix in January.

 

16 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

While I won't use anything IOT until things are better standardized and far more secure than they are now, I can see the point of programmable thermostat (not the so-called "smart" ones). They can save a lot on energy costs by raising and lowering temperatures depending on who is at home and what they are doing at certain times of the year. They are not all that espensive, either (except maybe where the OP lives; 'tis curious that he rants against the SSA but won't tell us where he lives).

Well, he said he lives in a shithole by what the bad orange man says, so I'm assuming South America where things are all sunshine and rainbows and a constant perfect temperature.

I find these kind of arguments funny when people complain about "Why does the US use AC!?" and then Britain gets some mildly warm weather and they all complain about how hot it is and they're all dying from heat stroke.

16 hours ago, zassou said:

thanks for informative reply, unlike some toxic manbabies.

Right. Because throwing a hissy fit over people having AC is a totally normal grown up thing to do.

 

16 hours ago, zassou said:

installing whole room heating is a luxury to most of us. i heard a bmw owner complaining about how he can't afford renovating his floor for heating wires. so i would guess it's on the level of owning 2 bimmers.

Or, get this, he could not waste his money on a BMW he spends little time in and actually make his home a nice place to be.