TWiT 1081: That's Miasma

This Week in Tech #1081 - “That’s Miasma”

This Week in Tech episode 1081 is now available.

  • Tim Cook steps down as Apple CEO with John Ternus taking the helm amid questions about AI strategy and product direction
  • Surveillance technology proliferates across everyday devices and police systems, raising privacy concerns beyond traditional monitoring
  • Meta faces massive layoffs affecting 10% of workforce while defending against $16 billion ad fraud lawsuits
  • Intense competition in AI chip development escalates as Meta secures Amazon CPU deals and Google invests $40 billion
  • Security vulnerabilities emerge in AI tools including unauthorized access to systems like Anthropic’s Mythos

#TWiT #ThisWeekInTech #Apple #Meta #AI #Surveillance #Security

@Leo If you’ll forgive a product recommendation - I’ve been using a Reolink doorbell for a while now and its providing basically the same functionality as a ring or other doorbells without the creepy corporate/government spying. Reolink’s cameras can be set up and operated entirely independently of an account. Even their app doesn’t force an account when you load it - new hardware can be set up and put on a network without any interaction with their servers. Most of their stuff can also run using PoE, rather than a wall wart.

My own setup relies on a Home Assistant/Tailscale stack, which has been pretty solid since I installed it. The only downside to the doorbell is that it wont interface with your existing doorbell circuit, so you’ll have to use their provided chime.

Yeah I would LOVE to replace the Ring Pro - but the way it was built in by the builder, with a big hole in the door frame, it would require some significant adaptation for another brand to fit. It’s a PoE doorbell, and I justify it in my mind by the fact that 1. it doesn’t point to any public areas, 2. the chimes and Alexa integration means I hear the doorbell from all over a three-story house, 3. it chimes on my phone no matter where I am, too. I don’t have a Ring subscription so there’s no recurring cost.

I have local Unifi cameras everywhere else (eight of them!) that record to a NAS in the wire closet with 60 day retention. The po-po would have to subpoena me for access to those recordings.

I am not a paranoid person and I would never have installed all this monitoring but it came with the house, so…

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