I don't understand how we've become so dumb that we simply can't turn a knob for gas and strike a match for a flame. Or, well atleast dumb enough to accept these kinds of shitty products on the "free market." I understand having convenience in your life, but at the cost of this? AND a higher price all for some "super smoke" and "timer" option.
Is this the technofeudalist dream? If the next big thing in smart tech is to add ai to grills to "get the perfect sear" or whatever, just kill me.
One from Traeger Grills apparently 😂
the hazards of living in the burbclaves
I have a friend who's really big in to smoking meats for hours and hours and days at a time. He loves this kind of thing because he can monitor the smoker without physically being in front of it.
I think he's crazy af for involving the damned internet in it but I guess it is what it is when you're "cooking" something for 9 hours.
But supposed they invented a whole new kind of meat and your grill wasn't ready to deal with it? How would you feel then? Pretty darn silly, that's how!
I guarantee this update didn't drop on Thanksgiving. Photo OP probably hasn't turned it on since their last BBQ months ago and is just noticing - on Thanksgiving - that an update pushed a while ago that they now need to install to get started.
Pro tip: Start up your electronics a day or two in advance of events, so you can pre-patch anything that needs it.
Source: Former IT guy here, who had to ensure that updates ran at the most convenient times possible for thousands of users. "Patching Tuesday" is an unofficial but well recognized "holiday" for IT folks. It's not first thing Monday morning, which could throw off the workflow for the week, but it also gives the max amount of time to resolve any issues that patching might cause, so we (hopefully) don't have to work through the weekend.
Pay attention to when your stuff requires patches. A lot of the time, it'll pop up on Tuesdays.
There was a silly little movie in the 80's called "Maximum Overdrive", written and directed by Stephen King.
In it Aliens somehow cause machines to 'turn' on human beings and attack us.
They could remake that movie now but instead of Aliens causing the machines to attack people, it could be malicious 'hackers' that do it, and it would be more believable that the original film.
...The sort of grill I will never buy.
I like my home automation tech but it needs to serve a purpose. Just being connected to wifi is not a selling point for me. Lights that turn on in the morning when I need to wake up are great. A thermostat that can reduce energy usage when nobody is home is also great. But a grill….what the fuck does Internet access do to improve the grilling experience?
And if it requires the cloud to work, I don’t consider it a functional product.
Realistically they probably didn't use the traeger until the 4th, so they were about a year behind on "updates"
Unless you're my dad, then he finds any excuses he can to use his traeger. The thing can smoke a damn good brisket, software updates be damned!
Sounds like the start of Cory Doctorow's book Radicalized.
What happens if the grill resets anyway? You get back to the default wallpaper?
The same kind of grill that can be bricked remotely if you stop paying for software updates.
"Le Firmware? WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"
Idk I just simply wouldn't buy the wifi grill
semi related
Hacking My Smart Grill - Intercepting SSL to AWS Services via Firmware Modification ~> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tH6VU6chEc
Not to defend this practice but my guess is that the firmware was released before Thanksgiving, but the owner didn't turn on the grill until Thanksgiving, which is when the grill picked up the firmware.
Guy is still an idiot for buying a device that REQUIRES Internet access.
I wouldn’t use it, but if you want one with software then there’s nothing wrong with it updating.
quick, hit the manual override before it’s too late 🖲️
I wonder how long it takes for the firmware update to take place. A few minutes? An hour?
I recognize the community I’m in rn. Just curious about how long it actually takes. I doubt it takes very long, or happens very often.
In a similar vein was the location of the charging port on the Apple mouse. Sure it seems asinine, but you only charge it like once a month, so it really isn’t an actual issue. It was just an excuse to hate on Apple products.
Remember to update your grill and turn it off before Thanksgiving!
