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Yesterday’s #AWS outage has led me to wonder, not for the first time, if we all have maybe become too dependent on online services. For instance, I read the story about how the outage wreaked havoc with smart beds. I’m also thinking about people who control their kitchen appliances and thermostats with apps. From an #A11Y standpoint all these things are wonderful, no question. But, as was shown yesterday, glitches would have the potential of throwing everything into chaos. There’s also the issue of too much power being in too few hands, but that’s another subject for another time. Right now Sarah and I have Braille overlays for our appliances, and our thermostat from the now defunct talkingthermostats.com still works fine. I’m just not sure I ever want to put control of my appliances and heating/cooling into the hands of an app. #JMO
#a11y #aws #jmo
in reply to Kevin LaRose, Just So Tired

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Mike Gorse

A few years ago, my a/c stopped working. It turned out that my thermostat was gone, and the tech put in what he had / wanted to put in. So now I have a thermostat that isn't ideal from an accessibility perspective, and sometimes I wish I'd put in something else, like a Nest, but you make a good point, that it could have its downsides, and it might not be the best after all. In general, everything seems to become more complicated over time, and the complexity often brings subtle, unwanted side effects. Same goes for AI, but that's another subject. i miss my old thermostat; at least it had a switch so that I could clearly tell whether it was heating or cooling or off.
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